What is BDS?
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. BDS upholds the simple principle that Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.
Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.
BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. Since its launch in 2005, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.
QUIT Supports BDS
In February of 2011, speakers from ASWAT – Palestinian Gay Women, al Qaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestine, and Palestinian Queers for BDS spoke to over 700 people in San Francisco and Berkeley, as part of a highly successful national tour. They talked about how harmful “pinkwashing” – the Zionist efforts to portray Israel as the only queer-friendly democracy in the Middle East, is to their struggle for equality and recognition.
After the tour, Palestinian Queers for BDS issued an open letter asking all queer institutions to decline invitations to visit Israel or partner with mainstream Israeli institutions.
Since the launch of the BDS campaign in 2005, QUIT has been actively supporting the boycott, divestment & sanctions against Israel. Even before the BDS campaign was officially launched QUIT has been one of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most active and consistent voices against the use of our tax dollars to support the violent, repressive and racist regime of Israel.
Since our inception in 2000, QUIT has initiated many actions against business and institutions which have been supporting Israel directly or indirectly.
Find out more about why Palestinian queers support the BDS.
These are some of the actions from our archives: