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.¹ 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% before the genocide to zero growth in 2024.²

Arab Center Washington DC

Amid the current ongoing genocide, 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, unions, and beyond, and have already won hundreds of victories in the U.S. alone. USCPR Youth Fellows have taken skills gleaned in the fellowship to go on and lead 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 identified by the BDS National Committee for consumers to boycott, including Chevron, Intel, Dell, HP, Disney+ streaming service, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, and more.

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Read more in this thread from the BDS Movement. For more on complicit corporations, you can also review American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) list of companies profiting from the Gaza genocide and full divestment list.

The Easiest Way To Boycott Genocide: The Boycat App

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: 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 facilitated by genocide profiteers like Maersk. You can organize your own phone blockade to jam the lines, email Maersk executives, or flyer and poster during high traffic times and areas.

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 gas fuels nearly 50% 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 Boycott Chevron page to plan your demonstrations, from picketing to stickering. You can also print flyers, signs, and stickers.

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 from AFSC.

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.

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. Before stickering or wheatpasting, make sure to research local laws, which may vary.

5. Run A Local Divestment Campaign

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. To learn more about city divestment campaigns, see this City Council Organizing Toolkit from our sister organization, USCPR Action. 

Learn how to organize for a divestment resolution at your city council, union, university, or other local institution. Demand that your city/town withdraws investments from corporations complicit in genocide and apartheid.

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BACK: Go to the Stop Gaza Genocide toolkit.

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