Sorry - didn’t want to interrupt there but - this just happened. It is HUGE.
This might be one of the top 3 most significant history of the BDS movement for Palestine.
Also, as your friendly neighbourhood international lawyer, let me give you some context, and that will explain why I didn’t even bother removing the tag icon.
The BDS movement started with South Africa. At the time, it was largely more palatable to boycott an apartheid regime and its introduction was met very swiftly with responses from the international community, including South Africa’s expulsion from the UN General Assembly in 1974 (it would only be allowed to return once Nelson Mandela accessed the presidency in 1993).
But it took 30 years. 30 years of organic boycotts, of letter-writing campaigns, of leafleting in the streets, of protests, of divestment education, of constant and systemic refusal to engage and trade with South Africa at any level. Keep in mind that at the time, apartheid wasn’t listed as a crime against humanity. It now is, and Israel, that has committed it since its inception, claims that the very same reaction to South Africa isn’t acceptable.
Many discovered the Palestinian genocide in October 2023. Better late than never, at any point. But because those many were, in fact, so many, BDS grew in popularity in scope and scale that are entirely unprecedented. After the UN Secretary General’s article 99 in December calling for global action for Palestine, it wasn’t states, it wasn’t governments, it wasn’t the G7 that enacted a boycott policy.
And in 9 months, Israel’s economy is near irreparably crippled, banks are hemorrhaging money, there are more protesters than cops, and the entire colonial structure is starting to peel off like cheap ass wallpaper.
On days it gets hard, on days you feel you don’t have it in the tank, remember you did this, and remember there is no greater power than collective action.
