I don't buy products that are made in Israel

[Tesseract]

I never really thought that I would have the opportunity to do this, since Israeli products are not that common. However, I recently turned down the purchase of an item from the hardware store that I noticed was made in Israel. The collective economic effect of this action may be significant in the long run, and the spirit of the BDS movement is gaining traction, forcing Israel into conniptions which only serve to highlight the injustices Israel commits towards the Palestinians.

Pro-Israel folks get hysterical at the BDS movement. I say to them, stop your forced boycott of Palestine, and then I will think about stopping my personal boycott of Israeli products. Gain some sympathy for the victims of apartheid, and I may gain some sympathy for the shareholders of a plastics factory in Israel. Israel may not be the only country on earth committing moral crimes, but it does commit state orchestrated apartheid, and is engaged in active colonialism of the worst kind. If you want to add another country to your boycott list, please do so, Israel is not the only country on mine – but for now it is the only case where the movement appears to be having an effect. Hopefully the movement grows to a similar scale as that which was against South Africa. So far it is making great progress, even without government support.

[GreenGuy]

Thanks for bringing this up. I also keep an eye out for products made in Israel even though they're not common. Ditto China. It's hard to find things that are made in this country. Unfortunately the bar code is not a reliable means of identifying country of origin.

The boycott is one of the most powerful tools we have, and I wish more people used it. I NEVER shop at MalWart, and always avoid corporate stores in favor of local ownership whenever possible. It generally costs a little more in the short run, but I figure in the long run it costs far less.

[indigopete]

I sympathise with this politically, but the problem with these things is that it affects friendly people as well as just nasty warmongering politicians ;)

For example, there are some on here who live in Israel - I think Limor does.

Better see what she thinks about it before a whole country's economy is dessimated due to an Avalon-wide asparagus boycott :)

[sdv]

Israeli companies often peddle their ware at Malls here. I reject the rhetoric and aggressive actions of the Israeli state, but I have bought wares from these Israelis in our Malls because I saw the individual human being in front of me instead of the misguided and brutal regime. It is easy to reject and campaign against a brutal regime, but not so easy to reject a human being standing in front of you and seeing and feeling the humanity in them.

I suppose that makes me a very bad political activist (because I really do hold firmly to political reasons to boycott the Israeli state)!

[Violet]

I remember a while back a similar campaign and it divided people into two parties: those who firmly believe in a long term result, those who deplore the damage it does to the individual within the country (and they don't join obviously). With a two-partition like this, any big achievements are somewhat delayed.

Then again you will often find these divisions when after so much talking, it's time to take action.

I guess it's a personal choice. I also avoid corporate and companies that have dubious practices. Not any country in particular.
I do like the idea of supporting countries by buying more from them. I wish I could've done more for Greece, a while ago.

[Bubu]

Why not boycott the money instead:)

[avid]

I don't buy any 'Jaffa' fruit, as they steal Palestinian water, and Palestinian lands. There are many Israeli companies on the 'high street' I will not buy from, and this Jewish lady has campaigned for years - RIP
http://jews4big.wordpress.com/

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods pays tribute to Veronica Planton, a dedicated campaigner for justice, who died of cancer at Guys Hospital in London on November 19, 2013.

Veronica was a constant presence at demonstrations in London highlighting Israel’s injustices against Palestinians. She played an active role in many of the boycott actions covered in this blog and initiated an inspirational campaign to send teddy bears to the children of Gaza.

She also made use of her background in theatre and the arts in productions bringing to life the Palestinian experience. One of these, Love Letters to Gaza, was staged at the Calder Bookshop in October 2011 and formed part of an evening of poetry and theatre promoted by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

Veronica refused to allow ill-health to prevent her tireless work on behalf of her local community in the Waterloo district of London, the people of Palestine and the campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

When it became too difficult for her to play an active role in street demonstrations on behalf of Palestinian prisoners or other causes, she continued to send the 700 supporters of her local Wandsworth and Lambeth PSC branch frequent emails containing carefully researched digests of news from and about Palestine.

Tributes read to friends, relations and fellow activists who gathered for her funeral at the City Crematorium on December 3 testified to the range of communities in which Veronica had made her mark.

Messages came from companions who had worked with her at the Sheffield Crucible Theatre in the 1960s, from members of the Coin Street community where she lived, from Palestine solidarity activists in London and in Palestine itself, and from the Moslem organisation Inminds which announced her death to the activist community.

Veronica Planton

Born 1939, died 19 November 2013
http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-israel-2012.php the companies that support apartheid in Israel, high street names - don't need it - don't buy it!

[mosquito]

I've been boycotting U.S. products since November 2000, when Bush basically declared war on humanity.

The only problem is of course that it's virtually impossible to implement a total boycott. I'd dearly love to live a life free from computers, but until such time that I can make it a reality, I'm stuck with being forced into owning U.S. software.

I've been boycotting Israeli goods for even longer.

And before anyone takes offence - boycotting a corrupt or cancerous regime isn't just a political stance, it's also about helping the good people of those countries free themselves of their illegal governments.

And there is only so far we can go, isn't there ? If truth be told, we could justifiably boycott every nation on Earth !

[Vitalux]

I'm contemplating boycotting buying the following countries products due to the following grievances.:mmph:

All products from Canada, because we are enslaved by a Monarch as her subjects and no longer have full human rights.
All Products by the USA due to my opposition to Imperialism.
All products from Africa due to apartheid
All products from the Middle East due to their cast system.
All products from South America due to environmental devastation caused from industry and agriculture to the forest.
All British Commonwealth countries and colonies due to Imperialism
Asia, due to the way they over fish the oceans of the World
Japan, for their cruelty to dolphins
Russia, due to it's past history of communism.
China, just because of child labor laws, they damage other countries economies by too much cheep imported products by China.

However, I heard there is a great sale on over at my local Walmart that has toilet paper on for 1/2 price, so I am going to go buy some :cool:


My point here is that often our actions don't match our words.
In most situations, simple economics drives our moral machine. :ohwell:

[Shamz]

Thank you Vitalux for making Vital point... we live in a world - where we cannot survive if we boycott one product because it is produced in one country which has some bad history... or produced by some company which has some history...

This is a global economy -- we really cannot escape any one specific company or country...

You can choose to boycott a product from some country/company...but there will always be something that you will still be using which you are not aware of.... from the same country/company -- that is the nature of global economy

In America - I'd say 90% of the products are produced/manufactured in China or Asian countries... so what can you do ? Middle class to low income people - have to buy such products - or not buy... no choice --- but not all can afford to live without some basic stuff... so no matter what your belief is... you have to make some sacrifice one way or the other...

my couple of cents...you can add yours to make it a buck

Much Love

[loungelizard]

In in 80s I was living in an affluent part of London, and was buying some fruit in a local greengrocers. I asked the owner whether the oranges I wanted were from South Africa (there was a big movement in the UK to boycott goods from there as a protest agains the apartheid regime). A very posh lady behind me in the queue leaned forward and said,

"Oh my goodness, we all need to know that - I couldn't eat them either if they've been touched by black hands" :jaw:


When I read the title of this thread, my first thought was, "Why identify Israel in particular?" There are, unfortunately, many many countries in the world with appalling human rights records...

[GreenGuy]

Just as it isn't possible to avoid American software, Chinese everything, any product touched by imperialism or child labor or cruelty of one sort or another, it also isn't possible to change the economic structure of the world with our little wallets. But that's not the point. Mindfulness is. Mindfulness leads to empathy and kindness (or is it the other way around?), and this is a quiet wave that can sweep across class boundaries, language barriers and even religious intolerance. My quiet little gesture will never change the world as far as I can see, but I still know that the ocean is full of individual drops.

[Tangri]

I never really thought that I would have the opportunity to do this, since Israeli products are not that common. However, I recently turned down the purchase of an item from the hardware store that I noticed was made in Israel. The collective economic effect of this action may be significant in the long run, and the spirit of the BDS movement is gaining traction, forcing Israel into conniptions which only serve to highlight the injustices Israel commits towards the Palestinians.

Pro-Israel folks get hysterical at the BDS movement. I say to them, stop your forced boycott of Palestine, and then I will think about stopping my personal boycott of Israeli products. Gain some sympathy for the victims of apartheid, and I may gain some sympathy for the shareholders of a plastics factory in Israel. Israel may not be the only country on earth committing moral crimes, but it does commit state orchestrated apartheid, and is engaged in active colonialism of the worst kind. If you want to add another country to your boycott list, please do so, Israel is not the only country on mine – but for now it is the only case where the movement appears to be having an effect. Hopefully the movement grows to a similar scale as that which was against South Africa. So far it is making great progress, even without government support.

I hope you are not a believer Jews ,Hibrus, zionist are the same.

[Agape]

I'd care to boycott weapons in your place . No matter by whom are they made . Fruits, foods, medicines, cloths .. are usually product of human labour chain, anywhere.
Someone had to pick them up with love, pack them for you . By boycotting this type of economics, and chain of ordinary hard working people it's only the same people harmed in result .

:censored:

[GreenGuy]

I hope you are not a believer Jews ,Hibrus, zionist are the same.

Not all Jews are Zionists, and not all Zionists are Jews. And hardly any modern Jews are ethnic Hebrews.

[Tesseract]

BDS is a sensitive topic - it's greatest power is to shine the light of shame. Removing some money from the system also helps, and it will not leave Israeli citizens starving on the streets. Many non-zionist Israelis support BDS even though they may be affected by it. On the other hand, you do have malnourishment and abnormally high levels of stunted growth in Gaza due to the embargo.

It is so easy to find reasons not to do something - in the case of BDS some of those reasons, facile in my opinion, have been listed in this thread. The problem is, no matter what action you take someone will find a reason why you shouldn't do it. At least BDS is a non-violent course. Instead of finding all the reasons not to do something pro-active, how about we find reasons to do something pro-active. God knows there are plenty of those in the case of Palestine.

On the topic of weapons; arms companies are the most urgent target. Here is an anecdote for you. I happen to be something of an expert in certain areas of the physical sciences. As such, I am asked to review articles for some of the world's leading science journals several times a month. On a number of occasions I have received research manuscripts from weapons manufacturers that they were trying to get published. Let's just say I rejected those suckers faster than an Israeli bureaucrat rejects a Palestinian building permit :).

[Agape]

On the topic of weapons; arms companies are the most urgent target. Here is an anecdote for you. I happen to be something of an expert in certain areas of the physical sciences. As such, I am asked to review articles for some of the world's leading science journals several times a month. On a number of occasions I have received research manuscripts from weapons manufacturers that they were trying to get published. Let's just say I rejected those suckers faster than an Israeli bureaucrat rejects a Palestinian building permit :).

Suckers . How they dare . Wish everyone would do the same , it's not sounding even anecdotal to me .

Thanks :pray:

[GNC Harteveld]

Years ago Shell wanted to sink the Brent Spar into the Atlantic Ocean.
Greenpeace came into action and because of their publicity my younger sister demanded that i no longer buy at Shell but instead buy at BP.
We all know what happened.