Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions

Part of the Stop Gaza Genocide toolkit

What Is the BDS Movement?

Modeled after anti-apartheid organizing in South Africa, boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) has proven to be an effective economic pressure strategy for human rights.

How BDS Started

In 2005, 170 Palestinian civil society organizations issued a historic, rights-based call for BDS to the international community, targeting Israel and institutions complicit in its oppression against the Palestinian people. USCPR endorsed the Palestinian call for BDS shortly after it was issued in 2005.

How BDS For Palestine Is Going

According to Israel’s Ministry of Finance, the economic growth rate dropped from 3% pre-genocide to zero growth in 2024.

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Amid the ongoing genocide which escalated in October 2023, BDS tactics have remained a critical stepping stone in the long-haul fight for justice and liberation. USCPR’s north star remains our #StopArmingIsrael demand—including sanctions to end U.S. military funding to Israel once and for all. Boycott and divestment efforts targeting companies complicit or directly fueling Israel’s violence help build toward that goal.

Divestment campaigns are happening at college campuses, local city councils, churches, and beyond, and have already won hundreds of victories in the U.S. alone. USCPR Youth Fellows have led many divestment campaigns, playing a role in victories such as ending Pitzer College’s apartheid Israel study abroad program. Here’s a list of BDS victories nationwide.

BDS Boycott List: At A Glance

The graphic below offers a BDS list of complicit companies for consumers to boycott, including Chevron, Intel, Dell, HP, Disney+ streaming service, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and more.

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For divestment targets, you can also review AFSC’s list of companies profiting from the Gaza genocide and full divestment list.

Boycat App: The Easiest Way To Boycott

The BDS Movement has partnered with the Boycat app to empower people of conscience with corporate ethics information by just scanning the barcode. They even have a browser extension for online shopping!

With 9 million products tracked and stored in their database, this app has become the economic blockade’s secret weapon. lsrael even tried to buy the company a month into its $150 million propaganda campaign launch.

BDS Spotlight: #BoycottChevron

The BDS National Committee has issued a call to boycott and divest from the fossil fuel giant Chevron, including picketing the thousands of Chevron, Texaco, and Caltex gas stations and refineries worldwide.

Chevron fuels about 70% of Israel’s electricity grid. It also extracts gas from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, generating billions of dollars for apartheid Israel, depriving Palestinians of their right to their own natural resources, and fueling genocide and environmental devastation.

Use our new #BoycottChevron action toolkit to plan your demonstrations, from picketing to stickering. You can also print flyers, signs, and stickers, or order Boycott Chevron stickers.

BDS Spotlight: Mask Off Maersk

Maersk is one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics companies, directly responsible for transporting weapons for genocide. Palestinian Youth Movement has launched the Mask Off Maersk campaign to pressure Maersk to cut ties with Israel and end its complicity. As PYM writes on the Mask Off Maersk site, “Without Maersk, Israel would not have the weapons to commit its genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Disrupt the weapons pipeline and genocide machine by targeting war profiteers like Maersk. You can organize your own phone blockade to jam the lines, or flyer and poster during high traffic times and areas.

Take action with the Mask Off Maersk campaign now.

Beyond Boycotting: How To Escalate BDS For Palestine

1. Demand Sanctions On Israel Now

The “S” in BDS stands for sanctions: a form of economic pressure placed on a nation, in this case specifically to end complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people. Countries have a legal obligation under international law to immediately sanction and stop arming Israel, as the International Court of Justice has advised. In September 2024, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted for imposing sanctions on Israel.

Stop arming Israel now. The U.S. is the biggest funder, weapons supplier, and enabler of the Israeli military. An immediate arms embargo is necessary to cut off the endless supply of U.S. weapons and military funding, which Israel is using to mass murder Palestinian families.

2. Scan Your Portfolio for BDS Investments And Divest

Palestinian rights supporters have been asking how they can scan their own investments or the portfolios of their universities, municipalities, unions, churches, businesses, and other institutions to check if they’re invested in companies profiting from Israel’s brutal military occupation and genocide against the Palestinan people. This information can be a crucial first step in launching a divestment campaign in response to the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).

Use this divestment tool at investigate.afsc.org, and see this divestment list.

3. Research the Genocide Gentry And Other Local Connections

The Genocide Gentry are members of the ruling class who hold prestigious positions at cultural and educational institutions despite their connections to the war machine amidst an ongoing genocide. What cultural and educational institutions in your community have ties to weapons companies? Research local connections to target in your organizing. Then use your research to build out or support a divestment campaign. Check out the new Genocide Gentry map from Adalah Justice Project, LittleSis, and ACRE.

You can also look into which weapons manufacturers and other genocide profiteers are doing business in your neighborhood. See this Mapping Genocide Suppliers Project made by a decentralized collective.

4. Raise Awareness About BDS

Print out BDS stickers to spread around your neighborhood. Find designs here from @GentleSuns, and find Boycott Chevron stickers here. These also look great on flyers for wheatpasting or signs for BDS protests. Learn more about wheatpasting in this printable zine from @GentleSuns.

5. Skill Up With Our Community Divestment Webinar Series

Learn how to organize your own divestment campaign in through USCPR’s new #StopArmingIsrael Community Divestment webinar series. Watch all three webinars below:

6. Run A City Divestment Campaign

USCPR’s City Council Organizing Toolkit, which helped spur 200+ local ceasefire resolutions, has now been updated to focus on divestment campaigns. Divestment is a key strategy because it’s tangible: It moves dollars away from weapons companies and complicit corporations that fuel genocide, making the war machine increasingly less profitable. 

Use this guide to organize for a divestment resolution at your local city council. Demand that your city withdraws investments from corporations complicit in genocide and apartheid.

7. Run a Corporate Pressure Campaign

We must build a people’s arms embargo. Where our politicians have fanned the flames of genocide, doubling down on arming Israel, the people will intervene to disrupt economic systems that profit off killing. Throw sand in the gears of the genocide machine by pressuring complicit corporations. Make it too costly for them to do business with genocide.

Learn how to put direct pressure on corporations to end their complicity in Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.

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Frequently Asked Questions about BDS

Read our Frequently Asked Questions about BDS economic pressure tactics to achieve Palestinian rights.

Read the FAQs.

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BDS Resources

Here are more useful resources from USCPR and our partners.

• U.S. BDS Wins list
• Holiday Boycott Action Kit
• BDS Movement
• Palestine Legal

More Ways to Take Action

TAKE ACTION: Demand an arms embargo now to cut off weapons and military funding to Israel.

BACK: Go to the Stop Gaza Genocide toolkit.