Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The boycott movement against products originating from or supporting Israel continues to spread. This boycott is a form of protest against Israeli violence in Gaza which this year alone has killed at least 8,500 Palestinians, most of them women and children.
In 2020, the United Nations (UN) released a list of 112 companies with business ties in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel. The companies range from the multinational General Mills to an Israeli bakery chain.
The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva said it had reasonable reasons for releasing the report, namely because these 112 companies carried out a number of activities that supported Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. These activities are:
- Supplying equipment and materials that facilitate the construction and expansion of Israel’s West Bank settlements and barriers
- Supplying equipment for the demolition of housing and property, as well as the destruction of agricultural land, greenhouses, olive groves and food crops
- Providing services and benefits that support the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transportation
- Banking and financial operations to help develop, expand, or maintain settlements and their activities, including loans for housing and businesses.
BDS Movement, or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement called on his followers to make the report a target list for boycotts. “These companies must be held accountable, including through strategic boycotts and divestment campaigns,” the group said in a statement, as quoted by The Washington Post.
The types of companies on the list range from banks to cable TV companies, cafes and grocery stores, cell phone providers and real estate companies. Here are some of them:
- Airbnb
- TripAdvisor
- Booking.com
- Motorola Solutions
- American Israeli Gas Corporation
- Expedia Group
- JC Bamford Excavators
- General Mills
- Mayer’s Cars and Trucks Co
Israeli reaction
According to reports Al Jazeera in 2018, in recent times Israel’s diplomatic priority mission has been overcoming the boycott movement. In fact, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has acted to ban groups that support the boycott movement.
A non-profit organization based in Washington, United States (US), the Brookings Institution, stated that the boycott movement through the BDS Movement would not drastically affect Israel’s economy. This is because around 40 percent of Israel’s exports are “intermediate” goods or hidden products used in the production process of goods elsewhere, such as semiconductors.
Additionally, about 50 percent of Israel’s exports are “differentiation” or non-substitutable goods, such as specialized computer chips.
However, data from the World Bank shows that exports of “intermediate” goods experienced a sharp decline from 2014 to 2016, resulting in losses of around US$6 billion or around IDR 95.67 trillion.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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