The past few weeks and months have seen significant successes for the BDS movement, with Britain’s National Union of Students voting to boycott Israel and a report by Israel’s Finance Ministry revealing that the regime could suffer significant financial losses if a boycott is widely adopted.
According to the report, the damage from an international boycott could range from approximately half a billion shekels ($130 million) per year, depending on how widely-implemented such a boycott becomes.
10 years ago, a small group of Palestinian activists had a novel idea: Inspired by the anti-apartheid movement, they called for a global boycott movement against Israel as a no-violent method to promote the Palestinian struggle for independence.
Long confined to the sidelines, the so-called BDS movement appears to be gaining momentum — so much that Israel has identified it as a strategic threat on a par with Palestinian resistance groups.
Its de-centralized organization and language calling for universal human rights have proved difficult to counter, resulting in a string of recent victories that have alarmed Israeli leaders.
The BDS movement — named for its call for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions against Israel — began as an idea by 170 Palestinian civil society groups worldwide in 2005. It has grown into a global network of thousands of volunteers lobbying corporations, artists and academic institutions to sever ties with Israel.