#TheyOppressWeBDS! 5 solidarity actions to help #EndIsraeliApartheid

Apartheid Israel’s massacres, siege, and land theft against our people are escalating. It has killed at least 220 Palestinians already this year, including 42 children.

Israel’s current government is its most far-right, fundamentalist and sexist ever and includes an unmasked fascist component. It will ethnically cleanse even more Indigenous Palestinians, demolish even more homes, arrest even more en masse, deploy even more ruthlessly violent forces to the occupied West Bank, enable even more armed settler militias, and further cement its de facto annexation.

And yet our hope shines through. Just this year, Barcelona (Catalonia, Spanish State), Oslo (Noway), Liege and Verviers (Belgium), and Belém (Brazil) have all taken serious measures to hold Israel’s occupation and apartheid regime accountable. 

Earlier this month G4S, the largest security firm in the world, was compelled by a BDS campaign to completely divest from Israeli apartheid. More institutions, unions, and corporations are ending complicity with apartheid Israel.

Still, your support is needed now more than ever! Here are the 5 most effective things YOU can do to challenge this complicity and support the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality:

1. Work with progressive networks to pressure parliaments and governments to (a) end all military-security cooperation and trade (military funding in the US case) with apartheid Israel and similarly criminal regimes of oppression worldwide, (b) ban all goods/services of companies operating in Israel’s illegal colonial settlements; and (c) promote UN action to investigate and dismantle Israeli apartheid, as was done with the apartheid regime in South Africa.

2. Mobilize institutional pressure campaigns (including boycotts or divestment) against Israeli and international companies and banks that are complicit in Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity. This includes all Israeli banks (Leumi, Hapoalim, etc.) and major multinationals such as: Elbit Systems, Google, Amazon, HP and HPE, CAT, JCB, Volvo, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Chevron, Siemens, CAF, G4S/AlliedUniversal, AXA, PUMA, Carrefour, Booking.com, Airbnb, Sabra, Barclays, Expedia and more.

3. Mobilize your community, trade union, association, church, social network, student government/union, city council, cultural center, or other organization to declare it an Apartheid Free Zone (AFZ), ending all relations with apartheid Israel and companies/institutions that are complicit in its system of oppression.

4. Initiate/support boycotts of all academic, cultural, sports, and tourism engagements taking place in/sponsored by apartheid Israel or  its lobby groups and complicit institutions.

5. Join a BDS campaign or a strategic Palestine solidarity group near you to act collectively and effectively.

Channel your anger and mobilize to dismantle apartheid and all forms of racism and oppression.