Who Leads the BDS Movement and Where Are Its Official Statements Published?

Updated

The BDS movement is led by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), described on bdsmovement.net as the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society and the leadership of the global BDS movement. Its official statements are published on bdsmovement.net, where the site separates them into BNC Statements and PACBI Statements. If you want to verify the movement's official position on a policy, academic, or cultural boycott question, those two statement categories are the places to check.

Who leads the BDS movement

According to the site, the BNC functions as both the largest coalition of Palestinian civil society and the leadership body of the global movement. That means statements issued under the BNC name represent the movement's organizational leadership rather than an individual spokesperson or a single member organization.

The site also lists PACBI Statements alongside BNC Statements. PACBI refers to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, so its statements are the reference point for academic and cultural boycott positions specifically.

Where official statements are published

Official statements appear on bdsmovement.net under the Statements sections. The site's navigation and content distinguish between:

Statement type Issuing body Typical subject matter
BNC Statements Palestinian BDS National Committee Movement-wide positions, policy briefs, calls to action
PACBI Statements Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Academic and cultural boycott positions

The homepage also surfaces related material such as Action Alerts, News, and Resources, but statements are the category to use when you need an official position rather than a campaign announcement.

How to check the movement's official position

  1. Go to bdsmovement.net.
  2. Locate the Statements section in the site navigation.
  3. Choose BNC Statements for movement-wide positions or PACBI Statements for academic and cultural boycott positions.
  4. Read the specific statement rather than relying on third-party summaries, since the site is the movement's own publication channel.

A concrete example from the site: the BNC issued a Policy Brief on State Duties regarding Immigration and Visa Waiver policies, calling on partners and supporters to pressure governments to amend immigration and visa policies to align with international legal standards and obligations. That item is labeled as a Briefing under the sanctions-and-governments theme, showing how the site tags statements and briefs by topic.

What else the site publishes

Beyond statements, the homepage carries Latest Updates, Action Alerts, News, and Resources. Recent items listed there include campaign days of action, a call to stop FANUC, and a Palestinian unions' call for global worker action. These are campaign and organizing materials, not statements of position — useful if you want to join an action, while the Statements sections remain the authoritative source for official positions.