BDS pressure works! According to Israeli financial media sources, Tech giant Intel has halted construction of a new $25 billion factory in Israel, prompting speculation that the factory is “in danger of being canceled.” Intel still remains deeply complicit in feeding Israel’s genocidal war chest, so let’s escalate our #BoycottIntel campaign to make it end complicity.
The news coincides with persistent indicators of a shocking decline in Israel’s economy.
In February, Moody’s downgraded Israel’s credit rating for the first time in its history. The outlook was also changed to “negative,” reflecting its growing debt, budget deficit, and structural economic woes.
Since the start of Israel’s #GazaGenocide, “Foreign investors have taken out more than [$9 billion] from the stock market in Israel,” with almost $4 billion withdrawn from Israel Bonds. A senior Israeli banker confirms, "We are already feeling an economic boycott and are becoming pariahs in some countries."
Well before its genocide, Israel had been facing seismic economic challenges, with international investment in its high-tech industry (which accounts for half of all Israeli exports), nosediving.
Intel’s decision is partly due to a growing loss of confidence in the Israeli economy, including among Israeli business leaders. But Intel’s withdrawal is not just an effect of Israel’s economic decline; it is expected to cause a “severe blow” to Israel’s “already damaged economy.” In 2022, Intel Israel’s exports constituted 1.75% of Israel’s entire GDP.
The #BoycottIntel campaign by the #BDS movement and its allies in the US (including Portland Democratic Socialists of America) has sought the cancelation of this massive Intel investment, which was announced in December 2023 in the middle of Israel’s ongoing genocide against 2.3M Palestinians. Intel’s main Israeli factory in Kiryat Gat is built on the ruins of an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village.
Intel’s investment in Israel, a “war zone,” is clearly ideological and irresponsible. Its planned factory, 16 miles from occupied Gaza, would face exceptionally high security and financial risks. This part of the BDS campaign’s message, more than anything, seems to have ruffled the feathers of Intel investors, according to Intel insiders. Now, Intel is citing “responsible capital management” to explain its U-turn.
Israeli media sources have reported that several Intel Israel senior officials have moved to Ohio as part of the US program to encourage the establishment of chip factories in the country. The BDS movement had pointed to the irony of Intel driving jobs away from the US to apartheid Israel.
Since October 7th, more than 80% of Israeli start-ups have suffered damages, with over 50% of start-ups left with less than 6 months of cash. According to the CEO of Israel's leading corporate finance investment house, the number of “angel investors” dropped by 75% in 2023, and growth capital investing in Israeli companies was down 32% year-over-year in Q1 2024. He concluded, “The most Zionist thing you can do right now is to bring money into Israel from foreign investors.”
Israel’s high-tech is primarily connected to “the knowledge that comes out of the military technological units.” Israel’s Innovation Authority documents two trends afflicting tech companies: a. serious trouble raising funds and hiring mostly abroad. Given its centrality, the tech industry’s troubles spell trouble for Israel’s entire economy.
A recently published legal study shows that companies, such as Intel, risk being complicit in Israel’s genocide even by continuing business-as-usual and paying taxes to a state that the ICJ has decided may plausibly be committing genocide, among other international crimes.
With Israel’s sinking economy, investing in it is not just unethical and illegal. It is also financially irresponsible, as many companies are discovering the hard way. Despite its CEO’s fanatic Zionist commitment to investing in Israel, even Intel is beginning to face this truth. Still, it remains the largest investor in Israel’s apartheid and genocide economy, which means our #BoycottIntel campaign will continue.