Thread by @BDSmovement

The Palestinian-led BDS movement marks its 17th anniversary today!

Watch the inspiring video below and take action now to share the strides we've made in the Palestinian anti-apartheid struggle far and wide.

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As a grassroots, anti-racist, nonviolent global movement, BDS plays a critical role in the struggle to expose and dismantle Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism, military occupation and apartheid.

#UNinvesigateApartheid

We, Indigenous Palestinians, have been struggling for a century against the Zionist settler colonial project, which in 1948 established Israel as an apartheid regime.

Our struggle to resist its ethnic cleansing and fragmentation of our people & land is now bearing fruit.

Rooted in decades of Palestinian popular resistance, the BDS movement is inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement & US Civil Rights struggle.

At the 2001 Durban civil society conference against racism, the Palestinian anti-apartheid struggle gained global support.

In 2005, 170+ Palestinian unions, coalitions & grassroots orgs called for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) to end Israel’s occupation, colonialism, apartheid & denial of the right of our refugees to return.

2007: BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest Palestinian coalition, formed as the democratic leadership of the global movement.

2008: BNC position paper builds consensus against Israel as occupation, settler-colonial & apartheid regime against the entire Palestinian people.

Since 2005, Israeli Apartheid Week has annually mobilized global support for the anti-apartheid BDS movement through education and action.

Since 2014, community orgs, cultural spaces, and grassroots movements have been declaring themselves Apartheid Free Zones.

UN ESCWA, CERD as well as 3 UN Special Rapporteurs have affirmed that Israel’s regime of racial domination over Palestinians constitutes apartheid.

The time for a UN investigation into Israel's apartheid is NOW!

#UNinvestigateApartheid

2020: Palestinian civil society calls for pressure on govts around the world to take action to end Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians. They demand a comprehensive military embargo, suspension of trade and cooperation, supporting ICC probe and #UNinvestigateApartheid.

100s of leaders from Latin America, Asia, and Africa, including former Presidents, MPs, diplomats, and cultural figures coalesce around the Global South Response in 2020, responding to the Palestinian civil society call and endorsing its demands.

#UNinvestigateApartheid

Major human rights orgs such as @amnesty, @hrw and @BTselem have added their voices to what Palestinians, including the BDS movement, have been saying for many years - Israel is an apartheid regime.

Their reports enable further mainstreaming and advocacy to #DismantleApartheid

Led by South Africa and Namibia, with their history of anti-apartheid struggles, a growing number of parliaments and govts are acknowledging that Israel is guilty of apartheid and calling for UN mechanisms to end this crime against humanity.

#UNinvestigateApartheid

At 17, the BDS movement is growing, globalizing and building effective, intersectional solidarity with the Palestinian anti-apartheid, anti-colonial struggle.
Freedom. Justice. Equality.

#BDS