LIBERTÀ. GIUSTIZIA. UGUAGLIANZA.

Boicottaggio, Disinvestimento e Sanzioni per i diritti del popolo palestinese.

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About BDS Italia

BDS Italia is a movement supporting boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel's occupation and system of apartheid until Israel respects international law and human rights, comprised of associations and groups throughout Italy that endorse the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society. The BDS movement supports equal rights for all and is therefore opposed to all forms of racism, fascism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, ethnic and religious discrimination.

Although most of the content of our web site is in Italian, this section contains articles, press releases and action items in English.

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May 28, 2010

On May 18, 2010, as a result of the campaign launched by Stop Agrexco Italy, a coalition encompassing more than 50 national and local associations, trade unions and political parties, two major Italian supermarket chains, COOP and Conad, announced the suspension of sales of products from Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. These products are primarily marketed by the Israeli company Agrexco, which acknowledged during a court case in England in November 2006 that 70% of all agricultural products from the settlements are distributed in Europe under their brand Carmel. The decision by COOP and Conad was made in respect of international law and the right of consumers to choose not to buy goods produced illegally. In fact,

  • The Israeli settlements have been repeatedly declared illegal in UN Security Council Resolutions No. 446, 452 and 465, 471 and 476;
  • The exploitation of natural resources of a people under occupation , as practiced by Agrexco and other Israeli companies that profit from the situation, is a war crime according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, Part III, Art. 49: August 12, 1949;
  • On February 25, 2010, the European Court of Justice ruled categorically that these products cannot benefit from the trade and cooperation agreement between Europe and Israel signed in 1995, which allows Israel to export its products to Europe under reduced tariffs;
  • Article 2 of the EEC-Israel agreement provides that preferential tariffs will be terminated in the case of clear human rights violations, such as those carried out by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people through the unlawful confiscation of land for the construction of Israeli settlements and the segregation Wall, condemned by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2004.

This decision by COOP and Conad set off a vast media and political campaign in Italy with vile accusations of racism and anti-Semitism aimed at discrediting the indisputable motives at the basis of the measures adopted by these companies.

An important success for the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israeli apartheid

May 22, 2010 - Following lobbying efforts by the Italian Coalition Against Carmel-Agrexco, two major Italian supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, announced the suspension of sales of products from Agrexco, the principal exporter of produce from Israel and the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Nordiconad director Mr. Covili announced that as of the end of April Agrexco products will no longer be found in their supermarkets. Nordiconad is a cooperative responsible for central purchasing and distribution operations for CONAD in northern Italy. COOP Italia, via quality assurance director Mr. Zucchi, instead confirmed that there is a problem with traceability, namely that the consumer is unable to verify whether or not the product in question comes from the occupied territories. Therefore COOP Italia has decided to "suspend the supply of products from the occupied territories."

Rachel Giora
18 January 2010

The emergence of the Israeli boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) movement has been influenced by a number of factors. In essence, however, the movement in Israel has been basically reactive - a response to (a) international calls following traumas, and to (b) ideas, primarily those introducing the South African model into the international and Israeli discourse; and perhaps most significantly, it has evolved in response to (c) calls by Palestinians to the international community to boycott Israel, divest and disinvest from it, and sanction it. Although the history of the BDS movement in Israel is reviewed here chronologically, the assumption is that all these factors have worked interactively and in tandem to influence the development of the BDS movement worldwide as well as in Israel.

The major role of the Israeli BDS movement has been to support international BDS calls against Israel and legitimize them both as clearly not anti-Semitic, as not working against Israelis but against Israeli governmental policies, and as supporting a legitimate nonviolent means by which Palestinian civil society can reclaim and re-own its people’s rights and freedoms. Alongside solidarity with the Palestinians, the driving force behind the Israeli BDS movement has been the realization that the criminal occupation and repression of the Palestinian people, as practiced by Israeli governments, will not be redressed without significant international pressure.