Buycott Successes
The Buycott that started it all. On April 5, 2009, protestors gathered outside of a liquor store in Toronto to protest the shop's selling of Israeli wines. They were greeted by hundreds of Israel supporters who turned the event into a celebration, emptying the store's shelves of all Israeli products and proceeding to dance in the streets as the protestors quietly slinked away. You can follow links to Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this video.
On November 29, 2009, protestors showed up at two Canadian sporting goods retailers to complain about the store’s carrying Israeli long underwear (we’re not kidding). But once word got out, Israel’s supporters did their thing, driving up sales of all the store’s Israeli products up 2000%!
Last summer, over 30 organizations signed up to march into Trader Joe's stores to "deshelve" (i.e., vandalize) Israeli products unless the chain stopped selling Israeli couscous. The result? No one showed, except for Israel's supporters (including the Hillel's Angels motorcycle gang) who bought up Israeli products from Coast to Coast to reward the store for refusing to bow to blackmail. Find out more about the Battle of Couscous here.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) "movement" has been doing its thing since 2001 and never hesitates to inform the public that they're "on the march." And the result? Well in Q4 of 2009, Israeli exports and economic growth both exploded, despite the continued downturn in the global economy. Food for thought the next time you hear about the latest BDS "success."
