Boycott the boycotts!

Since October 7, I have had roughly 170 “discussions” with my wife, beginning the Hamas attacks on Israel. The attack itself, the hideous response in Gaza and the vast scale of suffering for ordinary Palestinian people above all others have provided plenty of issues to argue about. I like to read mainstream, well-resourced news sources then investigate contentious facts and make a balance of probability assessment. She prefers activist Instagram accounts and people on the ground with broad individual followings. There are truths, absent truths and outright lies in all of them.

Leaving the conflict itself aside, there is one angle taken by activist and unofficial social media accounts, that reaches directly to all communities. The “boycott”. We have all seen posts, often from people we love and respect, and received WhatsApp forwards from supposedly authoritative sources that are unknown to us. Boycott this company or that. They are “supporting Israeli oppression”, or worse. Many of these companies are well-known international brands that we see every day.

The sense that we have limited power to end the suffering, and our desire to act in our own small way, make us vulnerable to malicious misinformation. Other than giving to respected charities like UNRWA, ICRC etc., we can’t do much directly. Most of all, there is no clear outlet for protest – there is no Israeli government representation here. So, the idea of taking a direct economic step to express our anger is appealing.

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is an organisation founded by two Palestinians that aims to define the conflict in the same terms as apartheid-era South Africa. The BDS movement calls for using those same three tools to isolate Israel culturally and economically, and put pressure on its leaders towards peace and justice. I have followed BDS for quite a while, and if you’re interested, they have a website - bdsmovement.net - and various social media outlets.

Unfortunately, social media and our endless WhatsApp groups are full of wrong information about legitimate targets for boycotts. Some of those posts are well-meaning and just wrongly informed. Others are promoted for ugly reasons. The person who sends them to you might mean well, but a lie is a lie. Back in 2005 after offensive cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper, someone added a dairy products manufacturer from New Zealand to a list of companies that should be boycotted. When I confronted someone who shared that list, they simply said “well there must be a reason”. I find that attitude deeply immoral.

If you visit the BDS page, you will find a fairly short list of priority targets. Whether you use those products and/or would stop using them is your business. But what is important is to check the facts. Legitimate businesses that have nothing really to do with Israel have been targeted by social media for spurious reasons, but the BDS site makes clear that they are not considered targets.

One example is McDonald’s – a publicly traded company that has international franchises. The Omani franchise pays them a fee and agrees to uphold their brand standards. The Israeli franchise does the same. But neither are owned by McDonald’s, or by each other. There is no connection beyond the badge. On the contrary, McDonald’s in Oman is a 100 per cent Omani company, employing many Omanis and contributing to the local economy. Boycotting Omani businesses is not an act of solidarity, let alone a sanction.

The other famous example is Starbucks – another public company. Yes, its founder was famously supportive of Israel but he does not control the company or own any significant share. Starbucks doesn’t even have an Israeli franchise. Again, no need to boycott and put Omani jobs and Omani suppliers at risk.

One way or another we are all invested in publicly traded companies around the world – pension and investment funds tend to hold shares in a wide spread of them. Unless they’re Israeli owned or playing a particular direct economic role, they make no sense as boycott targets. It is easy to find better choices if you simply check with the BDS campaign. BDS is an important political and economic tool, but it only works when it is targeted in a coherent and logical way. If you are not checking the facts and instead boycotting businesses, you are pulling on the wrong end of the rope. Being seen to do something and lash out at a soft target seems to make some people feel better and we all have our own strong feelings about what is happening, but spreading false accusations and hurting our own economy doesn’t help.