What Does Boycott Israel Aim to Achieve With Its Boycott Strategy?

Updated

Boycott Israel (boycott-israel.org) is an advocacy site that publishes a streamlined list of Israeli companies and businesses operating substantially in Israel, and asks consumers worldwide to stop buying their products. Its stated aim is to apply economic pressure on the Israeli government to stop settlements and comply with international law, with the broader goal of advancing dialogue and a resolution to the conflict. The strategy is aimed at individual consumers making purchasing decisions, not at institutions or governments.

The core logic of the strategy

The site frames the boycott as a form of protest against what it calls collective punishment, and as a way to advocate for Palestinian rights. The mechanism is deliberately simple:

  • Target: companies in Israel, plus businesses operating substantially in Israel.
  • Action: do not buy certain products.
  • Intended pressure point: the Israeli government, via economic impact.
  • Intended outcome: pressure to stop settlements and comply with international law.

The site describes this as "boycott with purpose" — a targeted list rather than a blanket call, and it presents mindful consumption as something individuals can act on directly.

The specific goals it names

The site lists three aims under "What We Aim to Achieve":

Goal What it means on the site
Reduce illegal settlements Advocate for actions that decrease the number of illegal settlements in the West Bank
Harmony and peace for all Support actions that promote peace, dialogue, and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine
No to Israeli apartheid Promote a future without apartheid in Israel, advocating equality and justice for all

A fourth framing, "A Path to Ending Suffering," ties these together: the boycott is meant to encourage pressure on the Israeli government to stop settlements and comply with international law, and that economic pressure is intended to promote dialogue and mitigate ongoing suffering.

The chain of effects the site expects

Reading the site's own framing, the intended sequence is:

  1. Individual choice — a consumer checks the list and avoids a product.
  2. Aggregate economic pressure — many such choices, globally, reduce revenue for the listed companies.
  3. Political pressure — that economic weight is meant to push the Israeli government toward stopping settlements and following international law.
  4. Dialogue and resolution — the stated end point is negotiation and a resolution to the conflict, not the boycott itself.

The site explicitly says the economic pressure "is intended to promote dialogue and actions that mitigate ongoing suffering and advance a resolution to the conflict." So the boycott is presented as a means, not the end goal.

What the site pairs with the boycott

The site is not only a list. It also carries:

  • A current-situation section on Gaza, describing a humanitarian crisis, a siege cutting off food, water, fuel and electricity affecting 2.3 million people, and a shut-down power plant. It cites figures it attributes to Gaza's Health Ministry, confirmed by morgue and hospital data, and says these align with NGO and UN assessments.
  • An emergency relief appeal for Gaza, with a donation option.
  • A "Boycott Strategy" section, which is where the aims above are set out.

So the site combines consumer action with relief fundraising and advocacy messaging.

What to keep in mind if you use it

  • It is an advocacy source, not a neutral directory. The list and the framing reflect the organization's stated political position. If you want to verify a specific company's operations, check the company's own disclosures or independent reporting.
  • The site does not state pricing, membership, or login requirements in the material available, so nothing here should be read as confirming the site is free or requires no account.
  • The strategy depends on scale. Its logic assumes many individual choices add up; a single person avoiding a product has no measurable effect on its own.
  • The stated goal is pressure toward negotiation, so judging the strategy means asking whether consumer boycotts of this kind have historically shifted government policy — a question the site asserts rather than demonstrates.

If your question is simply "what is this site trying to do," the answer is: give consumers a concrete list to act on, in order to turn individual purchasing decisions into economic pressure aimed at ending settlements, ending what it calls apartheid, and pushing both sides toward dialogue and a resolution.