As part of our focus on Boycott Campaigns, we are calling for a Healthcare Boycott Campaign and we are asking all doulas, healthcare workers, service users and other people who interact with or work within healthcare services in SCEE+OUK, public and private, to get involved.
Through the Healthcare Boycott Campaign we will be calling for the boycott of businesses, universities, charities, research projects and more that are on the BDS list, and explaining why it is important that as people interacting with healthcare systems, that we join together in union and support the Healthcare Boycott Campaign. Through targeted and consistent boycotting, we can see feasible change.
As well as refusing to use products or services from the companies on the boycott lists as individuals, we also recommend writing letters and calling for all hospitals, clinics, offices, products and services etc to additionally boycott to maximise the boycott impact. And to also say clearly that we do not agree to funding and co-signing genocide through the healthcare services in our respective SCEE+OUK countries. Despite what the current state of the law is, it is still imperative to place pressure on public bodies and charities to not fund genocide and settler colonialism. We have to be aware that the law more often than not has not been on the ‘right side of history’, and that if we give up without even fighting then we are encouraging nothing to change. However, if there is enough pushback on these laws and an increase in targeting the public bodies and charities to shame them for continuing to use Israeli owned products and services, then we may still see change.
We will be focusing on commonly used companies by the NHS and private healthcare providers and we will be taking our guidance from the official BNC and PACBI Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign. As we are still awaiting a response on affiliation from the official campaign, we will not be using the BDS acronym yet, as this is what these groups have previously requested. We also urge people to join the international and local BDS campaigns. We may add some companies who are not on the official BDS lists, as we do think its important where we can to also be specific to our area of healthcare and what steps we can take there to divest from all companies supporting genocide, but we ask that people prioritise the companies on the BDS list if you cannot boycott all.
Healthcare Boycott List
Teva
Teva is Israel’s pharmaceutical giant, which fulfils 1 in 6 prescriptions in the UK. Teva has partnered with Israel’s Pitchon-Lev that provides “tactical assistance towards the Home Front Command and the Knesset in all aspects of equipping and transporting food supplies, equipment, and supporting combat gear”, current priorities include “Ceramic bulletproof vests & helmets, and gas masks” for troops committing genocide. So far Teva has contributed over 1.5 tons of equipment to Pitchon-Lev. Teva is also a long term sponsor of the Israeli military, having adopted a battalion.
Eden Springs UK
They are entirely owned, controlled and managed by Mayanot Eden – a company which steals water from the Salukia spring in the occupied Syrian Golan, where it is bottled in the illegal Israeli settlement of Katzrin. Eden Springs is a commonly used water company used by the NHS, within offices and other places throughout healthcare.
Coca Cola
Coca Cola products are stocked in many hospital vending machines and other places within healthcare, another well known member of the BDS list. Coca Cola has a 57 year history of supporting Israel, and in the current stage of genocide (since October 2023) Coca Cola has donated supplies to the IOF and still runs its plant in the illegal settlement of Atarot. Out of all the evil companies in the world, Coca Cola is up there as one of the worst across the board , not just in its actions against Palestine.
Coca Cola also owns:
Costa Coffee
Innocent
Schweppes
Fanta
Sprite
Dr Pepper
Powerade
Appletiser
Lilt
Monster Energy
Smart Water
Oasis
PepsiCo
Again, another we tend to find in vending machines and other places throughout healthcare facilities. PepsiCo donated $1 million to unnamed ‘humanitarian organisations’. It’s also donating another $2 million to Israel via unnamed organisations local to its bottling partners. Pepsico owns Sodastream which is complicit in Israel’s policy of displacing the indigenous Bedouin-Palestinian citizens of Israel in the Naqab. It’s also in a 50% partnership with Strauss to produce Sabra (hummus), a company that openly provides financial support to the Israeli army. On their website under “social responsibility” Strauss boasted “We have adopted the Golani reconnaissance platoon for over 30 years…”
Starbucks
You may see Starbucks as the coffee shop within hospitals or the chosen spot for coffee and lunch orders. Starbucks is suing its own workers union for posting “Solidarity with Palestine” on social media. Howard Shultz – Starbucks founder, 3x Chair, 2x CEO, and currently its Chairman Emeritus and largest private owner of Starbucks shares worth $2.3 billion (11/2023), is a staunch Zionist with huge investments in Israel (Wiz). He was awarded “The Israel 50th Anniversary Friend of Zion Tribute Award” for his services to the apartheid state, an award Starbucks proudly displayed a sign of its complicity.
Wix
Make sure your workplace isn’t using a Wix website. Born out of the Israeli military Wix states it’s “doing everything to support” Israel in its genocide with the hash tag #Hamaslslsis. A leaked internal memo reveals it encourages employees, including 500 based in Ireland, to create content supporting “Israel’s narrative” training them in racism to “show Westernity” in social media posts backing Israel, as “unlike the Gazans, we look and live like Europeans or Americans”. When one employee, Courtney Carey, rejected this she was sacked.
AXA
Do you recommend, buy health, business, car or home insurance by or work with AXA? As of May 2021, AXA was still a shareholder of two Israeli banks: Bank Leumi (US$ 5 million) and Israel Discount Bank (US$ 1.2 million), having sold some of its shares as it previously had shares in all 5 Israeli banks. AXA was also investing in additional companies involved in illegal Israeli settlements, among them General Mills, Manitou, CETCO Mineral Technology Group, RE/MAX Holdings, Solvay and Terex. With a total investment of US$ 845 million, DBIO ranked AXA 30th among the top 100 European investors in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.