Holiday Season Boycott Action Kit
Take Action This Holiday Season
With holiday season upon us, people will be spending plenty of time shopping for gifts and more. It is the perfect time to inform shoppers, store owners, and passers by about Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights through the complicity of corporate brands and highlight how the struggle for Palestinians freedom, justice, and equality is a local issue that they can impact positively through their power as consumers.
Below are ideas and resources for you to plan actions at shopping malls, public markets, and more.
First up: how are these brands are complicit in Israeli apartheid? Click on “Brands Complicit in Israeli Apartheid” to find out!
Brands Complicit in Israeli Apartheid
3M Co- Post-It sticky notes, Scotch tape, Command wall hangers
3M supplies materials for U.S. prison labor programs, thus profiting off of the exploitation of prisoner-workers and benefitting from mass incarceration. It also supplies materials for weapon systems used against civilians. For example Ceradyne, a wholly-owned subsidiary of 3M, is the sole provider of ceramic aircraft armor for military aircraft used by the Israeli Air Force. This includes Apache helicopters that have been used by Israel for attacks on urban Palestinian areas and “targeted assassinations” in violation of human rights.
Ahava
Ahava is a cosmetics company that manufactures skin care products made of materials stolen from the part of the Dead Sea that is under Israeli military occupation, which means the company is exploiting Palestinian resources and profiting off of Israel’s war crimes.
Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s sells its ice cream in supermarkets based in illegal, Jewish-only settlements Israel continues to build on stolen Palestinian land in the military-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
HP
HP is a leading supplier of computers to the Israeli military, which commits war crimes against the Palestinian people.The Israeli military is the primary Israeli authority that administers the brutal military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. International human rights organizations have documented the war crimes of the Israeli military over decades, which include the unlawful killing of Palestinian civilians, the use of torture, and the building of settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
Exxon Mobil Corp
Exxon provides Israel with fuel for fighter jets used by the Israeli air force against Palestinian civilians. During the summer of 2014, Israel carried out more than 6,000 airstrikes as part of its latest war on Gaza, a war that killed more than 2,200 Palestinians and destroyed 18,000 houses.
Puma
Puma sponsors the Israel Football Association, which puts on soccer matches in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank that are built on stolen Palestinian land and which Palestinians are not allowed to enter. Israel’s settlements contribute to serious human rights abuses and are a direct cause for restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement, access to natural resources, and ability to build homes and conduct business.
Sabra Hummus and Guacamole
Sabra is partly owned by the Strauss Group, which materially supports and provides care package for the Israeli military. The Israeli military is the primary Israeli authority that administers the brutal military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza. The company has boasted that it has “adopted” the Golani Brigade, which has a reputation for human rights violations such as home invasions, arbitrary detentions, and physical abuse of Palestinians in Hebron, as well as playing a major role in Israel’s continuing assaults on Gaza.
SodaStream
SodaStream manufactures its home carbonation products in a factory in the Naqab, which was established with support from Israel as part of an industrialization project that divorces its Palestinian Bedouin citizens from their historic land and traditional agricultural livelihoods. Over decades Israel has forcibly displaced tens of of thousands of Bedouins from their lands and restricted their access to water while settling in their place Jewish-Israelis and providing them with the infrastructure denied to Bedouin communities. SodaStream is complicit in these apartheid policies by profiting from this displacement as well as themselves engaging in unfair labor practices towards its Bedouin employees.
Cars
Several car manufacturing companies sell different types of equipment to Israel that it then uses to enforce its control over Palestinians in various ways. Israel uses Hyundai and Volvo construction equipment to demolish Palestinian homes and build instead Jewish-only settlements. Ford and General Motors vehicles are used by the Israeli military to patrol Palestinian areas under its military occupation.
- Flyer outside of malls where plenty of products from companies complicit in Israel’s war crimes are sold. Scroll down for graphics you can download.
- Hold a teach-in with local store owners to help them understand the need to deshelve such products. Let this be the beginning of a local boycott campaign! Check out our BDS toolkit for more resources.
- Go BDS holiday caroling. Find examples of songs here and here.
- Plan flash mobs, street theater, or other creative actions. Get inspiration from these actions in the past.
- Take action on social media.
- Declare your support for ongoing boycott campaigns- see this call to action about Puma.
- Post the graphics below highlighting corporate complicity in Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights on you social media profiles.
- Sample language for post: This holiday season, keep apartheid out of your shopping cart! Learn more at uscpr.org/holidayseason.
- Follow USCPR on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for more action ideas throughout the holiday season.
Flash Mob Inspiration
Graphics
