Introduction

by Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory

This text arrives at a crucial moment, when understanding reality and knowing how to act is a priority for us all. Boycott Israel not only provides a lucid reading of reality, but also offers a concrete tool for those who want to understand how to act consciously and responsibly, obviating the sense of impotence (and consequent guilt) that grips anyone who ardently wants the massacre in Gaza and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine to end, but does not know how or what to do. Critical consumption and boycotting represent concrete and effective means to orient companies towards more ethical behavior, acting directly on the economic and financial networks that support the illegal occupation, apartheid, and now the genocide perpetrated by Israel. In this context, the BDS movement, the most important and transnational movement of civil society, conceived and guided by Palestinian individuals and organizations and rooted in a century of popular resistance, already enjoys broad support. Now is precisely the moment to uphold and strengthen it. May it become the philosophy and practice of us all: an ethical expression of active citizenship. And when governments or institutions seem to be hedging and wallowing in inaction, fomenting the most absolute impunity, it is precisely the people who must act. The movement does not ask for words, but concrete actions, and for this, it must be protected and defended as an authentic exercise of freedom.

At the beginning of my mandate as UN Special Rapporteur, which began in 2022 with the aim of documenting the violations of international law committed by Israel (as the occupying power) in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, I did not have full knowledge or direct experience of the BDS movement in all its articulations and complexities, and I never saw myself actively involved in its activities. I instinctively grasped its legitimacy, but I related to it with reticence, perhaps conditioned by the criticisms and accusations to which the BDS was exposed to everywhere. Of course, as I would later understand myself while suffering years of unfounded accusations and a real media stalking by the pro-apartheid lobby, disinformation tarnishes the truth. This explains my initial caution in relating to BDS in the early days of my mandate. Among the reasons why I initially had difficulty embracing all the points of action of the BDS movement was, in particular, the academic boycott. Only in 2023 did I realize that my caution did not have a real foundation but arose from my ignorance. Reading the text by Israeli scholar Maya Wind, “Towers of Ivory and Steel”, opened my eyes to the profound complicity of Israeli universities and the role they play within the discriminatory structure of Israel directed against the Palestinians. As I wrote my report, “From the Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide”, I came to understand that these centers of growth and intellectual power not only supported the political ideology at the base of the colonization of the Palestinian Territory occupied by Israel since 1967, but have also contributed to the development of armaments and often ignored, or even endorsed, the systemic violence perpetrated by the Israeli army. Meanwhile, global research collaborations, which have supported and facilitated the exploitation of Palestinian resources (think of water, coming from the aquifers of the West Bank), have also obscured and normalized the annihilation of the Palestinian people, concealing it behind a veil of apparent academic neutrality.

For this reason, a significant part of my mandate has increasingly focused on the delicate work of the BDS, to which my latest report owes much, including for the deepening understanding of academic complicities.

Although there is a clear historical reference to the campaign of boycott and sanctions developed in the past against apartheid in South Africa, in the Palestinian context, the BDS is more articulated and sophisticated: it does not encourage, and in fact dissuades from, actions that target Israelis “per se”, but focuses its objectives against the structures of power and the forms of institutional complicity. This selective approach is fundamental to understanding its legitimacy and effectiveness.

In my role as Special Rapporteur, I have always recommended that States adopt sanctions, since Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity since 1948: it creates illegal settlements, demolishes homes, segregates an entire population, and carries out arrests and arbitrary detentions, including against hundreds of children every year. Just think of the forced displacement of entire villages, the construction of settlements in the occupied territories, and the systematic deprivation of Palestinians of access to essential services and natural resources. All this has created a structure of permanent violence that, if witnessed by Raphael Lemkin, would have been identified by him as a precursor of genocide.

Faced with the culpable and often complicit inaction of States and governments, we can no longer stand by.  All citizens with a shred of humanity must mobilize where states do not act, exercising pressure through conscious consumption, disinvestment, and support for initiatives that promote human rights. At the same time, companies that persist in practices that violate the rights of Palestinians must clearly be sanctioned so that they withdraw their investments and are called to answer for the consequences of their actions, if not through litigation, through the choice of consumers and customers. Only through a common and constant ethical commitment can we break the chain of economic complicity and build responsibility at a global level.

This book is, therefore, a necessary tool and should be disseminated among cities, towns, churches, and schools, anywhere in the world where the engines of genocide are churnimg, and in every place where public debate can be created. Across the western world the space for discussion is often held hostage by disinformation, if not misinformation. This text offers a concrete way to transform the sense of impotence into action, showing how conscious and organized citizens can really affect the course of history and rewrite it -- today for Palestine as yesterday for South Africa. My hope is that this book can be read by everyone and that its fruits can soon be harvested. If it happens, we will all find ourselves in a more equitable, just and freer world.