BDS Movement Urges Divestment From Tech Firms It Says Support Israel’s Military Systems and Gaza Policies

The BDS movement, which promotes boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel, has published a statement titled “No Tech for Oppression, Apartheid or Genocide.” It describes the technology sector as the second most complicit sector, after weapons manufacturers, in what it calls Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and an apartheid regime affecting the Palestinian people. The statement presents these characterizations as its own position. It names tech targets as a priority for the movement.

The statement says the tech sector made up 20% of Israel’s GDP in 2023 and 53% of its exports that year. It also says technology companies knowingly provide Israel with weaponized technologies, including spyware, that it alleges have been used to commit serious human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to the statement, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Palantir enable Israel’s AI targeting and weapons systems, which it calls “assassination factories,” and supply computing, surveillance and communications technology to the Israeli military.

The statement further alleges that U.S. tech companies, working with Israel’s Population, Immigration, and Border Authority, collect and store Palestinian civilian data in the Population Registry computing system. It says Israel uses this registry to limit Palestinian rights, including freedom of movement, the right to work, voting, family reunification and access to basic social services. It also says tech companies automate military checkpoints in the West Bank and power “Smart City” surveillance projects in East Jerusalem and Hebron. The statement acknowledges that large companies often hold market monopolies, but argues that consumer boycotts, contract exclusions, divestment, peaceful disruption, media campaigns, strategic litigation and regulatory policies can still pressure them.

The statement cites several business developments as evidence that the sector is weakening. Israeli financial media, which the statement quotes, reported that “49% of Israeli tech companies reported investment cancellations due to the war.” In May 2024, 130 top Israeli economists sent the Israeli prime minister what the statement describes as a “clear and emphatic warning” about a “high probability” that the economy and society could fall into a “spiral of collapse.” The statement also reports that Storebrand, one of the largest investors in the Nordic region, sold its holdings in Palantir Technologies over concerns that its “work for Israel might put the asset manager at risk of violating international humanitarian law and human rights.” Intel shut down Granulate, an Israeli start-up it had acquired for $650 million in 2022, after failing for months to find a buyer. In April 2024, Samsung Next, the innovation arm of the Korean tech giant, announced it would close its Tel Aviv operations.

The statement divides corporate targets into three categories: consumer boycott targets, divestment and exclusion targets, and pressure targets. It says its approach relies on what it calls its international law-based Corporate Complicity Criteria and on divestment research from the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). It calls for divestment from complicit companies where possible and for their exclusion from contracts at local government, university, hospital and union levels. It also calls for peaceful pressure, including boycotts where reasonable alternatives exist. The statement says that, where feasible alternatives exist, individuals should boycott Amazon, Motorola, Intel, HP and Microsoft products. It also advocates for the creation of ethical policies regulating dual-use technology and all technology.

The statement’s stated aim is to end the tech sector’s role in what it describes as Israel’s military occupation, apartheid and genocide. It asserts that “BDS works, as senior Israeli leaders admit,” but the statement does not identify the leaders or the admission. The document is an advocacy statement from the BDS movement, and its claims about Israel, the companies named and the scale of harm are its own allegations rather than independently verified findings. Its account of the Population Registry, checkpoint automation and Smart City projects is presented as the movement’s description of how these systems are used.

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