Demo Speech - January 24th
When I was asked to speak I thought I might talk about the so called “Board of Peace”. D Trump has named that war criminal, Tony Blair, as among the board’s founding executive members alongside Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner. But the disgraceful creation that The UN signed up to is a long way from what it thought it was signing up to. There is not a single mention of Gaza in the ‘Board of Peace’. In fact Gaza is being discussed as an investment and a planning site rather than the the place of devastation and genocide it actually is. Palestinians are not invited to the B of Peace’. The so called ceasefire has been ignored and since it was called 1,820 have been killed or wounded.
So I will talk about BDS instead. Boycott Divest and Sanction. We can have some influence if we boycott businesses and products. It’s a way for civil society to hold Israel to account.
AMAZON - They have announced a $7.2 billion investment in Israel launching an AWS cloud region to expand its cloud services. This signifies Amazon’s commitment to cloud infrastructure and technological development in the region. So we need to make that effort to stop ordering from Amazon - who also have poor working conditions in many of their warehouses and they have made it difficult for unions to represent their workforce.
FAST FOOD OUTLETS AND RESTAURANTS - The following are to be boycotted if you would like to support the BDS movement: Burger King, Domino’s pizza, Mc Donald’s, Pizza Hut, Costa coffee, Starbucks. An example of why: Since 1993 McDonald’s has expanded to over 200 locations in Israel and has given thousands of free meals to the IDF. Costa coffee is owned by coca cola. Coca Cola operates a factory in the illegal Israeli settlement Atarot which is built in occupied Palestine. Fanta is also part of the Coca Cola brand.
PROCTER AND GAMBLE AND UNILEVER PRODUCTS - Also to be avoided. This is difficult because many of the products on the supermarket shelves are produced by these companies. But if you can avoid them. Unilever has publicly stated its commitment to doing business in Israel. This was highlighted around its subsidiary Ben and Jerry’s ice cream to stop selling in occupied Palestine. Unilever denied its decision.
HOME BARGAINS - Check product labels - especially wipes and plastic products.
One example of boycotts having an effect is the sportswear company Puma ending its sponsorship of IFA. Though now Reebok are the sponsors and the ones to boycott.
Steve Reed, the Communities Sec has said that Labour run local councils could face legal action if they pass motions on avoiding Israeli products.
To conclude - you must have noticed that we stand outside Barclays on the demos. Barclays is bankrolling Israel’s genocide and apartheid. The company holds over £2 billion in shared and provides and provided 6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to 9 companies whose weapons and military technology are being used in Israel in its attacks on the Palestinians.
Boycott Barclays.
Words from Janis Blackburne
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