No Appetite for Apartheid is a national campaign that follows the principles of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to reduce US support for Israeli apartheid and genocide against Palestinians. The campaign urges local small businesses to stop carrying Israeli food products and educates community members about supporting Palestine by boycotting Israeli products, a time-tested consumer tactic used against states perpetrating injustice.
No Appetite for Apartheid focuses on boycotting food because of historically-significant victories, such as the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa, which leveraged economic pressure against state-supported entities perpetrating injustice, as well as the successful history of food boycotts in the US.
In coordination with other and organizations around the country and globe, we are organizing the campaign to maximize economic resistance to Israel’s apartheid regime.
How the Campaign Works
Here’s how being an Apartheid-Free Store helps:
Israeli food products are grown and produced on stolen land, and their profits directly support the Israeli military occupation of Palestine.
Refusing to stock and distribute Israeli products will reduce imports of Israeli goods and pull money from Israel’s apartheid.
By reducing money to Israel, we are dealing economic damage to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and pressuring Israel to meet the demands of the BDS movement.
Becoming an Apartheid-Free Store will encourage other businesses to do the same and give consumers alternatives to supporting Israeli apartheid.
What’s going on in Palestine?
Israel’s violence against Palestine started a century ago, in the form of land theft, restricted movement, and economic blockades.
Since 1882, Palestine has suffered waves of settlers operating under the Zionist project. During the Nakba of 1948, Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their villages. Israelis later occupied East Jerusalem, the Gaza strip, and the West Bank. Since October 2023, Israel has killed at least 38,584 people in Gaza, including 15,000 children.
Israel has illegally seized farms in occupied territory, compelling Palestinians into low-wage labor on their own soil. Israel’s food industry is thus an active agent in the political economy of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.
Palestinians have experienced apartheid for 16 years, limiting access to everyday necessities like food, water and medical supplies. Gazans are fighting for their liberation, rights, and survival.
What is BDS, and how can you participate?
The BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement works to end international support for Israel’s oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law. A common tactic is a targeted boycott of Israeli companies profiting off of the occupation and involved in violating Palestinian human rights.
Boycotts have been used to great effect in the past; for example, as part of the movement to end apartheid in South Africa. No Appetite for Apartheid is focused on food products because the United States has a history of successful food boycotts that use economic pressure as leverage against perpetrators of injustice.
The BDS movement is focused on three demands:
- Equal rights for Palestinians in Israel
- An end to Israeli occupation of Palestine
- Return of Palestinian refugees to their homes
Palestine, Zionism, and US Imperialism
Israel is a settler-colonial project enabled by Zionism, an ideology which seeks to establish an apartheid state where Jews have more rights than others by conflating the Jewish identity with Israel’s colonial project. The result is the death, displacement and dehumanization of Palestinians.
Zionism does not exist in isolation. The US funds, supports, and upholds Israel’s legitimacy and occupation to support its goals. The US uses Israel to protect its military and economic interests in the region. Enforcing this order requires supporting Israel and subjugating Palestinians on their own land.
Circumstances in Palestine are horrific, but not isolated. Anti-imperialist struggles the world over are connected, sharing a root cause: the US and its ruling class imposing violent inequity on the world to protect profits. This can only end once US imperialism is dismantled. Therefore, the fight to free Palestine is one with the fight against US imperialism everywhere.