The Power of BDS: Our Impact So Far In 2026 ... DIVESTING from Genocide

BDS movement

 

@BDSmovement

 

To mark 21 years of the BDS movement here is just a sampling of the remarkable BDS impacts achieved in the first half of 2026 — proof that organizing strategically and acting collectively can bring us closer to ending Israel's genocide and dismantling its regime of settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians. Find even more impacts here: https://loom.ly/Uby_XbY

 

 https://x.com/BDSmovement/status/2075251263524978801

 https://bdsmovement.net/news/The-Power-Of-BDS-Our-Impact-So-Far-In-2026

 The Power of BDS: Our Impact So Far In 2026

Despite the continuing unspeakable grief over the ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, the seeds of our collective struggle are bearing fruit. The Palestinian people's miraculous sumud and popular resistance, combined with your sustained solidarity, has pushed Israel's settler-colonial apartheid regime into the deepest isolation of its 78-year history. 

We are witnessing tangible proof that BDS is working—our movement, active in some 130 countries, is effectively changing policies, making complicit corporations pay a dear price, and building the international pressure that will ultimately bring justice.

The recent wave of sanctions, divestments, and boycott impacts demonstrates what happens when people of conscience refuse to be complicit in genocide. From Spain and Belgium to Indonesia and California, from academic halls to cultural institutions, from trade unions to city councils and beyond — we can see the concrete results of our pressure. 

Below is just a sampling of the remarkable BDS impacts achieved in the first half of 2026 — proof that organizing strategically and acting collectively can bring us closer to ending Israel's genocide and dismantling its regime of settler-colonial apartheid.... READ MORE   https://bdsmovement.net/news/The-Power-Of-BDS-Our-Impact-So-Far-In-2026

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Jewish Voice for Peace: We can demand that our community institutions stop investing in genocide and Israeli apartheid by stopping buying Israel Bonds. And by doing so, we withdraw key support for violence against Palestinians.

 Jewish Voice for Peace

@jvplive

Israel bonds divestment is a key tool to stop the Israeli government’s crimes and defend Palestinian rights. Running a permanent military occupation and apartheid, while enacting a genocide, is both morally depraved and also costly for the Israeli government. And now, the Israeli economy has increasingly risky levels of debt.

 

The Israeli government sells Israel bonds to borrow billions of dollars all at once, which funds its violence against Palestinians—everything from bombing campaigns of Palestinians in Gaza to the accelerated ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and expanding illegal settlements on Palestinian land.

The problem with borrowing more and more money is that the Israeli government’s interest payments add up. Its debt is troublingly large given the size of its economy and Israel bonds are one of the reasons why. This means the Israeli economy is highly vulnerable to Israel bonds divestment.

That’s why we organize at the grassroots level to get our local and state governments and pension funds to divest from Israel bonds. The more success we have, the more we can destabilize the Israeli economy.

As the Israeli economy is destabilized, people in Israel will feel the impact and hold their own government accountable and be forced to reckon with the truth that a stable economy is only possible once the Israeli government respects Palestinian rights and follows international law.

There’s organizing to be done! US state governments, municipalities, pension funds, trade unions, universities and other institutions all buy Israel bonds (often for hundreds-of-millions of dollars) and then receive interest payments from the Israeli government. This not only implicates US communities in Israeli genocide, it’s also bad business. There are other ways to get better-performing, stable interest payments that don’t involve giving a blank check to a government committing crimes against humanity.

https://x.com/jvplive/status/2025959368257057183 

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We can demand that our community institutions stop investing in genocide and Israeli apartheid by stopping buying Israel Bonds. And by doing so, we withdraw key support for violence against Palestinians.

Communities everywhere should be able to live in safety and dignity, without fear that they will be hurt or discriminated against simply because of who they are.

But the Israeli military and government are upholding a brutal system of total domination over Palestinians — a separate-and-unequal, apartheid system and a violent occupation of stolen Palestinian land. Now, the Israeli military is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

And our communities are directly enabling it.

While many know that the U.S. Congress sends billions of dollars each year to support the Israeli military’s violence against Palestinians, few know that billions of dollars in funding to the Israeli military and government comes from institutions and spaces much closer to home.

That’s right: Our local governments, state governments, unions, pension funds, universities, places of worship, and other institutions are directly supporting the Israeli military and government by investing billions in Israel Bonds.

Together, we can stop this.

Here’s a start: Divest from your Israel Bonds, and tell the Israeli government, "Not in my name! Not with my money!" Then, invest in Palestinian Freedom.

We all have a role to play in stopping the Israeli military’s genocide in Gaza. Together, we can hold the Israeli government accountable for treating Palestinians inhumanely.

Together, we can make our voices heard.

     https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/resource/break-the-bonds-divest/

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Jewish Voice for Peace: Mazel tov to the Presbyterian Church (USA) on their historic vote to divest from Israel's occupation, one year ago! !!!!!!!!!

Jewish Voice for Peace

@jvplive

Mazel tov to the

@Presbyterian

Church (USA) on their historic vote to divest from Israel's occupation, one year ago!

 

Pennsylvania troopers handcuff protesters calling for end to state investments in Israel

The sign says DIVEST FROM GENOCIDE-INVEST IN PA

Dozens of protesters, calling on the state to divest itself of Israel, entered the Pennsylvania Capitol on Monday.

The protesters, many of whom wore masks and black T-shirts emblazoned with the words "Divest From Genocide," started their protest outside. But sometime after noon, they entered the main rotunda, temporarily blocking the main stairs and some access points.

When members of the crowd were told they needed to leave immediately and that the protest was now an unlawful assembly, they cheered.

Eventually, Pennsylvania state troopers removed those gathered, handcuffing them with zip ties as others chanted, "Free, free, free Palestine."

Before entering the Capitol, organizers called on the Pennsylvania Treasurer to stop investing money in Israel.

In October, Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity announced that her department would be investing $20 million in Israeli bonds---for a total of $56.4 million in Israeli investment. An additional $8 million is invested in securities with companies based in Israel.... READ MORE  https://www.wgal.com/article/protesters-enter-pennsylvania-capitol/46650909

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CNN: Presbyterian Church dumps companies it says help Israel suppress Palestinians

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• In a 310-303 vote, the church decides to pull $21 million in investments
• It is backing out of Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Motorola Solutions
• It says Israel uses the corporations' products to suppress the Palestinians
• The church is keeping all other investments in Israel and investing in Palestinian Territories, too

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http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/21/us/presbyterian-church-palestinians/

A Palestinian man from the Beshr family sits on the debris of his house after it was demolished by Israeli authorities who said it was built without municipal permission on February 5, 2014 in the Arab east Jerusalem neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber.

By Ben Brumfield, CNN

updated 4:44 AM EDT, Sat June 21, 2014

 

Many American Protestants have a reputation for supporting Israel without demur. But a major denomination broke with that convention to jump to the aid of the Palestinian people.

 

In a cliffhanger vote Friday, the general assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) decided to dump its investments in three corporations it says deliver products to Israel that help the Jewish state suppress its neighbors.

The decision puts the Palestinians and Israelis on equal footing before God, it said.

 

"We see both as children of God," said Heath K. Rada, who moderated this year's general assembly, the church's biannual leadership meeting.

 

 A day earlier, the church's leadership voted to allow pastors to marry same-sex couples in states where that's legal and to change the definition of marriage in the church constitution from a union between a "man and a woman" to "two persons."

 

Not weapons makers

After Friday's vote of 310 to 303, the Presbyterian Church will pull about $21 million out of Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Motorola Solutions.

Why these companies, which are not exactly arms dealers?

"Caterpillar provides bulldozers that destroy Palestinian homes," said spokeswoman Kathy Francis. HP provides Israel with logistics and technology used in the naval blockade of Gaza.

"Motorola Solutions provides military communications and surveillance systems in illegal Israeli settlements," she said.

But the church still supports Israel and is not about to join the BDS movement -- which calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions to punish the Jewish state over the Palestinian issue.

"We have significant investments in Israel," Francis said. And the church is keeping them.

The decision was not about politics, but about morals, she said. The church wanted to no longer profit from investing in the destruction of people's homes and lives.

Instead, it's shifting some of its investing wherewithal into economic development programs in the Palestinian Territories.

Following the Catholic lead?

The denomination's stance on the tensions between Israelis and Palestinians could be seen as similar to that Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, demonstrated when he visited the Middle East in June...READ MORE

Francis, center, leads an open-air Mass in Bethlehem on May 25.

Analysis: Presbyterian church shows Israel tough love

"Presbyterians can use this opportunity to straighten the White House's spine based on what the administration already knows: Israel is intentionally blocking progress in the peace talks while jeopardizing US strategic interests in the region, not to mention the fate of Palestinians and Israelis alike."

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-bahour/the-presbyterian-churchs-_b_5505929.html

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=704941

By Sam Bahour

 Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business consultant in Ramallah and blogs at epalestine.com.

The two million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) is about to make history in the Middle East, yet again.

In the coming days, local delegates from the Church will travel to Detroit to attend the 221st Presbyterian General Assembly to consider a set of eight overtures that ask church leaders to review support of two states for Palestine and Israel in light of unfolding facts on the ground.

Other issues to be considered are backing of equal rights and unblocked economic development for all inhabitants of Israel, and divesting from the likes of Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola Solutions. The church is clearly stepping up to the plate and realigning its policies with its values.

Political America and Corporate America should be taking note.

Reminiscent of the struggle against Apartheid South Africa, the church is poised to step in where successive US administrations have failed to hold Israel accountable to international and humanitarian law, not to mention sheer common sense.

The US has paid never-ending lip service to the need to end Israel's 47-year military occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. During the past two decades, the US has coupled lip service with the monopolizing of a peace process that has led the international community to a dead end; not to mention leaving Muslim and Christian Palestinians on the ground, in the occupied territory as well as in Israel, standing naked in front of a state bent on militarily controlling another people and discriminating against over 20 percent of their own non-Jewish population.

Presbyterians have had enough and are taking the lead to change the equation and stop the damage being perpetrated by Israel.

Political America should not take lightly the new reality that mainstream churches and civil society have reached a point where they can no longer blindly repeat calls for a resolution based on "two states" when Israeli actions on the ground, by way of continued illegal settlement building and much more, have created a single state reality between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River.

Secretary of State Kerry alluded to exactly this at the outset of the last failed round of US-led negotiations when he testified to the House Foreign Affairs Committee in April 2013 and noted, "I believe the window for a two-state solution is shutting, I think we have some period of time -- a year to year-and-a-half to two years, or it's over."

The Presbyterian Church is crying out from the highest mountain it can that for a two-state solution not to be "over" immediate action must be taken. They are calling for the Church to review this core issue over the next two years.

Corporate America should also be closely following the Presbyterian General Assembly's proceedings.

In the 2012 Assembly, delegates addressed the issue of divesting from firms that benefit from or contribute to Israel's military occupation by attempting to pass a resolution calling for divestment from Israel. When the so-called pro-Israel lobby got word of this, they mobilized to introduce and pass a counter overture that promotes "positive investment" instead of divestment.

In a perfected Orwellian move, these lobbyists publicly promote investment in Palestine, while simultaneously turning a blind eye to the systematic Israeli polices strangling the Palestinian economy.

Investment in Palestine -- without divestment from the Israeli occupation -- only continues to underwrite the status quo of military occupation. For investment to be successful occupation must be dismantled and sovereign control of Palestine's economic resources passed to the Palestinians.

In this month's assembly, the divestment resolution will be brought to the floor once again for a vote. Now it comes at the heels of Secretary Kerry's failed blitz to resolve the conflict and a momentous trip by the Pope to Bethlehem where he prayed at the illegal Separation Wall. The US-based organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, recently noted that the Israel lobby's efforts have included offering Presbyterian leaders all-expense-paid trips to Israel.

Presbyterians can use this opportunity to straighten the White House's spine based on what the administration already knows: Israel is intentionally blocking progress in the peace talks while jeopardizing US strategic interests in the region, not to mention the fate of Palestinians and Israelis alike.

Palestinian civil society and Palestinians -- Christians and Muslims -- have urged everyone interested in seeing peace with justice to divest from the occupation and to invest only where the occupation does not benefit. We struggle to remain hopeful while a cement wall as high as 24 feet tall snakes through our homeland.

After all, we do not seek a beautified prison. We want the prison walls dividing Palestinians from Palestinians to come tumbling down, and that will not happen unless economic pressure is placed on Israel to end the occupation. Thus, the upcoming Assembly's overture that calls for divestment from firms benefiting from the occupation, while affirming "Occupation-free Investment in Palestine," is spot on.

Palestinians did not invent the non-violent tool of divestment. After unsuccessfully trying to secure their rights using a multitude of other means, Palestinians have focused their efforts on non-violent methods of resisting military occupation that have been used throughout history by others: boycott, divestment, sanction, international law, civil disobedience, diplomatic efforts, economic resistance, and the like. Supporting these tools is supporting non-violence; the alternative is to push Palestinians into using violent means of resistance. If nonviolence is deemed unacceptable then violence becomes that much more likely.

The upcoming Presbyterian votes provides an important opportunity to say yes to nonviolence as the means to overcoming Israeli occupation and discrimination.

Luxembourg pension fund boycots major Israeli banks

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http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=676526

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Luxembourg's general pension fund has decided to boycott five major Israeli banks and a number of major Israeli investment companies over their involvement in supporting construction in illegal settlements in the West Bank, according to the Hebrew-language news site Walla.

In a report published Tuesday, Walla news highlighted that names of the Israeli banks and companies appeared on a list banned by the Fond De Compensation last updated on Nov. 15, 2013. The list, titled on the FDC website as "Exclusion List," included 60 international banks and companies which FDC decided to boycott over human rights violations.

The Israeli banks and companies on the list are the Africa Israel Investment group identified by FDC as Real Estate, Management and Development group, Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Elbit Systems, aerospace and defense group, Finmeccaneca, also aerospace and defense group, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, Jerusalem Economy LTD, the Real Estate, Management and Development Group and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank LTD.

It was explained on the list that the Israeli banks and organizations appeared because they support and finance construction of "illegal Israeli settlements in Occupied Territories of the State of Palestine" and some provide security systems for the "illegal separation barrier on Occupied Territories of the State of Palestine."

The Walla report highlighted that the direct impact of this boycott could be zero, but it is still worrying because it is a chain in an ongoing divestment process.

2012 Presbyterian Church USA 220th General Assembly opts for ‘positive investment’ over divestment

 http://www.pcusa.org/news/2012/7/6/220th-general-assembly-opts-positive-investment-ov/

July 6, 2012

Pittsburgh

After two hours of debate and presentations Thursday night (July 5), the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) said no to divestment as part of its position on peace in the Middle East.

The path to the final vote came through the Assembly’s adoption of a minority report presented by members of the Committee on Middle East and Peacemaking Issues.

“The action today doesn’t subtract or diminish in any way PC(USA)’s involvement in the Middle East,” said GA Moderator Neal D. Presa at the press conference following the Assembly’s vote. Presa had closed the evening by commending commissioners for the level of civility in the very difficult debate.

Committee moderator, the Rev. Jack Baca, said that the resolution, which passed by a vote of 369-290-8, “recognized the tragedy of the situation in Israel and calls for engagement at all levels of society for a solution (to the Israel-Palestine conflict).”...READ MORE

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Divestment question before Presbyterians: Firms connected to West Bank dispute would not get funds

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http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/local/neighborhoods-city/divestment-question-before-presbyterians-643251/#ixzz1zgOsqgQw

By Benjamin Mueller / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

In a closely watched vote that followed a day of intense deliberations, the Committee on Middle East and Peacemaking Issues of the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly approved a resolution Tuesday morning to divest from companies whose products are used by Israel to enforce occupation of the West Bank. The vote was 36 in favor, 11 opposed, and one abstention.
The resolution recommends that the church divest from Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard after an eight-year corporate engagement process yielded no reforms.
The general church body will vote on the resolution this week.

According to Brian Ellison, chair of the Mission Responsibility Through Investment committee, Hewlett-Packard sells hardware used by Israel in its naval blockade of Gaza; Motorola Solutions supplies surveillance technology to Israeli settlements; and Caterpillar provides bulldozers that raze Palestinian homes.

Jim Dugan, a spokesman for Caterpillar, wrote in an email that Caterpillar does not sell machines directly to Israel, but rather through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales Program.

The vote came after a long day Monday during which committee members heard impassioned testimony from American Jews, Arab Christians and Presbyterians. Supporters of divestment said that Christian values compelled them not to invest in companies that profit from an unjust occupation....READ MORE

Waters performing "Comfortably Numb" during The Wall Live in Kansas City, 30 October 2010

Roger Waters,  founding member of the British rock band Pink Floyd: "The waters of this debate will inevitably be muddied, as they always are, by erroneous accusations of anti-Semitism leveled at those who favor selective divestment from companies complicit in Israel's long record of human rights violations. I urge the Presbyterians assembled in Pittsburgh not to be intimidated, but to stand confident with the support of people of conscience everywhere, including tens of thousands of Jewish Americans who support divestment as an ethical obligation to end complicity in the occupation. I urge Presbyterians to adopt their selective divestment motion to make the price of collusion in human rights violations higher, and to send a message of hope to the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation and apartheid."  Presbyterians should support Palestinian aspirations