On July 1st, Israel’s extremist right-wing government plans to formally annex large swathes of the Occupied Palestinian Territory, culminating decades of gradual de facto annexation through the appropriation of land, forcible displacement of Palestinian population and the transfer of Israeli settler population into the OPT.

A statement by tens of UN experts condemned Israel’s planned annexation as crystallizing Israel’s “21st century apartheid.” Advocating accountability and an end to Israel’s impunity, they wrote: “The lessons from the past are clear: Criticism without consequences will neither forestall annexation nor end the occupation.”

Israel is only able to maintain its regime of occupation, colonisation and apartheid over the Palestinian people because of the international complicity of States, institutions and corporations.
But thanks to pressure from the BDS movement even large companies such as Veolia and Orange have withdrawn from illegal Israeli projects and Microsoft has recently ended its involvement with Israeli facial recognition company AnyVision over human rights concerns.

Today is French insurance company AXA’s shareholder meeting. Under pressure from our BDS campaign, AXA has divested from Israeli weapons-maker Elbit Systems and largely divested from a subsidiary that finances Israeli apartheid. But AXA still invests in three Israeli banks which are listed in a UN database of companies that enable Israel’s illegal settlements.

HP companies have long been complicit in Israeli human rights violations. HPE provides exclusive servers to the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority–the backbone of racist segregation, domination and control of movement. Join our day-long Twitter action on July 2, to pressure HPE to stop profiting from Israeli apartheid.

Israel will not end its crimes against Palestinians until “business as usual” ends, and we can all contribute to this.

Support the BDS movement to realize Palestinian freedom, justice and equality.

Yours,
Apoorva Gautam and Alys Samson Estape