By Miriam Hasan et al. | guest column
The Cap Times, Sep 12, 2024

The U.S. was first to recognize the state of Israel when it was created in 1948. Since then, U.S. leaders have treated Israel like a strategic asset needed to advance American interests in the Middle East. Pursuing those interests and protecting this asset has come at a tremendous human cost.

Nearly a year after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israel’s conduct in Gaza has drawn almost universal condemnation from the international community — the U.S. being the major exception, even as tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israel. Nearly half of the known dead are children. Many thousands more are injured or missing under rubble. And even with an immediate cease-fire, thousands will die prematurely of preventable, treatable diseases due to the wholesale destruction of Gaza’s health and sanitation systems.

Over the last year, we’ve seen Israeli forces massacring Palestinians approaching food aid trucks, learned of countless killings of humanitarian aid workers and journalists, and listened to recordings of Hind Rajab’s heartbreaking pleas for rescue. At 6 years old, Hind was alone, injured by the Israeli fire that killed everyone else in the car with her as they tried to flee to safety. Paramedics trying to rescue her followed a route explicitly approved by Israeli authorities. Nevertheless, Israeli forces blew up their ambulance, leaving the terrified girl to die alone.

These are but a glimpse of the horrors Palestinians in Gaza endure every day. Our elected leaders acknowledge this suffering, wringing their hands as though they are helpless. At the same time, they escalate weapons transfers to Israel, guaranteeing more suffering.

More than 40,000 people of conscience in Wisconsin registered their outrage over this contradiction by voting “uninstructed” in the April primary.

Still, the genocide continues. And if voting alone cannot stop a genocide, it’s our moral duty to find other means. In 2005, a coalition of Palestinian civil society organizations called for people around the world to boycott, divest and pressure states to sanction (BDS) Israel to stop its violations of Palestinian human rights. There’s precedent for this strategy. Boycott and divestment campaigns helped end apartheid in South Africa. In the U.S., they’ve helped secure better pay for farmworkers and defeat Jim Crow laws. Moving our money collectively can be a powerful lever.

Because economic boycotts have such a strong track record of success, pro-Israel politicians have targeted BDS through legislation. In 2018, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-boycott law took effect. The law, straight out of his anti-collective action playbook, prohibits both organizations with high value state contracts and local units of government from boycotting Israel. (It’s worth noting that Republican legislators already tried, unsuccessfully, to expand the law to protect the fossil fuel industry from boycotts.)

In this post-Citizens United era, where money is speech, shouldn’t we be free to spend our money in a way that aligns with our values? We think so. Fortunately, individuals (and most organizations) still have the right to boycott, even under this law.

It’s your choice whether or not to purchase goods from businesses that benefit from Israel’s violations of international law. If you don’t want to add to their profits, use free apps like No Thanks and Buycott to scan barcodes and instantly identify products subject to a coordinated boycott. It’s important to pay special attention to targeted boycott campaigns, such as the consumer boycott described here, to maximize the pressure we can exert with our collective power.

It’s also your right to choose whether to invest your private funds in war profiteers or other industries that enable Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine. If that doesn’t align with your moral compass, ask your bank, credit union or financial advisor for help investing ethically. Talk to your friends, family and co-workers about what you find out. Learn more about divestment here. 

Let’s stop investing in the death and erasure of the Palestinian people. Instead, let’s put our money to work building the peaceful, just world we want to live in.

Miriam Hasan and Stepha Velednitsky are Madison residents. Tsela Barr and Marc Rosenthal are members of Jewish Voice for Peace-Madison.

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