#TheyOppressWeBDS! 5 solidarity actions to help #EndIsraeliApartheid

January was another bloody month for us, as apartheid Israel murdered at least 36 Palestinians, including 8 children.

Under proposed new laws apartheid Israel's far-right government plans to deport even more Palestinians from their homeland, demolish even more homes, arrest even more en masse, deploy even more forces to the occupied West Bank, give even more guns to Israeli settlers, and further cement de facto annexation.

Israeli settlers went on violent rampages through the occupied West Bank, terrorizing Palestinians, burning their cars and damaging their properties. 

In Nablus 144 settler attacks against Palestinians were recorded, in just 24 hours!

In many countries, governments, corporations and institutions are deeply complicit with Israel’s decades-old regime of military occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid, just as they were complicit with the apartheid regime in South Africa. Israel can only sustain this regime of oppression with international complicity. 

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.