No Room for Genocide

Throughout Israel's ongoing livestreamed genocide against millions of Palestinians in the illegally occupied Gaza Strip, the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest Palestinian civil society coalition leading the global BDS movement, has called on people of conscience around the world to channel their grief and rage into meaningful solidarity, which begins with ending complicity.

Without the military, financial, diplomatic and political complicity of the colonial West, especially the US, Germany and the UK, Israel could not have continued its genocide or maintained its 77-year-old regime of settler colonialism and apartheid against the Indigenous Palestinian people.

Israeli political, cultural, academic, religious and business leaders, some of whom are already wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity, have explicitly incited to genocide against Palestinians. These statements have been followed by large-scale Israeli atrocities that many Israeli perpetrators have publicly documented and celebrated through social media and in TV interviews. This shameless public incitement to and glorification of genocidal violence are evidence of both a genocidal intent and the impunity granted to Israel by decades of international state, corporate and institutional complicity.

This ongoing International Criminal Court investigation, with more anticipated arrest warrants, has led to increased accountability and scrutiny to the actions of Israeli nationals, particularly officials, responsible for atrocity crimes. In this context, the presence of alleged Israeli war criminals in public and commercial spaces such as hotels, B&Bs, hostels, tours and cruises, as well as cafés, restaurants, museums, stores, among others, raises serious ethical, legal and safety concerns.

Hosting and/or serving such suspected criminals undermines efforts made to uphold international law and confront impunity. It also undermines commitments to human rights, peace, justice, openness, inclusivity, and social responsibility, not to mention safety.

We have seen courageous actions by hotel and restaurant owners across the world who have stood up for Palestinian rights and refused to continue business as usual with Israelis credibly suspected of being war criminals. Many workers and hospitality business owners were among the flood of residents from several Greek islands that protested and successfully prevented Israeli cruise ships, largely carrying Israeli soldiers, from docking at their ports.