Stop Israel’s Surveillance, Misinformation, and Censorship of Palestinians: As a colonial power, Israel has harnessed technology to enforce its oppression, occupation, dispossession, and harassment. Multiple human rights organisations, including the United Nations, documented the methods through which Israel has harnessed technology to harass, persecute, and silence Palestinians, while also utilizing their surveillance technology to manipulate governments. And, Big Tech companies have been complicit and allies in Israel's crimes. 

• Israel has worked tirelessly to extend its surveillance and censorship abilities to the digital sphere and export its oppressive technologies worldwide. As was extensively documented by 7amleh and other organizations, Israel has the highest number of surveillance companies per capita. This comes as no surprise as Unit 8200 – which is the Israeli Occupation Forces intelligence corps and its largest unit – has seen its “graduates” go on to form companies that offer surveillance-as-a-service (read: control-as-a-service). NSO, Intellexa, Cellebrite, QuaDream, etc., are all Israeli companies that have sold their surveillance technologies to governments worldwide to spy on activists, dissidents, journalists, lawyers, and citizens.

  • It’s, therefore, our duty to join the call for a global moratorium on the sale and transfer of surveillance technologies. You can write to the UN representative of your country to the United Nations to publicly demand a moratorium.

• Big tech companies are directly complicit in the Zionist settler colonial project and occupation of Palestine. Google and Amazon have both subscribed to Project Nimbus: a project to provide the Israeli occupation and its military cloud computing and artificial intelligence services. Companies cashed in over a billion dollars to entrench the Israeli occupation's computerized and data-driven surveillance of the Palestinians.

  • Add your voice to the No Tech for Apartheid movement, and tell big tech executives that you don’t support the sale of technology to further the Zionist project.

• The Israeli occupation continues to have a stronghold on the narrative on social media as pro-Palestine voices are continuously silenced across platforms. People who post on Palestine have their posts and accounts removed and have their engagement on social media restricted. Most recently, Instagram erroneously translated the word “Palestinian” to “terrorist” on people’s bios and simply apologized for the mistake.

  • Sign the petition to hold platforms accountable for the silencing of Palestine.

Boycott, Divestments & Sanctions: From the resistance and liberation wisdom shared by the South African anti-apartheid movement, “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.” BDS seeks to dismantle Israel’s colonialism, occupation, military,  and apartheid. You can get involved and amplify the BDS campaign in your country and connect with organisations that are main partners of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), which is the broadest coalition of Palestinian networks that leads and supports the BDS movement. BDS core strategies:

• BOYCOTTS: Involves withdrawing support from Israel's apartheid regime, complicit Israeli sporting, cultural and academic institutions, and from all Israeli and international companies engaged in violations of Palestinian human rights..

  • Usually, a barcode that starts with 729 refers to a product of Israel, either manufactured there or related in another way. Check the label and ensure it indicates “Product of Israel.” Boycott not only Israeli and settlement products, but also international companies that either operate in illegal settlements in occupied Palestine, or directly support and finance the occupation’s human rights violations. Among these companies are Expedia, Booking.com, and AirBnB, according to the investigation published, in 2020, and updated, in 2023, by the Human Rights Council. You can use social media as well as review platforms to raise awareness. 

  • View this list of companies that profit from the blockade and the Israeli occupation to learn more about their involvement, and how you can join efforts to divest or boycott them. 

• DIVESTMENT: Urge banks, local councils, churches, pension funds and universities to withdraw investments from the State of Israel and all Israeli and international companies that sustain Israeli apartheid.

  • There’s an urgent need to mobilise and organise collectively to pressure companies, institutions, and governments to divest and cut ties with Israel on economic, cultural, and academic levels. Compiled by AFSC's Economic Activism Program, the list includes companies that supply weapons and surveillance technology to Israel. Ensure your money is not contributing to human rights violations—and call on these companies to end their complicity in apartheid and war crimes. 

• SANCTIONS: Campaigns exert pressure on governments to fulfil their legal obligations to end Israeli apartheid and refrain from aiding or assisting in its maintenance. This is achieved through actions such as banning business dealings with illegal Israeli settlements, terminating military trade and free-trade agreements, and suspending Israel's membership in international forums, including UN bodies and FIFA.

  • Israel has persistently maintained its occupation, apartheid policies, and colonial campaign for decades. Yet, there is exceptionalism for Israel that allows for its impunity, particularly from the U.S. and led to the continued escalation of brutal colonial violence and its destabilizing impact on the Middle East. However, there have been significant shifts that can pave the way for more substantial sanctions. South Africa, for instance, downgraded its relationship with Israel and openly condemned Israel's actions. And, Colombia's President initiated the suspension of foreign relations with Israel.

  • Funders and philanthropic institutions have been complicit in supporting Israel's occupation, apartheid, and the ongoing conflict in Palestine by exerting pressure and coercion on organizations, civil society, and movements to prevent them from speaking out against Israel's actions and occupation, and by failing to provide resources for Palestine's fundamental social justice goal: its liberation. As the Funding Freedom: Philanthropy and the Palestinian Freedom Movement report describes: “There is an extraordinary gap between the enormous amount of money raised annually to support continued Israeli apartheid and the amount raised to fight for Palestinian liberation. A number of factors, including changes and challenges within the philanthropic sector, an evolving understanding of Palestinian resistance and Israeli oppression, and a growing pressure to align values across movements rooted in justice, are leading to a new willingness among donors, funder networks, and foundations to support and participate in the Palestinian liberation movement. But enormous obstacles–including smear campaigns, legal threats, and false accusations of antisemitism–continue to make it difficult for donors to make long-term, sustainable commitments to funding work on Palestinian liberation. And the fight for Palestinian rights affects all movements for justice because of how the right weaponizes it as a cudgel to weaken the interconnected movement ecology.”

“When we say “never again” with respect to the fascism that produced the Holocaust, we should also say “never again” with respect to apartheid, in the southern US. But that means, first and foremost, that we will have to expand and deepen our solidarities with the people of Palestine. People of all genders and sexualities. People inside and outside prison walls. Inside and outside the apartheid wall. Boycott G4S, support BDS, and finally, Palestine will be free.” - Angela Davis, Feminist Social Justice Activist and Academic

Demand Accountability for war crimes, mass genocide, and collective punishment: Join forces and mobilise with networks, unions, student movements, and solidarity groups to demand your governments carry out a robust investigation at the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to hold Israel accountable according to international laws and frameworks, for the war crimes, mass genocides, and collective punishment in Gaza since October 7th, while including within the investigation scope the decades of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity in historic Palestine. 

• Canadian individuals and organisations can endorse the petition to the International Court of Justice regarding Canada’s unacceptable submission in regard to Palestine, and demand that Canada stops selling arms and military technology to Israel. 

• Demand UK parliamentarians to uphold their ethical standards about the right of Palestinians for freedom and self-determination by opposing the UK anti-BDS bill that shields Israel from accountability. You can also sign the UK petition urging Israel to allow fuel, electricity and food into Gaza.

• Across Europe and the world, mainly the US, organise and pressure to call on ceasing the fully unconditional aid relationship with Israel and call for revoking the status of tax-exempt US nonprofits who move millions of dollars into Zionist colonisation in Palestine and support the harassment, coercion, and silencing of movements supporting the liberation of Palestine (the Guardian recently reported about one of this funders and their role in harassment and doxxing). Foreign policies need to de-exceptionalise Israel from their commitment to international justice campaigns. 

• Jewish Voice for Peace put together several petitions you can endorse: Calling on President Biden to demand and facilitate an immediate ceasefire; and calling on the Congress to focus on political solution and an end to the US complicity in Israel’s occupation and apartheid in Palestine.

• Follow the Americans for Justice in Palestine Action and partake in their advocacy for Palestinian rights and against the US government providing Israel with taxpayer-funded weapons and diplomatic support.

“We ask our partner, the PSOE socialist party, to work together to present on behalf of the government of Spain a petition to the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court to investigate the war crimes committed in Palestine by Netanyahu, as was done recently in the case of the Spanish aid worker murdered in the Ukrainian war” - Ione Belarra, Spain’s Minister of Social Rights

Decolonize narratives by centering Palestinian liberation: Language shapes the narratives that define our understanding of the world. These narratives have far-reaching implications, influencing the larger context, guiding policy and funding decisions, and permeating every aspect of society. To fully grasp the significance of decolonizing narratives and putting Palestinian liberation at the core, it is imperative to delve into the historical context and the influential powers that have supported and bolstered Israel's occupation of Palestine. 

• Terms such as "terrorists" are used to describe Palestinians or anyone supporting their liberation, as reported in 2022. Depicting Palestinians as menacing threats is used to justify the implementation of repressive measures as well as supporting the continuous occupation and colonization of their land. This form of language stigmatizes and dehumanises Palestinians while sidestepping the fact that their land was unlawfully occupied and subjected to brutal violence. Moreover, terms like anti-Semitism have been repeatedly co-opted and manipulated by the Israel state to maintain impunity and control the narrative, which many Jewish human rights organizations, such as Jewish Voices for Peace, and respected figures like Holocaust survivor Dr.Gabo Mate, have pointed out. It's crucial to note that Israel is a Zionist state, rooted in a political ideology that emerged in Germany. The primary objective of Zionism was the colonization and occupation of Palestine. This has led to the ongoing displacement, dispossession, and killings of Palestinians by the Israel state. Anti-Zionism is not synonymous with anti-Semitism. The struggle against Israel's actions did not arise as an opposition to Jewish people, but rather as a response to the Zionist ideology and practices that underpin the erasure, dominance, and exploitation characterizing Israel's aspirations for a sovereign Zionist state.

“There’s no way you could have ever created a Jewish state without oppressing and expelling the local population. Jewish Israeli historians have shown without a doubt that the expulsion of Palestinians was persistent, pervasive, cruel, murderous and with deliberate intent – that’s what’s called the ‘Nakba’ in Arabic; the ‘disaster’ or the ‘catastrophe’. There’s a law that you cannot deny the Holocaust, but in Israel you’re not allowed to mention the Nakba, even though it’s at the very basis of the foundation of Israel.” - Dr.Gabo Mate, Hungarian-Canadian physician and Holocaust survivor

Yet, mainstream media and other influential platforms have often perpetuated the use of language that favours Israel, sustaining and amplifying an oppressive and violent narrative that allows for the continuation of the occupation of Palestine. Decolonizing these narratives involves centring the historical and factual experiences of violence endured by Palestinians, their stories, narratives, and liberation.

Thus, we must coordinate collective efforts to shift the supremacist and racist narrative that dehumanises Palestinians’ lives, existence, and suffering. In your advocacy messaging, demand that humanitarian aid is immediately let into the Gaza Strip and the borders are open for the injured civilians to get decent medical treatment out of the Strip. Moreover, pay attention to what’s happening across historic Palestine, and how people in Jerusalem, the West Bank, Naqab, and occupied 1948 are being threatened, arrested, killed, tortured, lynched, and assaulted throughout broader campaigns of state and settler violence.