Boycott is a nonviolent tool that has been used by ordinary people countless times to hold countries responsible for atrocities when our governments fail to do so. In South Africa, the boycott movement helped bring about an end to the apartheid system. In the case of Israel/Palestine, it can do the same.

The Boycott Israeli Goods Campaign of New Zealand derives it's mandate from a legal judgment passed by the highest judicial body in the world, the International Court of Justice.

The Court advised that members of the International community have an obligation:

• Not to render aid or assistance to maintaining the situation created by the Wall Israel has built on Occupied Palestinian Land.
• To ensure the Wall's removal.
• Ensure Israel's compliance with International Law.

That was more than four years ago. Today, the Wall has almost been completed, resulting in the confinement of Palestinians in the West Bank into segregated Bantustans, isolating 78 villages.

At the same time, in flagrant violation of International Law, Israel continues to transfer part of its civilian population into the illegally Occupied West Bank.

John Dugard, UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories stated :

"Israel’s defiance of international law poses a threat not only to the international legal order but to the international order itself. This is no time for appeasement on the part of the international community".

In 2005, inspired by the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, Palestinian civil society called for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it fully complies with International Law and recognises the fundamental human rights of the people of Palestine.

A specific call for cultural boycott of Israel was issued a year later, garnering wide support.

Among the many groups and institutions that have heeded the Palestinian boycott calls and started to consider or apply diverse forms of effective pressure on Israel are :

• the British University and College Union (UCU);
• the two largest trade unions in the UK; the Church of England;
• the Presbyterian Church (USA); prominent British architects;
• the British National Union of Journalists (NUJ);
• the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU);
• the South African Council of Churches;
• the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in Ontario;
• Aosdana, the Irish state-sponsored academy of artists;
• celebrated authors, artists and intellectuals led by John Berger;
• and Palme d'Or winner director Ken Loach.

We strongly urge you to uphold the values of freedom, equality and just peace for all by joining this growing boycott against Israeli apartheid

A personal boycott of Israeli products helps remove consumers from complicity with Israeli apartheid. As ethical consumers we can conduct our boycott ‘where we are at’, in whatever town or country.

The BIG campaign aims to promote a consumer boycott and to actively campaign against corporations selling Israeli goods.