De-Shelving Apartheid, Re-Imagining Resistance: Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions and the Palestinian National Movement

The boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement entered the Palestinian political landscape in 2005 amidst the absence of a unified national liberation strategy and a truly representative Palestinian political body. By channeling extant energies through a three-tiered platform enshrined in the Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS, the movement has reinvigorated the Palestinian national movement. It has done so by mobilizing around principles that seek to unite Palestinians in their scattered communities in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel, and the Diaspora. Further, BDS provides access to previously marginalized groups, most notably to Palestinian queer and Israeli activists, and has also drawn to the movement Palestinians disenchanted by prior forms of resistance. Due to the history of failures of the Palestinian leadership, Palestinian BDS activists have come to cherish the leaderless-ness of the movement. Although this may sustain Palestinian involvement in BDS, it may also be what prevents it from becoming a complete liberation strategy. At the same time, Palestinians within the movement have criticized it for engaging in antidemocratic and unfair practices.;Thirty-six Palestinian BDS activists were interviewed for this study. The data analysis builds upon the existing literature on the history and development of Palestinian nationalism and political participation and explains how the BDS movement has emerged as an important factor in the development of the Palestinian national movement. This study also highlights the parallels and distinctions between BDS and prior forms of Palestinian nationalism and calls attention to the pitfalls and possibilities of BDS as a nascent strategy in the resistance to Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.