Is Boycotting Israeli Products a moment or a movement? Shahid Bolsen Explains

I think you have to understand and, companies have to understand and the West has to understand, that what's happening now, the global reaction to Israel's colonialist massacre in Gaza signals a significant sea change in the world. And, you know, this is in the context of the pivot to the global South, the transitioning of global economy. You know, the West wanted to implement this transition without any accompanying paradigm shift, without any real change in how power dynamics in the world operate. But this isn't gonna happen. People all around the world are identifying the connection between political policies, the actions of states, and the private sector.

They're boycotting Starbucks. They're boycotting McDonald's. They're boycotting Coca Cola and all sorts of other brands and companies as a means of pressuring Israel and The United States. And they are themselves pivoting away from western multinationals, brands, and corporations. And they're pivoting towards local companies.

The public themselves are transitioning to the global South because they see that these western companies increasingly, they're seeing them as instruments of imperialism, as as the instruments of imperialism that they are. They're seeing them as power entities, as political entities, which is what they are. And they are imposing democratic expectations upon them. In other words, they're saying to companies, you have to reflect and promote and stand up for what we believe in or we will not do business with you. They're saying no justice, no profit.

We're not gonna give our money, to western corporations that do not support justice. What you call the value chain has no values, so we're gonna break that chain. That's what they're saying. We're not, mindless, soulless consumers like you are in the West. Your cynical materialistic system, cannot just relocate to the Global South without colliding with the collective conscience of the people.

Now investment, trade, franchise expansion, so on and so on, all of these things in the Global South are gonna be subject to public approval or veto. You can make business deals. You can make all the agreements that you want. But the final say over whether any of those business deals are gonna prosper is gonna be in the street. That's where the final say will be.

You know, you can make an investment deal or a corporate merger or acquisition and all of that, and all of your board members and all of your shareholders may approve it. The banks may approve it. Even the governments may approve it. But if it's not approved in the masjids, if it's not approved on the campuses, and if it's not approved in the private homes of individual families, well, then your business venture is gonna fail, and it's gonna fail epically. Because the truth of the matter anyway is that all of your products are basically mediocre anyway.

You know? You convince people that logos matter more or that a logo equates to quality, but we're not that stupid. Most of the products that you're selling in the Global South are made in the Global South, and they're made in the same factories that produce the goods that have your logo on it. Those are the same factories that produce the pirated version of those goods, and they're exactly the same, except that they cost a fraction of the price. And you don't get any revenue from the so called fake versions.

All we lose is the logo. So in reality, your products not only don't have values, they don't even have value. You know? No moral value and no real material value. So we don't need any of them.

So you better at least start adding moral value to your goods. Otherwise, you're gonna lose the whole market. That's the new paradigm. And this is important to understand because this isn't just, you know, an emotional reflex that you're seeing. This isn't just a knee jerk, helpless reaction to the Palestinian issue, to the Palestinian suffering in Gaza.

This isn't gonna fade away. This is an anti imperialist, anti colonialist movement that's starting here. This is not gonna fade away over time. It's gonna get more organized over time, and it's going to get more militant. It's gonna take on the character of a liberation struggle, a national independence movement in country after country.

And as powerful as they are, companies are actually incredibly vulnerable. Every company, no matter how big it is, no matter how, successful it is, no matter how rich it is, every company is always teetering on the edge of collapse at any moment. They're all right on the edge, and it just takes a little shove from the public to send them plummeting into insolvency. I mean, every company operates by means of a complex interconnected system. There's physical locations, there's suppliers, there's warehouses, there's transport, there's distributors, networks, and so on and on.

And across this whole web of operations, there are infinite points of vulnerability that can be almost effortlessly disrupted by the public if they so chose to do it. I mean, a boycott does not have to be, a matter of individual voluntary choice. A boycott can be enforced. Denying a company customers can be enforced. And as this movement, goes on and develops, it's entirely possible that such enforcement could start to occur.

People may organize to ensure that this or that company fails. There's no doubt that, corporate intransigence, corporate failure to negotiate, failure to accommodate public opinion, like, say, a Starbucks or McDonald's or what have you, companies that refuse, to take the right position on Palestine, who reject the very reasonable moral demands of their own consumers, if they remain intransigent, if they remain stubborn, in defiance of the will and demands of the public, then it's predictable, that tactics might escalate. You know, we've all seen, on social media, you've seen, people dumping a whole box of rats, in a McDonald's somewhere in America. So there's already organized groups of people who are targeting stores and companies for really industrial sabotage, And it's simply too easy a thing to do. I mean, just, say, releasing a noxious odor inside of a clothing store.

That would potentially ruin every outfit on the shelves and make them unsellable. You know? So simple. Tampering with the air conditioning units, tampering with the heating units, the plumbing, the refrigeration units, on and on. These are all incredibly easy things to do that could disrupt a store or a company.

And if it's done persistently, it could lead to cascading loss of business and increased costs and expenses that would become unsustainable for that business. Now I'm not advocating this, but it's a predictable likelihood. You know? Companies don't have an Achilles heel. They are nothing but Achilles heels.

And it's almost inevitable that corporate intransigence will lead to escalation, and this should be avoided at all costs because the fact is companies exist by the good graces of the population. You know, people are not going to get tired of not having overpriced Starbucks coffee. They're gonna get used to it. And, of course, they're gonna find better replacements, and what they once they found replacements, they'll never come back. It simply makes no business sense to defy popular opinion, not, on Palestine or on any other issue.

I think that the control companies have gained over politicians in the West and because, of the extent to which Western culture is a culture of conspicuous consumption and materialism, This has caused corporations to overestimate their real power because the real power is with consumers. The real power is with the public, and companies are defenseless if people decide to shut them down. Now, again, I'm not endorsing, and I'm not advocating for more militant actions. I'm warning of the inevitability of it happening. You can't blame me when it happens if you don't heed the warning.

But the simple reality is that the people don't have to take no for an answer if they don't want to, when they tell you to take a positive stance on Palestine. But you do have to take no for an answer when they say collectively that your company is no longer gonna be allowed to operate in profit. You literally have no choice. You know, right now right now in London, they're shutting down Central London with sit ins. So what happens when they do the same thing in your store or in your coffee shop or in your restaurant or in your office?

And then what happens when they do it in all of your stores, in all of your offices, in every city? When they decide that you will not be allowed to operate at all, and when everyone starts avoiding you and your company because they know that the same thing could happen right in the middle of their frappuccino? What happens when your staff, when your workers, decide that they don't wanna deal with the stress anymore and you're already paying them entry level wages that don't compensate them, for the discomfort and the stigma, of working for your company because of their moral intransigence? The discomfort and the stigma of working for you because you insist on your moral intransigence and your insistence to defy, public opinion and the very reasonable demands of the population, the very demands of consumers to take a positive stance on Palestine? What happens when all of your workers don't wanna work for you anymore because you're not paying them enough to deal with the hardship of working for you, especially if the if more militant actions start to take place?

It's not worth it. You're not thinking this through. Companies are not thinking this through. It doesn't make any business sense to defy public opinion. It doesn't make any sense to not take a positive stance on the Palestinian issue, particularly if you have any interest whatsoever in reaching markets in the global South.