Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid struggle, the BDS movement was launched in 2005. A hundred and seventy Palestinian civil society organisations banded together to call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions to exert pressure on Israel. The movement began as and remains a strategic, nonviolent weapon that mobilises the international community to act against the State of Israel. The BDS movement’s demands are based on international human-rights principles, and it has been effective tool to unite Palestinian society, spread awareness, and directly harm the Israeli state.

The Palestinian struggle is deeply intertwined within global movements for decolonisation. Palestinian resistance fighters in the 1950s and 60s fought and trained alongside other independence fighters from across the global South. This spirit of solidarity, unity, and common struggle is what inspired the BDS movement to begin in 2005. The success of international pressure in dismantling political apartheid in South Africa was particularly instructive to the Palestinian decolonisation movement.

Palestinians widely recognise that their fight for freedom cannot be won on the battlefield alone. The colonisation of Palestine is deeply interwoven in a global system of militarised imperialism, which positions Israel as a superior military force. To defeat the Israeli military, there needs to be an active, international struggle against its collaborators, funders, and the upholders of cultural hegemony who posit Israel as rightful occupiers of Palestine. The BDS movement is at the forefront of this struggle.

The BDS movement is comprised of labour unions, civics, human rights and civil society organisations. Under the BDS umbrella, the three the three major components of the Palestinian people are represented. These are namely, Palestinian refugees in exile, Palestinians under occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the discriminated Palestinian citizens of the Israeli state. The BDS movement made a concerted effort to establish consensus among these various components of Palestinian society so that a clear a cohesive strategic programme could be advanced that serves the interests of all Palestinians.

The PSA is a member of the South African BDS Coalition, and our efforts are informed by the strategic objectives of the BDS National Committee in Palestine. Our work as a Palestinian Solidarity Organisation is geared at three principled demands to end the state of Israel’s ongoing acts of colonialism, Apartheid and other violations of international law. These are namely, for Israel to end its occupation and colonisation of all Arab lands and dismantle its Apartheid Wall; for Israel to fully recognise the fundamental rights of its Arab-Palestinian citizens to full equality; and for Israel to respect, protect, and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties. While these three demands are directed at the state of Israel, their logical conclusion necessarily entail the end of Zionism.

We know that Zionism is fundamentally incompatible with the rights of Palestinians to their land, homes, and human dignity. It is thus our responsibility to fight Zionism with the most effective tools that we have available. For many of us, this refers to our purchasing power, our labour power, and our civic power. The BDS movement allows us to weaponise these tools to in a strategic and targeted manner. Alone, the task is difficult, but together, we can make a tangible impact towards to freedom of Palestinians from the river to the sea. Unite Against Apartheid Israel. Support BDS.

Universities, like many others, are inherently political institutions, and often assist in propping up regimes and ensuring that they are perceived as legitimate. Israeli Universities assist the State of Israel greatly by lending legitimacy to Israel’s regime of apartheid, occupation, and settler-colonialism. Universities in Israel are responsible for rationalising the ethnic-cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population, assisting in justifying the Israeli annexation and occupation of Palestinian land, developing complex weapon systems, and providing justifications for the extra-judicial killings carried out by Israeli forces. ‘Non-Jewish’ students often face discrimination at Israeli universities and are treated as inferior to their Jewish counterparts through avenues of institutional racism which overtly favour Jewish students. 

An array of organisations across Palestinian civil society have called for the academic boycott of Israeli universities as they are blatantly complicit in the violations of international law carried out by the Israeli State. Israeli universities have close ties with the Israeli military and often assist each other. A stark example of this is the development of weapon systems by Tel-Aviv University which paved the way for the carrying out of systematic attacks against Palestinian civilians by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). 

The Academic Boycott campaign does not target individuals. Rather, it targets institutions which have had a hand in the perpetuating crimes against Palestinians and upholding Israeli apartheid. Academics around the world have called for the boycott of Israeli universities due to the role these institutions play in the colonial oppression of Palestinians. 

In 2011, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) severed ties with Ben-Gurion University (BGU) in Beersheba. An appeal signed by 400 academics across different universities in South Africa, nine university heads, and the Senate at UJ was in favour of allowing the relationship between UJ and BGU to lapse on 1 April 2011. Not only was the appeal signed by academics – it also garnered support from COSATU and NEHAWU, trade unions which are among the largest in South Africa.

BDS - Myths and Facts

Myth: The BDS Movement appeases liberal Zionists and in doing so, betrays the struggle for Palestinian liberation. 
Fact: The BDS Movement is led by Palestinian Civil Society and is fully committed to the liberation of Palestine. The BDS Movement is an integral part of the resistance movement which seeks to raise awareness about the oppression of Palestinians by the apparatus of the Israeli state. The BDS Movement is a global international movement that focuses on Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaigns to raise awareness of the atrocities committed by the State of Israel and its violations of international law. The BDS Movement recognizes Israel as a state which perpetuates practices of racism, colonialism, and apartheid. 
 
Myth: The BDS Movement condemns violent resistance.  
Fact: The BDS Movement is a non-violent strategy supported by trade unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. While BDS is an essential form of resistance, the BDS Movement recognizes the important role of other forms of resistance against the Israeli Apartheid State. 
While the movement itself is one of a non-violent nature, it does not condemn the rights of Palestinians to use resistance in any form as they attempt to combat Israeli state-sanctioned brutality. International law dictates that a population under occupation is allowed to use any and all means of resistance at their disposal, violence notwithstanding, and the BDS Movement acknowledges this. 
 
Myth: The BDS Movement is a tool of the Palestinian Authority (PA). 
Fact: The BDS Movement is non-partisan, and while the organisation supports the rights of Palestinians to self-determination, it does not do so through any particular Palestinian political party. In fact, the BDS Movement has been extremely critical about certain actions carried out by the PA. This was made evident when Nizar Banat, an anti-corruption and human rights activist, was assassinated by the PA; an action which was vehemently condemned by the BDS Movement and its affiliates. 
 
Myth: The BDS Movement has hijacked the Palestinian struggle. 
Fact: The BDS Movement came about as a result of public cooperation and consensus when it emerged that Palestinian civil society was in need of an organisation which had the best interests of Palestinian people at heart. Since it was formed in 2005, BDS has consistently spoken out against Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism. The BDS Movement is an integral part of the International Palestine Solidarity Movement similar to the international Anti-Apartheid Movement that supported the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa.
 
Myth: Tactics employed by the BDS Movement do not work. 
Fact: The BDS Movement has a set of strategies which it uses to govern its key principles of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions. While these strategies occasionally take a while to materialize, the fact remains – these strategies are key in shifting international opinion in favour of the Palestinian struggle and against Israeli occupation. The BDS Movement has had several successes as its resistance has given way to the boycott of institutions like Ben-Gurion University and products, like Ahava cosmetics. It has also resulted in conglomerates boycotting businesses like Sabra and companies like Elbit Systems, as well certain states, such as South Africa, moving toward sanctioning Israel by seeking to downgrade their Embassy. 

Economic Boycotts

The economic boycott of Israel is one of the most crucial pressure points that the international community can exert to end its system of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, colonialism and occupation. Like the economic boycott of South Africa, its aims are two-fold. Firstly, it is a material tool that can be deployed by consumers to end complicity with apartheid, and ensure that companies can not profit off the backs and blood of Palestinians. Secondly, it is a significant ideological instrument that spreads public awareness about Israeli apartheid and its embeddedness in global imperialism. Drawing these links is integral to the liberatory ambitions of people across the world, and especially those in Palestine, who are exploited under global capitalism.

The economic boycott of Israel places pressure on Israel to comply with international law and works to persuade private companies to end their complicity in Israel’s crimes. Israel’s economy is especially dependent on international trade and investment from multinationals. International boycotts can thus be especially effective as a tool to affect political change against the Zionist state.

Israel has already lost billions of dollars due to international pressure from the BDS movement. Major European companies, such as Veolia, Orange and CRH have all been forced to divest from the Israeli market after public campaigns highlighted their complicity with Israeli human rights violations.The campaign against Veolia was especially impactful. Boycott campaigners caused local government councils to terminate contracts worth at least $20 billion due to its role in infrastructure projects for illegal Israeli settlements. Veiola has since sold its businesses in Israel and ended its involvement in settler infrastructure.

Other major investors, such as the American Presbyterian Church, the United Methodist Church, the Dutch public pension fund PGGM, and Norwegian, Luxembourg and New Zealand governments have divested from companies over their role in Israeli violations of international law. Major European private banks including Nordea and Danske Bank and wealthy individuals including George Soros and Bill Gates have also divested from BDS targets. BDS boycotts have caused the Israeli economy to lose out on billions of dollars, as acknowledged by the World Bank, the United Nations, and the Israeli government itself.

In South Africa, BDS campaigns have made strides in promoting awareness and action against companies complicit in Israeli apartheid. Many public and private institutions have ended their contracts with the G4S security company, which provides police training and surveillance equipment to the state of Israel. There have also been mass campaigns conducted against Woolworths, where the company was forced to divest from operations it had in the region. Most recently, important alliances have formed between Palestinian solidarity organisations and trade union umbrellas, who fought together against Clover.

It is up to us as individuals and members of communities to ardently advocate against Israeli apartheid and put our money where our mouths are. Targeted campaigns against Puma, HP, G4S, and others are only as effective as we are willing to make them. History has proven that boycotts exert real pressure and can effect material change. We have a duty to make history repeat itself so that apartheid can end in Palestine, as it did in South Africa. 

Sports Boycotts

Sports boycotts are a significant tool of isolation to provoke social change. South Africa shook when anti-apartheid activists bellowed, “No normal sport in an abnormal society,” and the world paid heed. Where diplomacy and common sense fail, people can rise up through sporting and cultural institutions to make their voice heard and have a great effect on political attitudes and reform. While Palestinian BDS campaigns against Israel have historically focused on other targets, there is an increased push to isolate Israel on the sports field, which has been supported by Palestinians, sporting organisations, clubs and individuals.

Although many international sporting bodies - such as FIFA, the olympics, and the ATP - have professed to be apolitical; they have exposed themselves as hypocrites after isolating Russia from international competitions due to its invasion of Ukraine. The time is ripe to highlight Israeli atrocities and violations of international law, and build a concerted campaign to expel this rogue state from the community of sport.

One of the BDS movement’s largest international campaigns is directed against Puma, who are complicit in Israeli apartheid as sponsors of the Israel Football Association (IFA). The IFA includes six Israeli football clubs who are based in illegal settlements built on Palestinian land occupied by the Israeli military. 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, conduct business, and of course, play sport.

Palestinian athletes are regularly prevented from training and participating in competitions, at home and abroad.Israel has bombed and destroyed Palestinian stadiums and sports structures and routinely denied freedom of movement to Palestinian athletes. It has imprisoned and shot Palestinian athletes, and killed Palestinian children playing football, more than once.

Our task as South Africans is to lobby all sporting bodies - including Mamelodi Sundowns and other large footballing associations - to end their contracts with Puma pressure the company to end its complicity with Israeli apartheid. We must also actively campaign to end international collaboration between national and professional sporting bodies in this country and those in Israel.

Northern Tigers Swimming, affiliated to Swimming South Africa, are scheduled to participate in the final event of the FINA Marathon Swim World Series, which will take place in November in the Gulf of Eilat in Israel. Eilat is a coastal town that was built on the ruins of Umm al-Rashrash, which was destroyed and ethnically cleansed during the 1948 Nakba.

As South Africans who have gone through Apartheid and seen the transformative effect of international sporting boycotts, we must lead the charge to isolate Israeli sporting bodies. Citizens have strong feelings about sport. It is closely tied to national identity, and the symbolic effects of sporting sanctions are more palpable than economic sanctions may be for many citizens. An effective sports boycott can go a long way to ending Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. We must ensure that no South African represents our country on Palestinian land until Israel is booted out.

Potch For Palestine: Golf Day

Potch for Palestine, together with the Potch Golf Association, hosted a fundraising golf tournament on the 2nd of October, in support of the South African BDS Coalition. Seventy-two golfers teed off at the Vaal de Grace Golf Estate on a hot Sunday morning, aiming for more than just the hole on the green. Each golfer, together with several business sponsors, made a material contribution to South Africa’s solidarity efforts with the people of Palestine.

After the tournament, golfers gathered for lunch and an awards ceremony, where a number of speakers spoke about the importance of support for the Palestinian cause. The Africa coordinator for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, Saleh Hijazi, delivered an online address, outlining the importance of solidarity amongst oppressed peoples internationally and the effect that the BDS movement has had against Israel. He also spoke about the consensus coming from international human rights organisations that categorically label Israel as an apartheid state. The BDS movement is actively involved in lobbying efforts for Apartheid Israel to be isolated as a pariah state, in the same way that Apartheid South Africa was.

The significance of international sanctions was further highlighted by Na’eem Jeenah, who spoke on behalf of the South African BDS Coalition. Jeenah also presented an overview of some of the Coalition’s public advocacy campaigns that have taken place over the last year. Members of the coalition were especially instrumental in organising Israeli Apartheid Week, support for the Clover strike, the formation of the Pan African Palestine Solidarity Network, and many other campaigns.

Golf is often viewed as an elitist sport, but this tournament highlighted how players of the sport are willing to contribute to causes that count. Many congratulations were conveyed to the Potch for Palestine solidarity organisation, who mobilised their community to support the oppressed. Despite being situated in a small town, Potch for Palestine has staged mass demonstrations, embarked on significant public awareness campaigns, and developed a sterling reputation in the community as an organisation dedicated towards the safeguarding of human rights everywhere.

A follow-up fundraiser for Johannesburg residents and golfers is expected to be held in March next year.

The 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre was one of the most brutal events in the history of Palestinians’ struggle against Zionism. Up to 3,500 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians were savagely slaughtered between 16-18 September 41 years ago, under the watch of Israeli occupation forces.

The massacre took place during Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when the Zionist regime aimed to crush the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) based there. Under the Defense Minister of the time, Ariel Sharon, Israeli occupation forces imposed a tight siege on refugee camps in Lebanon. In doing so, they facilitated the entry of the Israeli-backed fascist Lebanese Phalange militia.

The Lebanese Phalanges party was formed in 1936 as a paramilitary youth organization by Pierre Gemayel who modeled the party after Spanish and Italian Fascist parties. It is also known in Arabic as the Kataeb party, and still holds seats in Lebanon’s parliament today. Over the years leading up to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, Israel had provided arms, training and military assistance to the Phalange.

Once Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were sealed inside the camp, over the course of three days, 16 - 18 September 1982, thousands of Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians were violently raped, mutilated and tortured.

Today, approximately 479,000 Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon, with approximately 45% living in the country’s 12 refugee camps. Palestinian refugees worldwide are to this day denied their UN stipulated right of return under UN Resolution 194. We mourn the victims of the brutal massacre and remain steadfast in our call for Palestinian refugees to be reunited with their indigenous homeland.

Saleh Hijazi is the recently appointed Africa coordinator for the BDS National Committee in Palestine. Hijazi has a sterling track record as a human rights activist and researcher, having worked with Al-Quds university, Al-Shabaka policy network, and Amnesty International. He is the principal author behind Amnesty International’s groundbreaking report on Israel’s system of apartheid against Palestinians.

The Amnesty report broke new ground by shifting the paradigm of international liberal human rights institutions, and entrenching the language of apartheid into the rights-based discourse around Israel. It represents an important shift from isolated cries of condemnation against Israeli war crimes towards an international consensus that reflects a truer understanding of the Israel state as a systematically oppressive regime.

Hijazi’s role as the BNC coordinator for Africa will build upon this consensus from human rights organisations by translating it into sincere political action. Through the network of PAPSN affiliates, friendly governments, and other lobbying networks - the ground is fertile to develop a coordinated campaign for international sanctions to be imposed on the state of Israel. 

Saleh has recently completed a tour of Southern Africa, visiting key stakeholders across the region. His station in South Africa is important in that it will afford the Palestinian solidarity movement the opportunity to be led by a representative of Palestinian society with a progressive, emancipatory agenda that is not bound by the shackles of Oslo and collaboration.