BDS - Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions

Many people who are working to end the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip promote a strategy known as BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions). Prior to leaving for Ramallah, I was on a local coalition in New York that was exploring this strategy, and also trying to figure out ways to couple it with increasing support for the Palestinian economy through purchasing fair trade Palestinian olive oil, soap, handicrafts and other products. One of the member groups ended up with a creative campaign against Leviev Diamonds, which targets an Israeli American who uses his wealth to support settlement building activity in the West Bank.

BDS was one of the many strategies that helped to end the South African apartheid regime. It works by isolating the offending country economically and socially until they change the undesirable policy.

BDS in the case of Israel/Palestine is a bit more complicated than the South African case due to the level of support that the U.S. government gives Israel both economically and diplomatically (it recently passed a bill worth more than $30B in military aid to Israel). The U.S. never had such a strong backing for South Africa. To learn a little more about how the U.S. supports Israeli occupation and the double standard it has on the BDS strategy, read "Double Standard on Divestment" by Josh Ruebner, which briefly compares the concept of BDS in Sudan to BDS in Palestine.