In Turkey, a consumer boycott led by the opposition is being treated as a threat to national security. We've seen similar reactions in other undemocratic states.
The criminalisation of boycotts also shows fear on the part of autocrats. They know the power that galvanised people have. Countless regimes have been brought down by mere people.
Very persuasively argued, and glad you included tech boycotts as well!
One small addition on the UK bill - you write: "The UK followed suit. Under the Sunak government, a bill was introduced banning public bodies from engaging in any boycott or divestment campaign against foreign states. Read Israel."
The UK anti-boycott bill was even weirder than that. It was not just implicitly about Israel: The bill allowed government ministers to make exceptions allowing public bodies to divest from companies complicit in states human rights abuses. However, there was a special exception in the bill for Israel, and Israel only.
Boycotts generally seem to be an excellent strategy of making oneself heard (plus: they are throwing a convenient spanner in the works of your authoritarian opponent and most likely they make the general public stop and wonder).
It was illuminating to read your piece about global parallels to the ongoing democratic struggle against the authoritarian AKP, thanks!
With regards to the BDS-initiative: to me at least this particular boycott always just seemed to backfire on the Palestinian struggle for a two-state-solution (and I seriously still believe in a two-state-solution as the only way to solve the problem and bring about a peaceful cohabitation of the land - because it seems the only realistic way dealing with all the historic injustice accumulated in this case; I know how much the pogromes of my country of origin, Germany, and historically also all over Europe as as well as in Russia and no least the Balfour declaration have contributed to this...).
If there is no cultural exchange between Israel and the world anymore we just hit the wrong audience over the head (the liberal Israelis who are on our side - at least as I see it) as I wouldn't expect ultra-orthodox-settler types to go to many concerts of international bands (or enjoy the kinds of art, books etc. whose artists were mostly to suspend their work in or for an Israeli audience, or who called off their participation in concerts where Israeli artists and musicians participated).
Frankly:
I think this 'divide and conquer'- technique (we see fragmentation all over the map and it is the strategy of the right in this particular moment) does not work in the long run and it is easier to rally people around projects which emphasize the value of peace and mutual understanding (in everyday life - stories of school children meeting each other or people working together - sounds weak but it's actually powerful because it is the 'real'-est you can get as opposed to online propaganda - life is not black and white but grey, grey, grey) as some political projects do.
But of course the time and the circumstances we are in - right now - are simply a state of acute crisis and escalation...
Still: I remember thinking about cases like Ruanda (or Colombia or South Africa) where I immensely admired the painful but productive process of reconciliation...
Rabin tried to change things back in the 90ies. It seems to be impossible to get things moving into this direction again not least because the far-right has grown monstrously (and birth rates amongst Israeli right-wing milieus plus an influx of relatively conservative newcomers from Eastern Europe and the Ex- Soviet Union to Israel do not make a democratic solution to the problem any easier for left-wing Israelis).
The criminalisation of boycotts also shows fear on the part of autocrats. They know the power that galvanised people have. Countless regimes have been brought down by mere people.
Exactly!
Very persuasively argued, and glad you included tech boycotts as well!
One small addition on the UK bill - you write: "The UK followed suit. Under the Sunak government, a bill was introduced banning public bodies from engaging in any boycott or divestment campaign against foreign states. Read Israel."
The UK anti-boycott bill was even weirder than that. It was not just implicitly about Israel: The bill allowed government ministers to make exceptions allowing public bodies to divest from companies complicit in states human rights abuses. However, there was a special exception in the bill for Israel, and Israel only.
Boycotts generally seem to be an excellent strategy of making oneself heard (plus: they are throwing a convenient spanner in the works of your authoritarian opponent and most likely they make the general public stop and wonder).
It was illuminating to read your piece about global parallels to the ongoing democratic struggle against the authoritarian AKP, thanks!
With regards to the BDS-initiative: to me at least this particular boycott always just seemed to backfire on the Palestinian struggle for a two-state-solution (and I seriously still believe in a two-state-solution as the only way to solve the problem and bring about a peaceful cohabitation of the land - because it seems the only realistic way dealing with all the historic injustice accumulated in this case; I know how much the pogromes of my country of origin, Germany, and historically also all over Europe as as well as in Russia and no least the Balfour declaration have contributed to this...).
If there is no cultural exchange between Israel and the world anymore we just hit the wrong audience over the head (the liberal Israelis who are on our side - at least as I see it) as I wouldn't expect ultra-orthodox-settler types to go to many concerts of international bands (or enjoy the kinds of art, books etc. whose artists were mostly to suspend their work in or for an Israeli audience, or who called off their participation in concerts where Israeli artists and musicians participated).
Frankly:
I think this 'divide and conquer'- technique (we see fragmentation all over the map and it is the strategy of the right in this particular moment) does not work in the long run and it is easier to rally people around projects which emphasize the value of peace and mutual understanding (in everyday life - stories of school children meeting each other or people working together - sounds weak but it's actually powerful because it is the 'real'-est you can get as opposed to online propaganda - life is not black and white but grey, grey, grey) as some political projects do.
But of course the time and the circumstances we are in - right now - are simply a state of acute crisis and escalation...
Still: I remember thinking about cases like Ruanda (or Colombia or South Africa) where I immensely admired the painful but productive process of reconciliation...
Rabin tried to change things back in the 90ies. It seems to be impossible to get things moving into this direction again not least because the far-right has grown monstrously (and birth rates amongst Israeli right-wing milieus plus an influx of relatively conservative newcomers from Eastern Europe and the Ex- Soviet Union to Israel do not make a democratic solution to the problem any easier for left-wing Israelis).
But boycotts can work in many cases...
Thanks again for your thought-provoking post!