Consumer Boycotts

[Desertrose2023]

I posted the BDS list in the supporting Palestinian businesses thread and recent discussion on another thread re the backlash against Zara got me wondering how many others are participating in consumer boycotts linked to the conflict in Gaza (and the occupation in Palestine) or for different reasons.

there are a number of brands I’m boycotting usually for a mix of reasons, political, environmental and social. Interested to hear views from others.

Disclaimer: to avoid any misinterpretation or twisting of my words - I do not support any acts of violence or vandalism or boycotting based on religion/ethnicity.

all the ones on the BDS committee list

https://bdsmovement.net/

in addition to a few others (sample below)

Starbucks: overpriced shit coffee and they recently sued their union for tweeting in support/solidarity with Palestine.

Zara: I stopped buying stuff following the controversy of their head womenswear designer making disgusting anti-Palestinian comments. The reports of slave labour (Uyghurs and in Brazil) plus the recent tone deaf ad campaign was the final straw. Plus trying to be more conscious re reducing how much ‘fast fashion’ I buy anyway.

Nestle: a history of unethical corporate practices plus including ownership of an Israeli food company with production in OPT.

What did the founders do?

@TriOptimim I'm not sure why you mentioned CEO or former CEO in your earlier post though. Was there something about them?

Howard Schultz is the former CEO of Starbucks. Not the founder. I thought you'd know that since you hate the evil 'zionist' so much you're boycotting the company he used to work for.

All I'm seeing are reasons not to boycott Starbucks

Is that really the reasons that people are boycotting

People are batshit.

@TriOptimim Fair enough - I'm not an expert on Starbucks history but was providing information on why some people are boycotting it, as referenced from Reddit.

Some people on this thread seemed to imply they were boycotted because of the use of the logo in a tweet, and I was trying to clarify there are a number of reasons SOME people are boycotting. Not my personal reasons.

I copied the quote from Reddit trying to clarify some of the reasons they are being boycotted by some people, as you had asked. This was not my personal statement about him being "zionist" nor a personal reason for boycotting. Please feel free to pop over to reddit to argue with them though.

The main reason to boycott Starbucks is that the coffee is muck.

A few people here are acting as though BDS is a fad or some crazy fringe opinion.

Some governments won't invest in Israeli companies etc who operate illegally in occupied territory. Ireland, for example.

https://www.thejournal.ie/mcgrath-companies-operating-in-occupied-territories-6230521-Nov2023/

No, if you read the thread the main reason seems to be their statement and implication the union supported Hamas violence and because Starbucks were suing them for a pro Palestine tweet.

"Shortly after October 7, Workers United posted a statement with an image of a bulldozer tearing down part of the Israel and Gaza border, reflecting their support for violence perpetrated by Hamas."

https://theintercept.com/2023/10/17/starbucks-suing-union-israel-palestine/

Yes @sailingdriving * * I saw that. Not sure what Starbucks did wrong there

@backtowinter they wrongly implied their workers supported Hamas' violent acts (they did not) then apparently decided to sue them. hope this helps.

Oh thank you. I always appreciate when other posters go out of their way to be helpful

It's a fine line between between being pro Palestine and pro terrorism so I expect the ensuing court case will clarify everything.

Thanks again for your help 😀

The IDF are not “executing civilians”. Nor are they “running people over”.

Up to this point, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health claims that over 18,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza. These figures cannot be independently verified, and per Israel, at least 7000 of those killed are members of Hamas or other terrorist groups. Hamas does not distinguish between combatant and civilian casualties and also does not distinguish between deaths caused by Israeli air strikes and deaths caused by misfired Palestinian missiles.

In past wars, around 20 percent of Palestinian missiles misfired and landed within the Gaza Strip, killing Palestinian civilians.

If the Israeli numbers are accurate, (if) this means 11,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed since the start of the war. 11,000 innocent deaths is too much. 1000 innocent deaths is too much. 500 innocent deaths is too much. In fact, even one innocent death is too much. War is disastrous, devastating, and heartbreaking.

But acknowledging this heartbreak should not give us free reign to disregard history and facts. Acknowledging this heartbreak should not give us free reign to ignore, deny, distort, or justify the October 7 massacre that started this war.

Acknowledging this heartbreak should not give us free reign to parrot the propaganda and talking points of an antisemitic, openly genocidal terrorist organization. See, it is textbook terrorist propaganda to extort the emotions of well-meaning observers.

None of this is conjecture. We know, for a fact, that Hamas appeals to a western audience by exploiting the deaths of their own population. We know this because they’ve said so themselves. We also know that there is historical precedent for this, a glaring example being Nazi Germany.

@JaneBirkinsNose

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/26/classroom-massacre-survivors-say-israel-executed-innocents-in-gaza-school

https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-round-abuse-palestinians-gaza-stadium

https://time.com/6548632/israel-hamas-war-civilians-hostages-killed/

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/10/damning-evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza

Not biting sorry, all these sources you’ve listed are bunk.

Al Jazeera - known antisemitic news outlet run by Qatar and is a frequent mouthpiece for Hama.

Human Rights Watch - antisemitic and anti-Israeli organization' with no moral basis that failed to condemn Hamas's October 7 massacre. In fact, This November, an outgoing Human Rights Watch senior editor named Danielle Haas wrote an email to her coworkers, lambasting HRW for its biased and unethical approach to the Israel, claiming that the organization’s approach to Israel “violated basic editorial standards related to rigor, balance, and collegiality.”

Amnesty International - Also known for anti-Israeli bias and own internal antisemitism problems.

And so on.

Try harder.

@JaneBirkinsNose I do see why Israel would want to smear and attempt to delegitimise human rights organisations stance when they are calling attention to war crimes.

You have to wonder if you're standing on the right side of history when you're trying to refute every single organisation that calls out war crimes including the UN, human rights organisations etc. Now even the Red Cross are being smeared and so on. Madness.

"Shortly after October 7, Workers United posted a statement with an image of a bulldozer tearing down part of the Israel and Gaza border, reflecting their support for violence perpetrated by Hamas."

But it was Hamas that bulldozed the border and came through and raped and murdered people. If you’re suggesting that an image of a bulldozer tearing down the border on 7th Oct doesn’t represent Hamas and is actually pro-Palestinian, then do you think it was Palestinians who bulldozed the border? Or that the picture with a statement of support doesn’t imply support of the action contained in the picture?

Oh here we go. "The IDF are angels, their shit smells of roses blah blah, if anyone says otherwise it's because they are antisemitic"....ad nauseum

Yawn.

How de we know how many of the Palestinian deaths are Hamas and how many any are innocent civilians?

The vast majority of casualties are women and children FFS. CHILDREN.

No need to shout @flashbac

The meaning of the bulldozer is quite clear

Starbucks have done nothing wrong

I hate their coffee but in this case they are right

@flashbac why are they out of interest? Where are the men? I saw this on another thread and it's piqued my interest. In a country where it's around 50/50 where all the men?

Well yes, I’m struggling to see why people are boycotting them for saying a bulldozer tearing down the border pic was pro Hamas. It seems an utterly reasonable interpretation.

@JaneBirkinsNose

The IDF aren't doing that? Well, in that case someone should let my friends and colleagues know to stop being dead because the things that killed them apparently didn't happen.