BDS movement

Sumud’s BDS Finland working group shares information about the movement and its boycotts and organises various campaigns in Finland. Read more about the Apartheid Free Zone campaign, Israeli products out of shops campaign, Justice Not Arms campaign and cultural and academic boycott.

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: @boikotoiapartheidia

Facebook: www.facebook.fi/bds.suomi

BDS is a global movement led by Palestinians that started in 2005 to peacefully cut off economic, political and cultural support to the apartheid Israeli government. BDS stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions. BDS is based on a simple principle: Palestinians have the same human rights as everyone else. 

BDS is an inclusive, anti-racist human rights movement that opposes all forms of discrimination, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

The BDS movement is inspired by the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the boycotts that accompanied it. The BDS movement was launched by 170 Palestinian trade unions, refugee networks, women’s organisations, the Popular Solidarity Committee and other Palestinian civil society bodies.

Read more about the international BDS movement here.

The demands and objectives of the BDS movement

The Palestinians’ BDS calls for non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law and meets three demands:

International law recognises the West Bank including East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Syrian Golan Heights as occupied by Israel. As part of its military occupation, Israel steals land and forces Palestinians into ghettos, surrounded by checkpoints, settlements and watchtowers and an illegal apartheid Wall. Israel has imposed a medieval siege on Gaza , turning it into the largest open air prison in the world. Israel also regularly carries out large-scale assaults on Gaza that are widely condemned as constituting war crimes and crimes against humanity.

One-fifth of Israel’s citizens are Palestinians who remained inside the armistice lines after 1948. They are subjected to a system of racial discrimination enshrined in more than 50 laws that impact every aspect of their lives. The Israeli government continues to forcibly displace Palestinian communities in Israel from their land. Israeli leaders routinely and openly incite racial violence against them.

Since its violent establishment in 1948 through the ethnic cleansing of more than half of the indigenous people of Palestine, Israel has set out to control as much land and uproot as many Palestinians as it can. As a result of this systematic forced displacement, there are now more than 7.25 million Palestinian refugees. They are denied their right to return to their homes simply because they are not Jewish.

Boycotts, divestment and sanctions 

BDS stands for boycott, divestment and sanctions. 

Boycott

The aim of boycotts is to undermine the apartheid Israeli regime by denying it economic, political and social support, targeting businesses, sports, cultural and academic institutions that support Israeli human rights abuses. 

Divestment 

Banks, local governments, churches, pension funds, universities and other institutions are called upon to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and from all Israeli and international companies that support Israeli apartheid. 

Sanctions 

Governments are pressured to fulfil their legal obligations not to support and assist Israeli apartheid. Governments must ban business with Israel’s illegal settlements and stop arms sales and trade agreements.

What to boycott? 

The BDS movement’s strategy is to target boycotts, pressure and sanctions at specific companies and products in order to maximize their impact. The BDS movement focuses on companies that have a clear and direct role in Israel’s war crimes and human rights abuses. 

A targeted boycott can be used to influence the financial situation of a company. If a large proportion of consumers or stakeholders refrain from buying a company’s products or services, the company will be under financial pressure to change its operations. It can be challenging for a consumer to boycott thousands of different brands, so a targeted boycott also makes it easier to boycott every day. When everyone boycotts the same products, the impact is greater. 

Targeted consumer boycotts have led retailers around the world to remove from sale products from companies that support and profit from Israeli crimes. Many Israeli exporters have complained that it has become more difficult to sell their products.

Targets are in three sections:

Consumer boycott targets

The BDS movement calls for a complete boycott of these brands carefully selected due to the company’s proven record of complicity in Israeli apartheid.

Brand

  • Moroccanoil brand hair and skin care products
  • AHAVA brand skin care products
  • SodaStream brand products
  • Omega brand craft supplies (sold in S-Group stores)

Individual products from different brands

  • Santa Maria Paprika spice
  • Urtekram Organic Sweet Paprika spice
  • King Solomon medjoul dates 
  • Fresh medjoul dates from the fruit and vegetable department 
  • Avocados
  • Citrus fruits (e.g. orange, pomelo, grapefruit, blood grapefruit)
  • Pomegranate
  • Hälsans Kök minced soy
  • Lupilu baby wipes (Lidl)
  • Dorot crushed garlic (frozen)
  • MyHeritage DNA service
  • Biomed strawberry flavoured B12 drops 50 ml
  • Biomed allergy tested vitamin A drops 40 ml
  • Biomed active folate drops 40 ml
  • Tiny Love baby products
  • Ratiopharm pharmacy products

The French insurance giant AXA invests in Israeli banks that finance war crimes and the theft of Palestinian land and natural resources.

Carrefour-Israel has supported Israeli soldiers partaking in the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza with gifts of personal packages. In 2022, it entered a partnership with the Israeli company Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan, both of which are involved in grave violations against the Palestinian people.

The U.S.-based Chevron exploits gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean, which apartheid Israel has claimed as its own. Chevron’s billions in revenue bolster Israel’s war chest and apartheid system, while also worsening the climate crisis and the siege on Gaza. Chevron operates thousands of gas stations worldwide under the Chevron, Caltex, and Texaco brand names.

Dell Technologies supplies the servers, maintains services and related equipment to the Israeli military as a part of a $150 million 2023 contract funded by US foreign aid. Dell is committed to Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians by establishing research and development activity in Israel’s National Cyber Park that attempts to strengthen illegal settlements in the Naqab, displacing Palestinian Bedouin communities. One month into Israel’s Gaza genocide, founder and CEO Michael Dell donated $350 million worth of shares to Israel, further solidifying the genocidal partnership between Israel and Dell Technologies.

Cancel or don’t sign up for Disney+ subscriptions! Disney and its subsidiary Marvel are complicit in glorifying Israel’s regime of genocide and apartheid against Indigenous Palestinians. Marvel’s Captain America: Brave New World and Disney’s Snow White star actors Shira Haas and Gal Gadot, respectively, that have consciously and irrefutably taken up roles as cultural ambassadors for Israel, directly representing genocidal Israel’s propaganda efforts. For Captain America, Marvel and Disney are reviving the racist character of Ruth Bat-Seraph, whose decades-old backstory includes working for Mossad. Disney+ is therefore clearly implicated in enabling Israel’s genocide by dehumanizing Palestinians.

HP Inc. and HP Enterprise provide and maintain IT infrastructure for the Israeli military, prisons, and police. HP Inc. (USA) offers services, for example, to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Finance Minister Smotrich. HP Enterprise provides the technology that enables Israel to maintain its population registry, referred to as the “backbone of apartheid.”

Intel has announced that it will invest $25 billion in apartheid Israel as Israel’s #GazaGenocide continues, signaling its commitment to bolstering apartheid. The company’s first development center outside the US was opened in Haifa in 1974. For decades, Intel has invested in apartheid Israel. Its plant at “Qiryat Gat” is built on Palestinian land within the boundaries of the Palestinian village of Iraq al Manshiya, which was ethnically cleansed and razed to the ground and then replaced by the Israeli settlement of Qiryat Gat.

The U.S.-based RE/MAX markets and sells properties in Israel’s illegal settlements, built on land stolen from Palestinians. Several properties are for sale or rent in West Bank residential areas that are exclusively accessible to Israeli Jews.

In early 2025, Reebok signed a sponsorship contract with the Israel Football Association (IFA), which includes in its official leagues teams in Israel’s illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land. The IFA actively advocates, together with the Israeli government, to maintain these teams. Palestinians are calling on Reebok to immediately withdraw from the contract, or face a global boycott campaign just as Adidas, PUMA, and Erreà faced before them.

The German company Siemens is the main contractor for the Euro-Asia Interconnector project, an underwater electricity cable between Israel and the EU, designed to connect Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories to Europe.

SodaStream products are made in Israel. The company has discriminated against its Palestinian employees and has been involved in the displacement of Palestinian Bedouins from the Naqab.

Organic boycott targets

These boycotts originated from collective action and have received support from the BDS movement. In Finland, Wolt has been chosen as a local boycott target.

The Israel branches of these major corporations have, among other actions, provided free meals to Israeli soldiers and supported the ongoing genocide in other ways. These companies have not disavowed the actions of their Israeli branches or condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Coca-Cola Israel operates a regional distribution center and cooling houses in illegal Israeli settlements. Furthermore, its subsidiary, Tabor Winery, produces wines from grapes sourced from occupied land in settlements in the West Bank and Syrian Golan Heights.

WIX is a large Israeli publicly traded company worth hundreds of millions of dollars. As a website building service, WIX relies on free internet access, which is denied to Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.

Wolt operates in East Jerusalem, delivering food to and from illegal settlements. Through its activities, the company supports and profits from Israel’s apartheid system. Wolt has been selected by BDS Finland as a local boycott target and approved by the BDS National Committee (BNC).

Microsoft is perhaps the most complicit tech company in Israel’s illegal occupation, apartheid regime and ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Microsoft Gaming, which includes Xbox consoles, Xbox Game Pass, Candy Crush, Call of Duty, Minecraft, and gaming accessories, make up a considerable portion of Microsoft’s profit. By boycotting the Xbox brand, we’re pressuring Microsoft to end its complicity in Israel’s genocide, occupation and apartheid against Palestinians. Palestinians call on everyone to boycott Microsoft’s Xbox and Microsoft gaming products since viable gaming alternatives exist. Genocide is not a game.

Pressure targets

The BDS movement actively calls for pressure campaigns against these targets. This includes boycotts when reasonable alternatives exist, as well as lobbying, peaceful disruptions, and social media pressure.

Airbnb (US), Booking.com (Netherlands) and Expedia (US) all offer rentals in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land. 

In May 2021, as the Israeli military bombed homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and threatened to push Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud technology to the Israeli government and military. By supporting Israeli apartheid with vital technologies, Amazon and Google are directly implicated in its entire system of oppression, including its unfolding genocide in Gaza. Join the #NoTechForApartheid campaign. 

Microsoft partners with the apartheid regime of Israel and its prison system. It provides the Israeli military with Azure cloud and AI services that are central to accelerating Israel’s genocide of 2.3 million Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip. After 34 years of deep complicity with Israel’s military, the Israeli army relies heavily on Microsoft to meet technological requirements of its genocide and apartheid regime. 

Teva is an Israeli pharmaceutical company and the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer. Teva benefits from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands allowing the company to exploit the captive Palestinian market. 

Divestment & Exclusion from Contracts

Divestment & Exclusion from Contracts:

In addition to boycott and pressure targets, divestment and exclusion targets are indispensable in the BDS movement’s tools against complicit corporations. The BDS movement works to pressure governments, city councils, investment funds, institutions (including universities), trade unions, etc., to exclude from procurement contracts and investments as well as to divest from, as the case may be, as many complicit companies as practical, especially arms companies, tech companies, and financial institutions. We rely predominantly on the following authoritative sources and their research regarding divestment targets:

  • AFSC list of companies that implicated in arming Israel’s #GazaGenocide.
  • AFSC Investigate database of companies enabling the occupation.
  • UN database of businesses involved in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.
  • WhoProfits database of corporations profiting from the ongoing Israeli occupation.
  • Don’t Buy Into Occupation list of businesses involved in the illegal Israeli settlement enterprise in the OPT in which European financial institutions have investments.

Learn more about divestments here:  www.bdsmovement.net/Get-involved-divestment

Israeli Corporations & Banks

The BDS movement targets complicity, not identity. When it comes to Israeli companies, being non-complicit entails:

  1. Not being implicated in Israel’s military occupation, apartheid, or settler colonialism; and
  2. Publicly recognizing Palestinian rights under international law, primarily the right of refugees to return in accordance with UN resolution 194. 

As far as we know, no Israeli company meets these two conditions. Accordingly, the BDS movement has called for boycotting and divesting from all Israeli companies unless they meet the above two conditions.