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.

You didn’t notice that they referred to Israel as ‘Occupied Palestine’ while looking up their reasons why particular brands are boycotted?

Ok. I wouldn’t be personally publicising or following the recommendations of a group whose ideology I was unaware of.

Incidentally I think BDS are unhappy with the extensive lists they are circulating and would prefer a more focussed boycott to be more effective.

@Livinginanotherworld are you doing that thing again where you read all the previous posts you have missed. It is very much a credit to you but you posting replies gets a little confusing as far as conversation goes 😂

That’s an oxymoron isn’t it ! Which is it ? it can’t be both.

Thanks, I am reading and trying to understand and I understand that for many Israeli citizens life must be pretty good. I'm not saying everything is bad! And yes I realise in the wider context of the Middle East there are other factors.

It is just very hard for me to see anything "balanced" about Israel as a whole, when I have read about and seen videos of inequality, segregation, oppression, the allowing by the Israeli govt of the stealing of land in the West Bank (and encouragement even), settler violence mostly unpunished, and how the IDF treats innocent Palestinian children, the genocidal rhetoric repeated by govt officials... and lots else. Much of this has nothing to do with Hamas and seems unconscionable to me. None of this says "balanced" to me.

I hear you and it is difficult at the best of times to understand this situation in the middle east. Currently I don't see how anyone without a fair bit of prior knowledge can get past the images and casualties we are seeing.

Anyway to me people boycotting a company for genuine political reasons is not a problem. Obviously it is a problem if following a list from dodgy group or boycotting on only the grounds it is a Jewish brand or an Israeli brand. I mean a brand to boycott would be one that actively supports the current Israeli government not just one that is in the Israel (That is prejudice after all). However people will do what people will do and I am the not the spending police and have my own list of companies I don't buy for.

Yes sorry, I’m catching up again and responding as I go.

That is OK honey you go ahead. It is my old brain that gets a bit muddled when the conversation jumps about.

I found that this was the post that Starbucks objected to their logo being used for, and why they suggested that the union posted something in support of Hamas.

And people are boycotting Starbucks for objecting to this? Absolute state of them.

Yes it was the image of them destroying the fence to help fighters get vehicles through during the pogrom on the 7th October

They did this to help them kidnap innocent people as we all know

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/15/boycotts-and-protests-how-are-people-around-the-world-defying-israel

Interesting article about the boycotts here for anyone interested.

From that article.

How dishonest an interpretation of the above image of a Hamas bulldozer is that!

Those who are boycotting Starbucks: Do you think what that workers' union posted is acceptable?

Interesting article. Thank you for sharing

I'm guessing they don't see anything wrong with what they posted

It's fairly obvious that Starbucks are right to protect their brand from celebrating terrorism

Some
amazing mental gymnastics needed to twist that into Starbucks Bad

@Desertrose2023 given that you are encouraging people to boycott Starbucks in your OP, what do you make of the post celebrating the Hamas bulldozer that appears to have kicked it off?

About as dishonest as most the drip feeding of hate articles in Aljazeera

Afraid a running theme with these types of people. They can't just be honest about the facts, which are often not exactly pro Israel stuff. They cannot help bit to twist the truth or just plain lie about what has happened. Some people because of their bias, prejudice, hate or because on a crusade will continue to believe everything without checking the facts. However most intelligent logical people do some research and the facts. So this tactic of twisting the truth gets shown up for what it is over and over and over again

@Trulywonderful Your own posts are not exactly free from bias and lies. For example in our debate above where you implied that Israeli arabs have equality. Which as we discussed was not honest.

Or maybe what you believe is "bias and lies" is simply a difference of opinion?

Go back and look at everything thar was discussed including the UN human rights act. Plus the right the All Israel citizens have compared with the Arab ruled areas both on the land and in surrounding states. It was discussed at length on this very thread. It showed that whilst there is a way to go and it is two steps forward one step back when it comes to human rights the Israeli Arabs have more human rights than they would in the other areas mentioned. Talk about desperate to prove a point and twist a conversation had earlier with many posts explaining the situation regarding equal rights. This is exactly what I am talking about in my last post. Thank you very much for providing my point because though you may go back and take one or even more postes out of context others can read all the posts explaining the situation. Well done there 😘

Aljazeera have regularly over the years have shown videos of IDF shooting a poor Palestinian in news stories. However when these are shown in full elsewhere you see that Aljazeera have edited them. In fact the whole video shows that it was a terrorist who ran up to a Israeli civilian on the street and stabbed them or something similar and where then going after someone else. This has happened with Aljazeera more times than I can count.

Plus for every ten or so articles that are ok they drop in one that is pure drip feeding of Jew hate. Not Israel or Israelis hate but actual the evils of Jews dripped into whatever the subject in a sly way.

If you call that myself being bias then so be it. Personally I think you are just constantly trying to defend stuff that is not defendable. Which is a very odd way to behave indeed.

@Trulywonderful I hear what you are saying. I realise there are two sides to every story. But I personally think it's odd to defend what Israeli govt are doing in the face of what I have read about via Amnesty international, in reports such as this:

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2022/02/israels-system-of-apartheid/

(And I also realise that many of course try to discredit Amnesty and Human rights watch and so on so no need to go into that).

As well as the collective punishment currently going on.

And I know what you said upthread about Arab Israelis but if things are so equal for them why would so many organisations exist like Adalah?

https://www.adalah.org/en/law/index

So it doesn't sound like things for Arab Israelis are perfect.

That said I absolutely realise there are two sides to every story and I want to reiterate that I absolutely support all innocent civilians in Israel and Palestine and want peace for all people in the region.

Certainly have far more rights than Jews in Arab countries.
Think it's ironic the people who use the system to their advantage (Barghouti and Bisen being two) then cry foul about it.

In fairness to @sailingdriving you did say that Israeli Arabs have the same rights as Jewish people and then rowed back on it, talking about 2 steps forward etc once evidence was presented that contradicted your initial statement.

And another thing I wanted to say that I have noticed is every single news source, organisation, country or person that is critical of Israeli govt policy gets attacked and lots of people attempt to discredit it.

I have seen this with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Red Cross, Al Jazeera, United Nations, BDS founder or countries or PMs that are critical of Israeli govt and so on in an endless list.

I'm not suggesting all these people or organisations are free from bias or pure but a lot of news sources and highly respected organisations or individuals are being routinely dismissed, attacked and even smeared and I think it comes from a place of wanting the criticism of the Israeli govt to stop, or trying to delegitimise what they are saying, rather than from listening to what they are saying, some of which has validity.

We can’t honestly believe that every single thing all of these people or organisations is false or unable to be taken seriously. The truth lies likely somewhere in between.

And if even a fraction of what is presented by them is truthful it’s really scary and almost scarier that they are being attempted to be censored.

So whilst I won't believe every single criticism on either side is valid, I don't think it is fair to discredit everything from one source or organisation or try to write it off in its entirety.

And I want to wish you all a happy new year despite the arguing and differences of opinion. I hope we can all work together for peace. I will try to listen better to both sides in the coming months.

Well said 👏🏼👏🏼