Organisations and sources · campaign / coalition
BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)
What it is
Call issued 9 July 2005 by some 170–200 Palestinian organisations; the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) coordinates since 2007–08.
Coordinated by the BNC in Ramallah. Its listed members include unions, NGOs, refugee networks and the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine, a body that includes Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the PFLP. Co-founder and best-known spokesman: Omar Barghouti.
Who funds it
The BNC doesn't publish full accounts. Supporters describe a decentralised, volunteer-driven movement; critics (NGO Monitor, Israel's former Ministry of Strategic Affairs) allege funding links to groups tied to designated organisations. Treat both as claims until documented.
What it wants
The 2005 call demands that Israel end 'its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands' and dismantle the Wall; recognise the 'fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality'; and respect 'the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194'.
Its record
- Built one of the most successful global solidarity campaigns: academic, cultural and consumer boycotts, church and pension-fund divestment debates.
- Deliberately doesn't say whether 'all Arab lands' means the territories occupied in 1967 or all of Israel, and declines to take a position on one state or two (see 'Same slogan, different goals').
- Its co-founder has said the refugees' return would mean there 'won't be any Zionist state' as it exists today ⚠.
- Many governments and parliaments have passed anti-BDS measures; courts in several countries (including the European Court of Human Rights in 2020, in Baldassi v. France) have protected boycott calls as free expression ⚠.
- Critics count its inclusion of Hamas and other armed factions in the coordinating coalition against its self-description as a non-violent civil-society movement.
Citation cluster
Pro-Palestinian advocacy cluster: BNC statements, allied campaigns (e.g. USCPR, PACBI) and many campus groups repeat one another's framing.
How to read a claim sourced from here
When a claim comes from BDS: ask which of the three demands it serves, and which territory 'occupation' refers to in it. Read BDS statements as advocacy for a political programme whose end state (one state or two, with or without a Jewish-majority Israel) is left open on purpose. Check any factual claim against its original source, not the campaign summary.