What do you do when a racist, apartheid state operates above the law, with the covert and/or overt support of ‘the West’? This was the reality of apartheid South Africa and is the reality of apartheid Israel.
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is a peaceful mechanism to weaken and thus force concessions from an illegitimate, undemocratic and/or human rights abusing state or non-state group.
Western governments currently impose sanctions on Russia, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and others, as well as groups they identify as ‘terrorists’.
The BDS strategy was very effectively utilized against apartheid South Africa by Scandinavian and Soviet-aligned countries. Meanwhile, Western governments like the UK and US tried to stop BDS, violating UN embargoes against the country. In the case of Israel, Western states not only actively oppose BDS, but also facilitate their biggest corporations’
