After the ceasefire in Gaza, Seattle activists continue to organize with the Palestinian BDS movement

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, the global Palestine solidarity movement has grown exponentially. People of conscience have taken to the streets to denounce Israel’s military actions, which have killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. South Africa and several other nations have even sued Israel in the International Court of Justice, accusing the country of committing genocide against Palestinians.

Although the Jan. 19 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has halted the genocide (or at least reduced its escalation), the war and occupation continues. As I write this post, the Israeli military is destroying dozens of homes and displacing thousands of families in Jenin, employing tactics similar to the ones they used in Gaza.

Here in Seattle, local activists have been fighting for justice in Palestine in a number of different ways, including organizing countless protest marches, delaying military cargo from being loaded in the Port of Tacoma, blockading I-5 and setting up the Liberated Zone encampment at the University of Washington. Local groups have also started mutual aid fundraisers for Palestinians in Gaza to help them survive and rebuild. However, over time attention has waned and people have turned to other pressing matters, resulting in a decrease in the number of actions for Palestine.

But this doesn’t mean community organizers are forgetting about Palestine altogether. In fact, two new local campaigns have been recently launched in coordination with the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. These efforts are aimed at building sustained community power as opposed to only engaging in short-term mobilizations.

The first of these campaigns is an effort by rank-and-file workers at PCC Community Markets to get the upscale grocery store chain to stop selling Israeli goods. These include two brands of Israeli wines produced in the illegally occupied Syrian Golan Heights and food products manufactured by Osem, an Israeli company owned by Nestlé. The workers are also calling for PCC to allow its workers to wear clothes expressing solidarity with Palestine.

Since early January, the workers and allied community members have tabled outside several locations. including the PCC at 23rd and Union. To date, an online petition started by the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America calling on PCC to deshelve Israeli products has garnered almost 1,200 signatures. UFCW 3000, the union that represents PCC workers, has not made a statement on the PCC BDS campaign.

The second local campaign is the effort to boycott Chevron. In 2020, the hydrocarbon giant acquired Noble Energy, which developed Israel’s Eastern Mediterranean gas fields. Chevron continues to extract gas there, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to the Israeli government in the first half of 2024 alone. The company also co-owns a gas pipeline off the shore of Gaza which allows Israel to export to Egypt.

Chevron’s deep complicity in Israel, alongside its destructive track record on the environment and climate change, has led the company to become one of the top targets of the BDS movement.

In conjunction with fellow international activists, local organizers held several actions this past weekend calling on consumers to boycott Chevron. On Feb. 1, activists picketed outside the Eastgate Chevron in Bellevue and the Safeway gas station in Ballard. According to Arlo, an activist part of the Seattle Chevron BDS campaign, Safeway buys gasoline from several companies including Chevron. On Feb. 2, campaigners dropped a banner over an I-5 overpass as well.

“While the whole world watches the ceasefire and hostage exchanges taking place in Gaza, it is crucial that we remain focused on ending the Israeli occupation and Apartheid for which there is currently no end in sight,” Arlo wrote in a statement shared with me. 

“We stand on the shoulders of those who came before, and are inspired by the anti-Apartheid gas station boycotts that brought worldwide pressure on companies like Shell to divest from Apartheid South Africa.”