What is the BDS movement What are its goals How does it compare to the anti apartheid movement ?
The Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is a non-violent human rights campaign formed in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian non-governmental organizations, unions and civil society groups. The aim of the movement is to campaign for and protect the rights of Palestinians through the application of international pressure on Israel until it complies with international law. While the BDS movement is decentralized, and functions through local organizations, groups and grassroots efforts in each area, the BDS National Council (BNC), along with The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) serve as a compass for the movement. They introduce guidelines and revisions, as well as deliberate on particularly tricky cases.
BDS functions:
The call of the BDS movement can be understood through its acronym: B(oycott), D(isinvestment), and (S)anctions.
The act of Boycotting, is to refuse to buy, use, or participate in (something) as a way of protesting: to stop using the goods or services of (a company, country, etc.) until changes are made. Simply put, the movement encourages people to, for instance, stop buying Israeli products, or engaging with Israeli services as a form of protest until the goals of the movement are met.
The act of Disinvestment is the withdrawal of investments.This means that the movement encourages different institutions and organizations to sell their stock in any company that profits or benefits from Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, or to refuse to invest in any company or organization which does.
The act of Sanctioning is an action that is taken to pressure a country or an organization towards a certain goal. For example, in the context of BDS, this means pressuring Israel to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with it, or by cutting off economic aid, etc. Perhaps the most extreme, but if carried out, the most effective form of pressure. Discussing sanctions against Israel, especially until it shows serious good will and intentions about the two-state solution has been happening at an increased rate in parliaments around the world.
BDS goals:
The BDS movement has 3 goals, which can be found in its call to action:
1. Ending Israeli occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall.
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
As you can see, the goals of the BDS movement are simply the consistent application of international law. Any other intentions or objectives attributed to the movement are the result of projecting them onto it, and is often by bad faith actors intent on smearing any kind of Palestinian resistance.
Why BDS?
Since its inception, Israel has been the target of dozens of UNSC and UNGA resolutions calling on it to cease its violations of international law. In the absence of any real pressure from the international community, Israel saw no reason to comply. For example, its settlement enterprise in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan heights is but one instance of its brazen contempt for international and humanitarian law.
A prominent case of this noncompliance was the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice which deemed the construction of Israel’s wall illegal. Based on the courts findings, it called on Israel to: A) Cease all construction of the wall, including in East Jerusalem. B) Dismantle the sections already constructed. C) Re-appeal all legislative and regulatory acts relating thereto. The importance of this opinion was reiterated when the United Nations General assembly voted overwhelmingly on August 2004 in favor of resolution A/RES/ES-10/15 which called on Israel to comply with the findings and opinion of the International Court of Justice.
One year after this event, and in light of no effective pressure on the Israeli government -from within or without- to comply with the UN resolution or the court opinion, the organizers of BDS sought an effective way to push Israel to change its policies. This would be accomplished through the application of non-violent, international, legal and popular pressure.
In their own words, the founders of the BDS movement wrote that:
“..since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies; and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine.”
The inspiration for the movement comes from the successful BDS campaign carried out against Apartheid South Africa, which played an instrumental role in cornering the regime.
Historically, preaching to Palestinians about the “proper” form of resistance has always been a pretext to delegitimize Palestinian resistance as a concept. Despite the legitimacy of armed resistance to colonialism being enshrined in international law, you will not be surprised that those who commented on the necessity of the Palestinians finding a peaceful way to resist would find various other pretexts to oppose BDS. It very quickly becomes clear that these “sympathizers” issue is the resistance itself, lip service notwithstanding. This mentality can be observed where even approaches as toothless as turning to the ICC were deemed “counterproductive” and even called “legal terror” by some.