Cola Gaza; one of Palestine-inspired boycotts' long-term impacts
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The boycotts have had a noticeable impact, resulting in reduced sales, layoffs, and significant reputational damage.
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A woman writes complicit, boycott on a Starbucks at the demonstration in support of the Palestinian people in Paris, France, on March 30, 2024. (AFP)
Since the war on Gaza began in October, over 12 multinational companies backing "Israel" have faced widespread consumer boycotts, Time reported.
The boycotts have had a noticeable impact, resulting in reduced sales, layoffs, and significant reputational damage. However, it has also created opportunities for new brands to step into the void left by the major corporations.
One such alternative is Cola Gaza, which entered the British market this month, and another is Palestine Drinks, a Sweden-based company that debuted in March and caters to the EU, the UK, and South Africa.
Read more: Anti-boycott Coca-Cola Bangladeshi ad receives backlash
Mohamed Kiswani, communications director of Safad Food, Palestine Drinks' Palestinian-owned parent firm, told TIME that the beverage has been in high demand, citing the company had "no idea it would be this popular" and revealing it has sold close to 16 million cans in the last 5 months with the revenues going to organizations that help Palestinian civil society in the West Bank and Gaza.
According to Kiswani, “We are not selling drinks,” rather “We are selling the brand ‘Palestine,’ to get people to talk more about the genocide that is happening.”
Typically, consumer boycotts in support of Gaza last for mere days or weeks, but the current boycott and bombardment have lasted over 10 months.
Brayden King, an expert on boycotts at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, told TIME that while most boycott efforts have little long-term influence on consumer behavior, those that do may use public scrutiny to their advantage. "People hold each other accountable," he says—a duty made much simpler when it comes to commodities commonly used in social situations, such as food and drink.
However, another indicator of an effective boycott is the ability to cause long-term reputational damage to a company. While most boycotts fade after 90 days, according to King, Gaza-inspired boycotts have much exceeded that, owing in large part to the ongoing genocide.
King forecasted that he expects the reputational damage of the brands associated with the ongoing aggression to only be "that much greater," citing that outrage felt by many is "quite severe and it doesn’t seem to have dissipated at all, partly because the travesty continues."
He further added that after consumers become accustomed to buying other products, that habit is "not going to just go away because a ceasefire comes around."
French insurance giant AXA cuts ties with major Israeli banks: BDS
French insurance giant AXA has reportedly divested from all major Israeli banks in a massive win for the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction movement (BDS).
The move comes as part of ongoing efforts by BDS to pressure companies complicit in supporting the Israeli occupation's settler-colonial regime, as announced in a new report published on Wednesday by the corporate accountability organization Eko.
Israeli banks are considered the backbone of the Israeli colonial project, providing substantial direct support for the expansion and maintenance of illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
The global campaign against AXA targeted the company's investments in these banks and in Elbit Systems, a leading Israeli defense contractor implicated in various human rights violations against Palestinians.
Under pressure from the campaign, AXA had previously partially divested from Elbit in December 2018 and March 2019. By the end of 2022, it had also withdrawn its investments from two Israeli banks, Mizrahi-Tefahot and First International Bank of Israel.
Eko, which is part of the broad coalition pushing AXA to cease its complicity in Israeli crimes against Palestinians, commissioned independent research by Profundo, revealing that as of September 2023, AXA still held over $20 million in shares in three Israeli banks: Hapoalim, Discount, and Leumi. However, by June 24, 2024, amid escalating global pressure, AXA had divested from these banks as well.
The report confirms that AXA has no longer invested in Mizrahi-Tefahot or First International Bank of Israel since at least the end of 2022, and it has now sold its remaining investments in the other Israeli banks, with only a few shares left in Bank Leumi.
