BDS: Boycotting Israel has gone mainstream
For more than a decade Shouk offered an Israeli-inspired, plant-based and kosher menu in and around Washington. Last week the chain was forced to close the last of five locations and lay off the last of 30 staff. It said the war in Gaza had made it impossible to do business; activists claimed the restaurant appropriated Palestinian food and imported Israeli products.
“It didn’t let up: boycotts, harassment, you name it,” recalled Dennis Friedman, 46, a Jewish American who co-founded Shouk with Ran Nussbacher, who is Israeli. “The ability to continue to operate wasn’t there. I feel terrible because Shouk wasn’t a political place; Shouk was a place for people to come together. To become a target and be mislabelled and thrown into things that aren’t true is unfortunate.”
Shouk’s experience is not unique. Two years of humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza have fractured the consensus that once shielded Israel from significant international pressure. There are growing calls to shun Israeli and Israeli-adjacent businesses, ban the country from sporting and cultural events, and cut ties with its academic institutions. From stadiums to the high street, from concert halls to the political stage, the boycott movement is moving from the fringe to the mainstream.
While most of the voices in this article spoke before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, activists are vowing to keep up the pressure. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement criticised the plan to end the war as a “scheme primarily designed by Israel’s fascist government to save it from its unprecedented global isolation”, and called on civil society to step up its efforts.
Revulsion at Israel’s wartime conduct has mounted, as images of starving children emerged and the death toll exceeded 67,000 people, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Last month a team of independent experts commissioned by the UN’s human rights council concluded that Israel was committing genocide.
While criticism of Israeli policy is not new, the war in Gaza has acted as a catalyst, shattering taboos, emboldening dissent and pushing public and political sentiment into uncharted territory. Many observers see a turning point on the horizon – one that recalls the global campaign against apartheid in South Africa. [Continue reading…]