The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel was launched in Ramallah in April 2004 by a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals to join the growing international boycott movement.
On July 9 2005 Palestinian civil society issued a call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law.
The decision comes after examination by the Churchís Ethical Investment Advisory Group of whether the shares held in Caterpillar were consistent with the Churchís ethical investment policy, which prohibits investment in arms companies or companies making weapons platforms such as naval vessels or tanks.
This London-based dance magazine, with a circulation of 17,500, joins the cultural boycott. “We are opposed to the occupation,” says advertising director Naresh Kaul. Dance Europe screens its ads: “If any company in Israel cooperates with us by adding a disclaimer saying it is opposed to the occupation, settlements and everything else, we will cooperate with them.” The magazine prints Israeli ads if the advertiser includes a statement saying the firm disapproves of the occupation.
Britain’s largest faculty association voted to urge its 67,000 members to consider the appropriateness of a boycott of Israeli faculty who fail to ’publicly dissociate themselves’ from Israel’s apartheid policies, including construction of the exclusion wall and discriminatory educational practices. They asked British college teachers to consider their own responsibility for ensuring equity and nondiscrimination in contacts with Israeli educational institutions or individuals.
U2U does not wish to tie itself with Israeli products, the firm’s manager told his Israeli suitor, citing "the devastating and inhumane war crimes Israel perpetrated in Lebanon" and "the apartheid regime" it inflicts on Palestine. The Israeli hi-tech representative said he countered that "Israel is a technological hub and that many of the Microsoft products which [you use] are developed here in Haifa."
Tram drivers refused to allow the Dublin tram system (“Luas”) to be used to train Israeli drivers and engineers for a new light-rail system in East Jerusalem that will serve illegal settlements. In response, the local Irish authority cancelled its training plan with Connex, the French firm that will operate the Israeli system (and that also operates Dublin trams). “When you do business with Israel, you invariably do business with the Occupation,” said a representative of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Committee, congratulating the tram drivers on their stand. “We must cut ties with Israel in order to force it to end its Occupation.”
Ken Loach: "I support the call by Palestinian filmmakers, artists and others to boycott state-sponsored Israeli cultural institutions and urge others to do join their campaign. Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after 40 years of the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and murder of their civilians. They have no immediate hope that this oppression will end."
The annual conference, meeting in Geneva, called on the UN and its member states "To encourage and impose sanctions, in the form of ending the murderous arms trade with Israel, and to end sanctions that have been imposed against the elected Palestinian Authority and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people." The group decided to expand its global campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions, adopted in 2005, and to mark the 40th anniversary of the Occupation with a global Day of Action on June 9, 2007, under the slogan "The World Says No to Israeli Occupation." The Conference’s follow-up work is carried out by ICNP, the International Coordinating Committee on Palestine.
In a pioneering move, the South African trade union congress representing 1.8 million workers passed a resolution endorsing BDS
