Anti-Israel boycott campaigners are turning their attention to tech giant Hewlett-Packard next week in an international week of boycotting and protesting the company because of its presence in Israel
From 25 November to 3 December, pro-Palestinian activists plan to campaign to get HP de-shelved from a local stores. It is telling supporters that “if the store refuses, hold signs and flyer outside to escalate pressure and educate shoppers”. Mock checkpoints and flash mobs are also being encouraged outside tech gatherings, college campuses and churches, among other places.
HP, whose products include house-hold computers, printers and ink, has approximately 324,600 employees worldwide. Over 5,700 are based in Israel. It is also one of the main information technology suppliers for Israeli military.
The latest initiative by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement (BDS) is focusing its attention on just one technology provider that has operations in Israel as a strategic way to deligitimise Israel, but fails to recognise that other tech giants, such as Apple, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Samsung and Dell, among others, also have bases in Israel.
Israel’s mission to the UN has launched a petition countering the boycott. It says “BDS’s latest campaign is to pressure Israel by persuading investors and shareholders of HP to dump shares and divest from the company for doing business with Israel. The BDS activists, who make no efforts to hide their extreme hostility towards Israel and companies they seek to pressure, completely reject the notion of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. BDS is falsely accusing Israel of using HP technology to prolong the conflict. It is important to note that HP does incredible work helping Israel save lives from terrorist attacks.”
In urging supporters of Israel to sign the petition, it states “We need to assure BDS fails to pressure HP. We need to let HP and Israel know we stand with them, and with the rest of the world that disagrees with the BDS movement and their harmful tactics.”
Click here to go to change.org and sign the petition.
Christians United for Israel UK
