Over the last year, a new campaign has been gathering momentum in British Columbia, Canada that aims to ban the sale of Israeli wine in publicly owned liquor stores. Activists in BC have a long history of calling to deshelve Israeli wines, starting in 2008; that campaign was modelled on a previous local one against South African wines, called “Don’t Drink with Apartheid”.
This new initiative carries the slogan Don’t Drink with Genocide, and their public campaign letter stated: “It’s time to call on the BC government to ban Israeli wine in order to pressure the Israeli government and defend the rights of Palestinians.”
All the Israeli wines in BC liquor stores are linked to either vineyards or operations in West Bank or Golan Heights settlements. But even if they weren’t, we would and should still be boycotting them. No longer can we call to boycott just “settlement products”; this false dichotomy is untruthful and promotes a dangerous narrative.
The whole economy and infrastructure of the Israeli state is linked with the “settlement enterprise”, and the genocide in Gaza has fully exposed the rotten foundation that all of that rests on. In a Mondoweiss article over 4 years ago, I noted: “Gone are the days when many activists felt they must temper their comments and ‘soft sell’ the demand to boycott all of Israel, its entire state apparatus and any complicit companies.” Surely, after the genocide and carnage in Gaza, this must be the only position going forward.
A decade ago, you could argue that campaigns against illegal settlement products had a place in the Boycott Israel movement, but only as a first step or entry point towards something more.
As I concluded in 2021: “The danger lies in letting settlement boycotts become the dominant feature of BDS work and allowing their limited parameters to set and restrict the agenda for most Boycott Israel work.
A further danger of focusing mainly, or only, on settlement boycotts is that it reinforces the faulty concept that the two-state solution is still viable and a worthwhile goal for Palestine advocacy. It traps activists in this circular spin that falsely gives the impression to supporters that the illegal settlements are the most important obstacle to any genuine peace with justice for Palestinians.”
Boycott beyond the settlements: The sequel
We are past telling consumers that its somehow more egregious and more worthy of boycott when a product has links to the settlements. No, after two years plus of live-streamed horrors from Gaza, of beheaded kids and murdered medical staff, we demand that all and any Israeli products be banned and boycotted.
There is a move now to re-ignite boycott campaigns and we must be vigilant to not allow this energy to be co-opted by those who, for reasons of ideology or convenience, want to retreat back to the focus only on “settlement products”.
Yes, its an “easier sell” in the imperial core to highlight more obvious violations, like Israeli settlements in what are “internationally recognized” occupied territories. But if we learnt anything from the last decade of boycott work, its that governments including here in Canada, are more than happy to turn a blind eye to not only international law, but even their own stated policies when needed.
For example, a huge effort was mounted some years ago to focus attention on the labelling of these wines in Canada, which then and now carry the “Product of Israel” wording. Although such labels clearly violated even the Canadian government’s position on the illegality of settlements, still the government appealed an initial decision that the labels were “false, misleading and deceptive”. The final court ruling was classic double-speak and ultimately referred the issue back to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
The Zionist lobby interpreted this to mean that the “Product of Israel” label could remain on the bottles so long as they added “clarifying information”. And so it stands – activists documented a few months ago that Teperberg Winery’s Malbec was labelled as “Product of Israel” at a BC liquor store and on the official website.
The Palestinian people are now at a critical juncture and need our principled support more than ever. We are boycotting their oppressor, the Israeli state, and all those who give it sustenance who also have blood on their hands. We are boycotting this modern-day monstrosity called Zionism and we owe it to ourselves and the Palestinians to be meticulously clear on our objectives.
By Marion Kawas
(Cover photo is a recent picket in Nanaimo, BC)
