Boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) are big news in 2014. If Scarlett Johansson's Sodastream fiasco didn't grab your attention, perhaps
the American Studies Association's boycott of Israeli universities did, or
Netanyahu's increasing talk of million-dollar PR campaigns, legal offensives and diplomacy efforts to counter the BDS threat. Opinion pages
are filled with debate, John Kerry has warned Israel that it could be facing a delegitimization campaign "on steroids" and voices
from all sides are speculating that a boycott movement against Israel could be about to break into the mainstream.
But what would that actually mean in supermarkets and shopping baskets?
The BDS campaign covers all Israeli products: It's a broad tactic aimed to pressure the state itself to change. But it also reserves a special focus for companies that are actually involved in - and make hefty profits from - occupation policies. These organizations may be forced to pay attention to the boycott very soon - and they may not be the ones you'd expect.
© Associated Press
1. SodastreamThanks to Scarlett Johansson's recent adventure in international politics, most of us now know about Sodastream's role in perpetuating the occupation of the West Bank. The fizzy drinks makers are produced in Ma'ale Adumim, one of the many illegal Israeli settlements that cuts through Palestinian land, seizing resources and making the development of an independent Palestinian economy look impossible. "The Israeli army forcefully expelled 200 Palestinian families from their homes to make space for the construction of Maale Adumim,"
says Rafeef Ziadah, a spokesperson for the BDS National Committee. "Recently, it announced a plan to expel another 2,300 Palestinians to make way for the settlement's growth."
Comment: For more on the roots of corruption and tyranny in Washington, D.C. see:
Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes