BDS Malaysia defends boycott strategy amid criticism

BDS Malaysia chairman Nazari Ismail (third from left) said the non-violent anti-Israel movement prioritises targets with a reasonable chance of success.

PETALING JAYA: 

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Malaysia has defended itself against accusations of hypocrisy in its choice of companies to boycott, saying its strategy is planned by its parent group BDS, which issues an official list of entities on which to focus.

BDS Malaysia chairman Nazari Ismail told FMT that the movement, which advocates boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel, prioritises targets with a reasonable chance of success and aims for impactful change rather than symbolic victories.

He said the BDS movement also considers several factors when selecting targets, including a company’s level of complicity in supporting Israel’s actions, the potential for building coalitions with other movements, and the likelihood of media support.

Given our limited human capacity, we want to be strategic with the targets we select,

 he said.

The BDS movement does not actually launch a boycott campaign against every boycottable event, product, or institution, because that would make it impossible to achieve concrete results.

Several X users had called out BDS Malaysia for using the social media platform, which is owned by tech billionaire Elon Musk.

On Wednesday, Musk attended Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the US Congress as a guest of the Israeli prime minister, raising questions about the consistency of BDS Malaysia’s boycott principles given its use of Musk’s platform.

In response, Nazari said that not all targets are subject to full boycotts, with some designated as 

pressure targets

 to build momentum and public awareness.

There are hundreds of international companies and institutions that are in some way complicit, but not all to the same degree,

 he said.

“For example, a company arming the Israeli military is clearly more complicit than a company selling its beauty products in Israel.

If two companies are equally complicit, then we must choose. It is more effective to target the more publicly recognised brand as that usually attracts more media attention and allows us to educate and reach out to a much larger audience.

BDS Malaysia has been associated with several boycott initiatives, including against Puma and McDonald’s.

Nazari previously denied starting the boycott against McDonald’s Malaysia, which withdrew a defamation suit against BDS Malaysia on March 22 following a positive mediation outcome between the two parties. - FMT