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<h1 class="page__title title balance-text" id="page-title">How the
Israel boycott movement struck major blows in 2015</h1>
<header class="node__header">
<p class="node__submitted">
<span class="field field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/ali-abunimah"
typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel"
datatype="">Ali Abunimah</a></span>
<span class="field field-publication-date"><span
class="date-display-single" property="dc:date"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2015-12-30T00:44:39+00:00">30
December 2015<br>
<b><small><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-boycott-movement-struck-major-blows-2015">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-boycott-movement-struck-major-blows-2015</a></small></small></small></b><br>
</span></span> </p>
</header>
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<p>In September 2014, on the eve of the Jewish new year, Israel’s
leading financial daily named <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/omar-barghouti">Omar
Barghouti</a> among the 100 people most likely to influence the
country’s economy in the following year.</p>
<p><em>Calcalist</em>, the business supplement of the mass
circulation newspaper <em>Yediot Ahronot</em>, <a
href="http://www.calcalist.co.il/local/articles/0,7340,L-3641149,00.html">said</a>
that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, which
Barghouti helped found, was “already worrying the government.”</p>
<p>It cited government studies warning that Israel would lose
billions of dollars a year in exports and GDP and thousands of
jobs if current boycott trends continued.</p>
<p>“The credit and honor go to the entire BDS movement, of which I
am a modest part, to each and every BDS activist in Palestine and
around the world who has contributed to making BDS one the most
effective forms of resisting Israel’s regime of occupation,
settler-colonialism and apartheid,” Barghouti told The Electronic
Intifada this week.</p>
<p>And 2015 has proven <em>Calcalist</em> right.</p>
<p>As the year closes, Palestine’s <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/bnc">Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC)</a>, the broad
coalition that backs the BDS movement, is <a
href="http://bdsmovement.net/2015/7-ways-our-movement-broke-new-ground-13634">pointing
out</a> some of the successes of the last 12 months:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>The authors of a United Nations report revealed in June that
BDS was a key factor behind the nearly <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/foreign-investment-israel-plummets-half-gaza-massacre">50
percent plunge</a> in foreign direct investment in Israel in
2014.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The World Bank cited consumer boycotts as a key factor behind
a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-exports-hit-hard-palestinian-boycott-world-bank-says">24
percent drop</a> in Palestinian imports from Israel in the
first quarter of 2015.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The international credit ratings agency Moody’s <a
href="http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Moodys-keeps-Israel-rating-stable-421393">warned</a>
in October that “the Israeli economy could suffer should BDS
gain greater traction.” Moody’s reports are used by
corporations to assess the risk of doing business in a
country.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>A major European investor confirmed that BDS was already
deterring companies from entering the Israeli market.</p>
<p>“During general meetings of the leading companies, even if they
did examine investing in Israeli companies, it will be off the
agenda immediately because of the impact of BDS,” Edouard
Cukierman, founder of Catalyst Funds and chair of Cukierman &
Co Investment House, <a
href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/europe/21443-citing-impact-of-bds-in-europe-israeli-businessman-shifts-towards-china">told
Israeli media</a>.</p>
<h2>Running for the exit</h2>
<p>In 2015, activists celebrated a major victory as the French
multinational <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/veolia">Veolia</a>
sold off all its investments in Israel.</p>
<p>This followed a seven-year global campaign which cost Veolia
billions of dollars in lost municipal and government contracts. By
the end, Veolia <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/boycott-hit-veolia-dumps-jerusalem-rail-completes-israel-withdrawal">reportedly</a>
could not find any international buyers for its Israeli
businesses.</p>
<p>Perhaps alarmed by Veolia’s fate, the French multinational
telecom company <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/orange">Orange</a>
announced in June that it intended to end its relationship with
its Israeli affiliate.</p>
<p>Despite the Israeli government’s outraged reaction, Orange <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/boycott-hit-orange-may-dump-israeli-partner-mid-2017">amended
its contract</a> with Israel’s Partner Communications so it
could get out of the country as soon as 2017, instead of 2025.</p>
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<p>The campaign to end Orange’s complicity with Israeli human rights
abuses – it operates extensively in Israel’s West Bank settlements
– started in France several years ago and gathered pace <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/egyptians-launch-boycott-orange-owned-mobinil-over-complicity-israeli-crimes">in
May</a> when activists in Egypt called for a boycott of its
subsidiary <a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mobinil">Mobinil</a>.</p>
<p>The Electronic Intifada’s April report <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-orange-telecom-supported-israels-massacre-gaza">revealing
the extent of Orange’s direct complicity</a> in Israel’s summer
2014 attack on Gaza galvanized the campaign.</p>
<p>In November, the European Union <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/real-message-eu-move-label-israeli-settlement-goods">finally
took the step</a> of requiring labels clearly marking goods that
come from Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian and
Syrian land in violation of international law.</p>
<p>This was a minimalist step taken only after years of dithering
and delay, and has to be seen in the context of massive ongoing EU
complicity with Israel’s war crimes and its deepening apartheid.</p>
<p>But at the time, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-nawajaa">Mahmoud
Nawajaa</a>, general coordinator for the BNC, said the move was
a “sign that European governments are reacting to public opinion,
civil society campaigning and Israeli intransigence and are
becoming more willing to take some basic action against Israeli
violations of international law.”</p>
<p>Israel’s furious reaction – many politicians compared EU
officials to Nazis – belies its real fear: that this is only the
first step of more action to come.</p>
<p>A sure sign of the mainstreaming of Palestinian rights came in
September with <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jeremy-corbyn">Jeremy
Corbyn’s</a> landslide victory in the election for leader of the
UK’s main opposition Labour Party.</p>
<p>Despite intense Israel lobby smears, Corbyn <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/champion-palestinian-rights-wins-leadership-uk-labour-party">trounced
the establishment candidates</a>.</p>
<p>A month earlier, Corbyn, a lifelong champion of Palestinian
rights, had <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/jeremy-corbyn-backs-boycott-israeli-universities-involved-arms-research">told
The Electronic Intifada</a> he backed the boycott of Israeli
universities involved in weapons research.</p>
<h2>Faith and labor</h2>
<p>In 2014, after a decade-long campaign, the Presbyterian Church
USA <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/victory-palestinians-us-presbyterians-vote-divest">voted
by a narrow margin</a> to divest from companies that profit from
Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>This prompted Israel and its lobby groups to step up their
efforts to co-opt or intimidate church activists.</p>
<p>But in June this year a resounding answer came from the United
Church of Christ. The one million-strong US denomination’s
assembly <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/us-church-votes-landslide-divest-israeli-occupation">voted
by a huge margin</a> to divest as well.</p>
<p>Where churches are going, labor is following. Several major labor
federations in North America joined the dozens of unions,
especially in Europe, that already support the movement.</p>
<p>In August, the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
America – known as UE – <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/gaza-attack-pushed-us-electrical-workers-union-back-israel-boycott">voted
to back BDS</a>, becoming the second US national union to do so.</p>
<p>“We reached a breaking point when Israel launched the war on Gaza
in 2014, killing over 2,000 people, including 500 children,” Carl
Rosen, a member of UE’s national executive board, explained.</p>
<p>In November, the Connecticut branch of the AFL-CIO, representing
200,000 workers, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/connecticut-labor-federation-backs-israel-boycott">voted</a>
to back key elements of the Palestinian call for BDS.</p>
<p>And Quebec’s confederation of trade unions, representing 325,000
workers in the Canadian province, <a
href="http://www.csn.qc.ca/web/csn/communique/-/ap/COMM13-04-2015?p_p_state=maximized">also
backed BDS</a>, including the cultural boycott and a boycott of
all Israeli goods.</p>
<p>It pledged to work with civil society groups to organize
campaigns to turn this support into action in coming months.</p>
<p>This year Israel also suffered from a <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/european-tourists-staying-away-israel-droves">sustained
and deepening decline</a> in tourism, especially from Europe.</p>
<p>There is no direct evidence that the sharp decline, which began
during the 2014 attack on Gaza, is due to boycotts.</p>
<p>But the fact that the BDS movement – especially the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/cultural-boycott">cultural
boycott</a> – has been so strong in Europe undoubtedly makes it
harder for Israel to market itself as a carefree destination for
sunseekers.</p>
<h2>Going mainstream</h2>
<p>This was the year when “Lauryn Hill and Thurston Moore from Sonic
Youth said they won’t perform in Israel, and more than 1,000
artists across Ireland, the UK, the US and Belgium have said they
support the cultural boycott of Israel,” the <a
href="http://bdsmovement.net/2015/7-ways-our-movement-broke-new-ground-13634">BNC
notes</a>, highlighting that the campaign is gaining ground
everywhere.</p>
<p>“Israeli universities play a key role in planning and
whitewashing Israel’s crimes but now academics across the world
are taking effective action,” the BNC states.</p>
<p>Examples from 2015 include landslide votes to back the academic
boycott of these complicit institutions by the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/american-anthropological-association-aaa">American
Anthropological Association</a> and the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/vote-backing-boycott-challenges-feminists-take-clear-stand-palestine">National
Women’s Studies Association</a>.</p>
<h2>Counterattack</h2>
<p>In 2015, Israel and its lobby groups intensified their
counterattack against the growing global movement for Palestinian
rights.</p>
<p>This included <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/campus-activism">crackdowns
and intimidation on campuses</a> and efforts to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/lawfare">legislate and
litigate</a> against BDS in North America and Europe.</p>
<p>They had plenty of help from complicit governments and lawmakers,
including in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/france-now-more-repressive-boycott-calls-israel">France</a>,
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/italian-prime-minister-lashes-out-jerusalem-stupid-and-futile-bds">Italy</a>,
the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/uk-wants-law-stop-councils-boycotting-israel/15061">United
Kingdom</a>, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/canadian-students-reject-justin-trudeaus-attack-palestine-activism-free-speech">Canada</a>
and the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/anti-bds-provision-signed-obama-wont-stop-movement/14663">US</a>.</p>
<p>But the BNC even sees this backlash as a sign of success, as an
increasingly desperate Israel resorts to “exporting its mentality
of repression and getting its allies in the west to run
McCarthyite attacks on free speech.”</p>
<p>“Israel knows it is losing the argument and is throwing
everything it has at sabotaging our movement, dedicating money,
government staff and apparently even its security services to
undermining BDS,” the BNC says.</p>
<p>There’s no doubt Israel’s efforts to obstruct and sabotage
campaigns for justice will continue and, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/are-pro-israel-bullies-us-campuses-planning-dirtier-tactics/14872">flush
with new cash</a>, intensify.</p>
<p>With dozens of student bodies on US campuses having voted to back
divestment in recent years, we can expect campaigns to <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/princeton-graduate-students-back-israel-occupation-divestment-wide-margin">shift</a>
toward pressuring administrations to implement those demands. They
will face determined opposition, but that will only help keep
Palestine front and center.</p>
<p>There’s also every sign that BDS could become a big issue in the
2016 US presidential campaign – already Democratic frontrunner <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/hillary-clinton">Hillary
Clinton</a> and Republican hopeful <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/jeb-bush">Jeb Bush</a>
have <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/jeb-bush-says-hed-order-crackdown-bds-president">launched
attacks on the movement</a>.</p>
<p>But that might only serve to educate more people that BDS exists
and is an option for them too.</p>
<p>The passing year, which also marked the 10th anniversary of the <a
href="http://bdsmovement.net/call">Palestinian civil society
call for BDS</a>, shows clearly that this diverse and
decentralized movement founded and led by Palestinians is a
growing match for Israel.</p>
<p>Amid so much difficult news from Palestine and the region, that’s
a bright ray of hope for 2016.</p>
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