Solidarity meeting defies boycott calls

Bristol Friends of Standing Together held a successful public meeting on 9 January with two Standing Together activists, Itamar Avneri and Amal Ghawi, speaking.

Standing Together is the largest grassroots Jewish-Arab movement in Israel, calling for a ceasefire, a hostage-deal, an end to the occupation, and peace in the region.

But Bristol Palestine Alliance (BPA) had called for a boycott of the meeting on social media saying “‘Stand Together’ [sic] is on the BDS boycott list!! They are a zionist organisation. Do not engage with them, do not attend this meeting.” This was followed by the hashtags #freepalestine, #no2statesolution, #boycottisraeliproducts.

BPA’s graphic was circulated on other social media accounts and in WhatsApp groups where the meeting had been promoted. Comments were blocked on the original BPA Instagram post.

This is the latest episode after PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel), a campaign linked to BDS (Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions) spread disinformation about Standing Together and called for a boycott of the organisation, alleging that Standing Together “seeks to distract from and whitewash Israel’s ongoing genocide”, that it ignores the violence and injustices that took place during the creation of Israel, that it holds Palestinians and Jewish Israelis for equally responsible for conflict in the region, and that it tries to normalise Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

Standing Together’s social media, website, and other publications show different, and Standing Together’s Palestinian leadership has responded: “Efforts to silence us serve Israel’s leaders”.

The public meeting was due to be held in the Unite union building in Bristol, after a Unite branch had unanimously passed policy in support of Standing Together. Nevertheless, some employees at Unite, sympathetic to the call for a boycott of Standing Together, complained to the Unite South West region. They argued that Standing Together is on the BDS boycott list and that because Unite nationally has policy in support of BDS it should not host the public meeting.

Despite protests, Unite SW pulled support for the meeting and refused to host it. Nevertheless, in official communications to branch officers about why Unite could not support Standing Together, the reason given was, rather, that because Standing Together opposes arms sales to Israel and Unite has members in military industries.

In fact, the activity of Standing Together is immensely important for the Palestinian cause. In 2024 Standing Together organised the largest demonstrations for a ceasefire in Israel, intervened on anti-government demonstrations with calls for a ceasefire and hostage-deal, supported Palestinians and Israelis victimised for speaking out against the war, organised a Humanitarian Guard, impeded the far-right in Israel blocking aid to Gaza, and most recently organised an aid drive that filled 400 trucks of aid to go to Gaza and the West Bank.

The BDS boycott of Standing Together and the support by some pro-Palestinians serves as yet another example of how counter-productive BDS is to winning relief and rights for Palestinians.