BOYCOTT TARGETS IN AUSTRALIA
The following companies are the most important targets for us to boycott in Australia.
CHEVRON/ CALTEX
Chevron is a major energy company that owns Caltex petrol stations, a major fuel chain in Australia.
Chevron extracts gas used by Israel to fuel its genocide and occupation. Chevron exacerbates the climate crisis and is complicit in depriving the Palestinian people of their natural resources.
INTEL
Intel manufactures computer components for business and consumer markets. For decades, Intel has been the largest international investor in apartheid Israel. Its factory is built in an Israeli settlement on illegally occupied land. Intel remains deeply complicit in feeding Israel’s genocidal war machine.
DELL
Dell Technologies supplies equipment and services to the Israeli military. Dell has research and development centres in the illegal settlements. In November 2023, founder and CEO Michael Dell donated $350million to Israel.
SIEMENS
Siemens is a well known technological brand, selling products for both home and industrial use. Siemens is the main contractor for the Euro-Asia Interconnector, a submarine electricity cable that will connect Israel’s illegal settlements to Europe.
HEWLETT PACKARD (HP)
Hewlett Packard (HP) holds partnerships with the Israeli government, military, prisons and police. HP provides critical technological and logistical support that facilitates the genocide and occupation, including illegal settlement construction. In Australia, HP commonly sells computer products for both personal and professional use.
AXA
AXA is one of the world’s largest insurance companies. AXA holds US$150.43 million of investment in eleven companies that are providing arms to Israel. AXA operates and owns a number of insurance companies globally. In Australia, AXA operates Brooklyn, and Catlin Australia PTY LTD.
DISNEY+
Disney and its subsidiary Marvel are complicit in glorifying Israel’s regime of genocide and apartheid. Marvel has used leading actors that are known as cultural ambassadors for Israel and directly participates in propaganda efforts. Marvel and Disney have also used dehumanising and racist tropes in their storylines.
SODASTREAM
SodaStream is an Israeli company that is complicit in Israel’s displacement of Bedouin-Palestinian citizens and has a long history of racial discrimination against Palestinian workers. SodaStream produces a brand of home beverage carbonation systems widely available at most major homewares retailers.
RE/MAX
RE/MAX is a US real estate company that sells property in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, thus enabling Israel’s colonisation of the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. RE/MAX Australia is a franchise of the global RE/MAX brand with 87 offices across Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.
ISRAELI PRODUCE & PRODUCTS
Beyond being part of a trade that fuels Israel’s apartheid economy, Israeli fruits, vegetables, and wines misleadingly labeled as “Product of Israel” often include products of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land, and most Israeli companies exporting these products are complicit in the illegal occupation and apartheid regime. Make sure to read the labels on any purchases you make.
Read the BDS Target Criteria to learn how boycott targets are chosen
MORE INFORMATION
What is a boycott campaign?
Boycott campaigns are a critical element of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle, and a significant step towards tackling corporate complicity with Israel’s genocidal regime.
Participating in boycott campaigns involves withdrawing support from Israel’s apartheid regime, complicit Israeli cultural, academic, and sporting institutions, and all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights.
Why should I boycott?
Boycott campaigns leverage collective purchasing power to apply direct financial and public pressure on a target. Engaging in boycott campaigns is a powerful form of protest that aims to impose economic loss on identified targets through collective action.
In the face of the Israeli regimes ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, many of us are seeking ways to take action that enables us to channel our outrage, despair and fear, and to do anything and everything we can to stop Israel’s genocide.
Boycott campaigns provide a tangible way for individuals to act on their values and create real change through collective mobilisation and action. To do this, it is critical that we undertake targeted boycotts and harness the full potential of our collective power.
How do I get involved in a boycott campaign?
Many individuals are eager to participate in boycott campaigns in Australia but may find it difficult to know where to start. In order to avoid accountability, the global corporate system has been constructed to be intentionally confusing, and there are thousands of potential complicit targets that could be chosen to boycott.
We encourage you to focus on a small number of companies identified as being most complicit by the BDS National Committee. These are companies playing a clear and direct role in Israel’s genocide, illegal occupation and apartheid regime.
You can make a personal commitment to avoid buying these products, and use any extra resources and capacity you may have in encouraging those around you to do the same.
Once you are confident and practiced in avoiding these companies, you can then look toward additional targeted boycotts by using the Boycat app when shopping.
Through widespread collective action, mass financial and public pressure, and strategic targeting, we can force companies to end their complicity.
BDS PRINCIPLES AND HOW WE CHOOSE BOYCOTT TARGETS
Principles
The BDS movement focuses on the following principles:
- Gradualness: respecting incremental steps that build power to achieve the ultimate goal
- Sustainability: using victories as stepping stones toward greater goals and focusing on campaign longevity.
- Context-sensitivity: adapting tactics to suit your own political-cultural context
Targets
The BDS movement uses the following criteria to select targets:
- Level of complicity in Israel’s occupation and genocide, using reliable and factual data
- Intersectionality and the broad appeal of a target to a wider cohort of people
- Brand recognition and media appeal to help introduce new audiences to BDS
- Potential for success
GRASSROOTS BOYCOTT CAMPAIGNS
Boycott Caltex
Chevron, owner of Caltex, reaps massive profits from mining and supplying gas to Israel’s apartheid regime.
The grassroots Boycott Caltex campaign has action groups right across the continent in Australia, who undertake regular days of action against Caltex.
Head to their campaign page to find your nearest group or learn how to get involved.
Apartheid Free Zones
The Apartheid Free Zones (AFZ) campaign is a part of the BDS movement. The AFZ campaign aims to create spaces (businesses, organisations, council’s, etc.) that are free of Israel’s genocide, apartheid and settler colonialism, and which bring together multiple struggles for justice and equality.
Read the Apartheid Free Zones toolkit and organising guide to learn more about AFZs, how to become an AFZ and what that entails.
Boycott Israeli Dates
When we eat dates over Ramadan, we should ensure they are not produced through the dispossession and exploitation of Palestinians.
Many Medjoul dates that are labelled as “Product of Israel” or “Product of Palestine” are actually grown in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Buying these dates both finances and normalises Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.