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According to The Marker, an Israeli Hebrew-language business publication, 21% of Israeli exporting businesses have been directly affected by an international boycott targeting Israel.
[Every nation is assigned a three digit bar code; always the first three. Israel's is 729. Look for it and boycott.]
The BDS movement [boycott, divestment, and sanctions] has long been gathering momentum as Israel's illegal occupation and colonization of the West Bank and Gaza enters its 42 years. The movement has received more urgency after Israel's indiscriminate assault against the blockaded Palestinians of Gaza. An attack and invasion that killed over 1,400 Palestinians; over 900 of them civilians and over 400 children. In recent weeks, Israeli soldiers have come forward with accounts of war crimes. One included the shooting via a sniper of a mother and child because they had turned left rather than right.
A boycott movement has yet to have much headway in the United States, but in Europe in enjoys wide-support. Activism is not confined to NGOs. The British government, the most pro-Israeli government in Europe, recently put forward a measure that would label all Israeli goods produced in the occupied West Bank as "Made in the West Bank." It is meant to raise awareness that illegal Israeli settlers are not only living on Palestinian land but also profiting at the Palestinians' expense. Europeans customers would be less likely to buy something labeled "Made in the West Bank." Israel knows this that is why the former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made a personal visit to her British counterpart David Miliband to lobby against the pan-European measure to no avail. Once enacted the measure will no doubt eat into the profits of illegal Israeli settlements farms for whom their main export market is Europe.
Beyond Israeli settlement farms, Europe is Israel's largest outside market. And Israeli companies are heavily depended on exports due to the small domestic consumer base.
That is why a boycott movement would impose a strong cost on the Israeli economy; even more so during a recession.
The Marker's reporting is based on a survey conducted by the Israeli Union of Industrialists, which polled 90 Israeli exporters from those in high tech, to construction material, chemicals, textiles, foods, and metals. As is clear, the boycott is having an affect across the economy.
Depending on the industry, this effect can be quite visible. A high-tech firm manufacturing say, chips, suffering from reduced demand can simply cut production. Inventory does not pile up. But farms can not simply shut down the production of planted produce and cannot avoid picking the produce. Thus an Israeli farmer who is at the butt of a boycott has inventory buildup. Ynet, an Israeli news firm, reported shortly after major scale operations in Gaza were suspended that Israeli farms have had to rent large freezers to store their produce after European buyers suspended contracts.
Israelis and their Zionists apologists will cry that anti-Semitism is beyond the boycott. But that is a tired and exhausted accusation that is casually tossed out against any critic of Israel. The boycott movement exists because the occupation exists. As long as Israel continues to occupy Palestine, it will find itself increasingly isolated. Are a few hilltops in the West Bank worth the costs of being an international pariah and a militarized ghetto? Israelis should ask themselves.
If you want to be a conscionable consumer and boycott Israeli occupation and apartheid, these websites will give you all the know how:
Boycott Israel Now
Boycott Israel Campaign
The Big Campaign
