Why the SanctionsKill Campaign Supports BDS
The SanctionsKill campaign was formed in 2019 to raise awareness of the human cost of the “sanctions”—actually economic coercive measures—imposed by the United States and its allies on over 40 countries, in which one-third of humanity lives. Our coalition of grassroots activists has exposed the suffering and death caused to populations targeted with these measures, particularly among children, the elderly, and people with health conditions. We also strongly support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement advanced by Palestinian civil society as a legitimate way for grassroots activists around the world to pressure the settler-colonial state of Israel to comply with international law and recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.
It is important to understand the distinction between BDS and imperialist economic coercive measures. While this includes legal differences, the most salient feature is that BDS is the peoples’ effort to end their governments’ complicity with Zionist colonial crimes, whereas US “sanctions” maintain imperialist hegemony by forcing countries to submit to US economic and political interests. The BDS movement comes from over a century of struggle for Palestinian liberation, with a global consensus of the world’s people that Zionist apartheid must end, while US-imposed “sanctions” are based on specious accusations of human rights violations to “continue the theft of wealth from the Global South, and preserve racial hierarchy in the international system.”
Some definitions and a bit of history can help to better understand the complementarity of BDS and SanctionsKill.
A definition of sanctions and their legality
The United Nations describes sanctions as restrictive measures imposed by the UN Security Council to enforce international law and maintain or restore peace and security, which may include “complete or partial interruption of economic, communications, or diplomatic relations.” Sanctions imposed unilaterally (without the UN Security Council) violate the UN Charter, and UN bodies are calling for the elimination of “unilateral coercive measures” such as those imposed by the US government. This global consensus is shown in the fact that for over 30 consecutive years, the UN General Assembly has voted almost unanimously to eliminate the US blockade of Cuba; the usual dissenting votes are only those of the US and Israel. Even UN Security Council sanctions are often manipulated by the US to impose collective punishment on civilians, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
What is BDS and how does it work?
BDS for Palestine is but one expression of a national liberation struggle that has been ongoing since the first Zionist settlement was established in 1878. Evoking the Great Revolt of 1936-39, the decades-long Arab Boycott initiated in 1945, the 1975 UN resolution that declared “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination,” the 1975 Organization of African Unity resolution that called for support of Palestine against “Zionist racist colonialism,” and the Intifadas, the international divestment movement started in 2000 and was relaunched as boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) in 2005. It derives inspiration from the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) of South Africa which led hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens around the world to boycott goods from the Apartheid state from the 1950s to 1994. Students, churches, trade unions, and local groups pushed governments and businesses to divest. There was a cultural boycott and South Africa was banned from the Olympics and from FIFA competition between 1964 and 1992. “The strength of the international solidarity campaign was that it spoke directly to the ordinary citizen and challenged each one singly, and communities collectively, to take action.”1
UN sanctions were also imposed on South Africa (including an arms embargo undermined by Israel), and the country was suspended from the UN General Assembly from 1974 to 1994. By the 1980s individual countries, including the US, were imposing sanctions. However, it seems that the boycott movement was more impactful than official sanctions, causing a “privately induced financial crisis — the repercussions of which were substantially greater than any of the public sanctions that ensued.” BDS against apartheid South Africa was a complement to the most important factor in bringing down the apartheid regime—the resistance of Black South Africans on the ground, including armed struggle.
The movement for BDS against Israeli apartheid has been accelerating since the start of the livestreamed genocide in October of 2023. This grassroots movement led by Palestinians in Palestine and in the diaspora, is inspiring millions to boycott consumer goods made in Israel and demand that Israeli weapons and surveillance companies be removed from their local economies, governments, and pension funds. Similar to the AAM of South Africa, billions of dollars have now been divested from the Zionist economy. Campaigns such as “Apartheid Free Communities” have moved public discourse towards an acknowledgement of the unjust, racist treatment of the Palestinian people. Divestment is again the rallying cry of students demanding an end to their universities’ complicity in human rights abuses, and there is an academic and intellectual boycott and call to ban the Israeli settler-colonial state from the Olympics and FIFA competition.
While the genocide takes the form of forced starvation, the world’s people are sickened to see that governments and international organizations are incapable or unwilling to stop atrocities committed in plain sight. In response, many have taken matters into their own hands through boycott and divestment. And as in South Africa, BDS is a complement to the main struggle on the ground in Palestine.
The BDS movement says that boycott and divestment necessarily come before sanctions, in order to build “a crucial mass of people power to make policymakers fulfill their obligations under international law.” It is an effort to move toward binding UN Security Council sanctions to oblige Israel to comply with the many General Assembly resolutions and International Court of Justice rulings demanding an end to Israel’s apartheid and genocide.
How do US “sanctions” work?
In contrast, the unilateral coercive measures (“sanctions”) promoted by the US are not intended to uphold international law or support peace and security, but rather to deliberately impose collective punishment on civilian populations in order to bring about regime change. This was revealed in a 1960 memo by a US diplomat explaining that a blockade of Cuba would “bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.”2 The United States government imposes these measures on countries that try to develop economic or political systems independent of US domination. And given the US’ “exorbitant power to sanction” due to the dominant role of its dollar in international trade and banking transactions, these measures are very impactful.
Economic coercive measures punish populations by impacting global trade, thus making it hard to import food, fuel, medicines, and parts to maintain civilian infrastructure. One consequence is the inability to import chemicals and parts to maintain water supply systems, causing severe shortages of clean drinking water, leading to massive child deaths.
Even UN sanctions can be manipulated for imperialist purposes. As Doa Ali said in How to Kill an Entire Country, “Iraq is a case in point of how the US has captured the UN Security Council’s sanctioning capacity using it to impose its own ‘rules-based global order’ and further its imperialist interests, regardless of the human cost.” In 1990, after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the US was able to engineer and oversee the imposition of severe UN sanctions on Iraq. These led to the deaths of over half a million Iraqi children from water-borne illnesses, vaccine-preventable diseases, and hunger—in a country that had achieved one of the highest per capita food production rates in the region. In the US-controlled committee that oversaw enforcement of the sanctions, the US ensured that “humanitarian exceptions” were denied and that “food itself was not considered a humanitarian necessity.”
US-promoted sanctions have killed over 100,000 Venezuelans since 2017, and 12% of child deaths in Palestine prior to October 2023 were from lack of clean drinking water due to the US-supported Israeli blockade. Further evidence that sanctions kill is the new report in the medical journal The Lancet which found that sanctions cause some 564,000 deaths annually—similar to global mortality from armed conflict—with 51% of the victims under age 5.
US-imposed coercive measures are based on extractive interests, dubious accusations of deficient democracy, and spurious charges of human rights violations, such as the allegation that Cuba is “trafficking” its doctors (they are actually proud participants in a renowned humanitarian project) and that Cuba is a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SSOT) because it hosted peace talks for Colombia. The SSOT allegation makes it extremely hard for a country to conduct any banking transactions, and together with the 63-year blockade, has caused a humanitarian crisis in Cuba. Such sanctions supposedly imposed to protect human rights are in fact the worst violators of human rights.
Conclusion
As hope grows for a Free Palestine sooner rather than later, it is time to lift the siege on Gaza that has been blocking desperately needed supplies since 2007. The “exorbitant sanctioning power of the US” on all the countries of the region – including Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, Libya—will also end as these countries find alternative trade and financial arrangements, such as the BRICS, and a new multipolar order emerges.
The BDS movement to end Zionist violence, and the SanctionsKill campaign to abolish U.S. economic coercion, are not separate causes, but one movement for justice, sovereignty, and human dignity. Together they embody grassroots power against imperialist violence. They are people-led projects of hope and liberation, demanding a future free from the economic coercion that results in genocide, collective punishment, and colonial domination.
Differences between Imperialist Economic Coercive Measures
and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
| IMPERIALIST ECONOMIC COERCIVE MEASURES | BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, AND SANCTIONS |
| Seek to coerce other countries to succumb to US interests | Called for by the grassroots in the targeted country to end the world’s complicity with an apartheid settler-colonial regime
|
| Based on spurious accusations of human rights violations | Based on a consensus of the world’s people about grave human rights violations
|
| Cause as many deaths as armed conflict | Seeks to end deaths from Zionist genocide
|
| Illegal under international law if unilateral or if they impose collective punishment | A grassroots response to demand compliance with international law
|
| Produces net transfer of wealth from Global South, consolidating US/western capitalist hegemony | Seeks to end settler colonial, white supremacist Zionist project that upholds US/western capitalist hegemony
|
| A tool of US imperialism | Confronts US imperialism
|
| Undermines national sovereignty | Anti-colonialist movement for democratic-national liberation
|
| A project of death | A project of liberation and hope for the future |
ENDNOTES:
1 Z. Pallo Jordan, “Foreword” in International Brigade Against Apartheid, ed. Ronnie Kasrills, Jacana Media, 2021.
2 Mallory, Lester D. 1960. “Memorandum from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs (Mallory),” US Department of State, Central Files, 737.00/4-660, in Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) 1958–1960, Volume VI, Cuba: (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1991), p. 885.
A DSA Chapter Struggles With Zionism
At its August 2025 biennial convention in Chicago, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) adopted a powerful resolution, “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA“. The resolution, which the 1200 delegates passed by 56 to 44 percent, has been recognized as a significant step forward for the organization. It makes “organizing in solidarity with the Palestinian cause a priority until Palestine is free” and recognizes the Palestinian people’s right to resistance and self-determination, with Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
The resolution stipulates that candidates for office, seeking national DSA endorsement or a DSA chapter endorsement, must “support the BDS movement, refrain from any and all affiliation with the Israeli government or Zionist lobby groups, and pledge to oppose legislation that harms Palestinians and support legislation that supports Palestinian liberation.” The resolution also requires that previously endorsed candidates holding office, who fail to uphold these expectations, must have their endorsements revoked. Much the same applies to DSA members themselves. Members face expulsion for making statements such as, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” or for knowingly providing financial aid to Israel.
The rationale for DSA’s anti-zionist resolution is clear. Zionism is a form of racism. Therefore, zionist members should be no more tolerated by a socialist organization than membership in the KKK, or any other manifestation of racism by a member. And yet, at the DSA chapter level, the Los Angeles chapter in particular, where I am a member, the struggle against liberal zionism continues.
When an article describing the new resolution was posted on a DSA-LA Signal chat, in August 2025, the response was largely negative. One person wrote that the resolution is “truly terrible” and should have been voted down. Another complained that the resolution might unfairly preclude people from making donations to synagogues that send collected money to Israel, and lamented, “like there just aren’t synagogues in la that don’t give money to israel.”
Another post expressed worry that Bat Mitzvah photos with Israeli flags in the background could violate national DSA’s anti-zionist resolution.
These and other oppositional posts received multiple positive emojis from other DSA-LA members. By contrast a post that called for honoring DSA’s commitment to BDS, and another which pointed to the Star of David on the Israeli flag as a hate symbol (for examples from around the world, see here, here, here, here, he
One might suppose that this recent discord is just an anomaly. But DSA-LA has a history of missteps when it comes to zionism. The most striking examples were the chapter’s multiple endorsements of Los Angeles City Council member Nithya Raman. Following DSA-LA’s first endorsement of Raman in 2019, she also sought the endorsement of “Democrats for Israel Los Angeles” (DFI). DFI withheld its endorsement for her first four-year term in 2020, but endorsed her second successful electoral run in 2024, as did DSA-LA again. DFI’s change of heart may have come about as a result of Raman’s services to zionism. She voted to adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which conflates antisemitism with anti-zionism, despite public opposition from the L.A. Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. Raman also co-authored a resolution to support an anti-Palestinian school district resolution, which was later used to help defeat a pro-BDS teachers union policy resolution.
DSA-LA was aware of Nithya Raman’s DFI endorsement as well as her pro-zionist activities, but the chapter voted to reconfirm its second endorsement anyway, albeit with a perfunctory letter of censure. Remarkably, in her 2023 DSA-LA “Incumbent Candidate Questionnaire”, Nithya Raman reaffirmed her support for the racist IHRA definition of antisemitism. She declined a pledge to reject funds from organizations that profit off of Palestinian occupation and refused to promise to decline “education trips” to Israel sponsored by pro-Zionist organizations. During an interview with DSA-LA members she even verbally declined to identify herself as a socialist. Yet, the chapter endorsed her without questioning those responses.
Another endorsed candidate for local office gave mostly satisfactory answers on a similar DSA-LA questionnaire, but also wrote, “The Likkud Government of Israel and Hamas are both responsible for war crimes; Likkud for its asymmetrical warfare, domicide, and ethnic cleansing, and Hamas for its sickening willingness to use its own people as pawns in a greater geopolitical game,” thus creating a false symmetry and blaming Palestinians in part for their own genocide. This response should have been probed prior to endorsement but was not.
As the genocide progressed in 2023 and 2024, DSA-LA appropriately undertook actions in support of a ceasefire, but some were compromised. In a DSA-LA organized demonstration at a local congressional office, DSA-LA leaders led with the chant, “from the river to the sea,…”, except that the usual rejoinder, “Palestine will be free” was replaced by “everyone will be free.” This was presumably done to appease zionists who complained that the standard chant is “antisemitic.”
To its credit, DSA-LA formed a Palestine Solidarity Working Group in December 2023, which continues its activism to the present day. But soon after its formation, it was proposed that the working group request a meeting with the chapter’s Electoral Politics Committee for the purpose of discussing ways in which that committee could better flag and respond to pro-zionist statements by candidates for office seeking DSA-LA endorsement. However, this proposal was rejected. While DSA-LA has broadly supported Palestinian human rights, publicly called for a ceasefire and an end to the genocide, it has been unwilling to engage in its own “zionist house cleaning.”
When the DSA was founded in 1982, its leader, Michael Harrington, supported Israel, and described zionism as a “national liberation movement.” The national organization has since progressed well beyond its beginnings. At the national level, DSA has taken important steps to disengage from its zionist foundations, but the degree to which the policies identified in its new resolution, “For a Fighting Anti-Zionist DSA” will filter down to the chapter level remains an open question.
Bernie Sanders Is a Ghoulish Zionist
Bernie Sanders finally issued a statement acknowledging the indisputable fact that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza after two years of adamantly refusing to do so. The statement begins as follows:
“Hamas, a terrorist organization, began this war with its brutal attack on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 innocent people and took 250 hostages. Israel, as any other country, had a right to defend itself from Hamas.
But,”
Dude goes two years refusing to call a genocide a genocide, then issues a statement which begins by placing blame for the genocide on the victims of said genocide. He also lumps the hundreds of IDF troops slain in the attack in with “innocent people”, ignores the large percentage of the death toll that would have been killed by Israeli troops under the Hannibal Directive, and babbles about Israel’s “right to defend itself” against an occupied population.
The rest of the statement is standard liberal Zionist fare, acknowledging the horror of the situation in Gaza while blaming it all on Benjamin Netanyahu and not the murderous apartheid state which would be doing what it’s doing with or without Netanyahu. It’s just progressive-sounding Israel apologia accompanied by a denunciation driven by the inability to escape finally calling this thing what it is.
This is the face of what passes for the “left” in modern US politics. Absolutely ghoulish.
https://x.com/caitoz/status/
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described Gaza as a “real estate bonanza” on Wednesday, saying Israel is in talks with the United States negotiating how the two countries will divide up the enclave.
“We are checking how this becomes a real estate bonanza — I’m not joking — and pays for itself,” Smotrich said, adding, “I’ve begun negotiations with the Americans, and I’m saying this seriously, because we paid a lot of money for this war. We need to work out how we share percentages on the land. The demolition phase, the first stage of urban renewal, we’ve already done. Now we need to build.”
It’s absolutely incredible how often Smotrich and his buddy Itamar Ben-Gvir will just come out and admit that Israel is doing the thing everyone says it’s doing. If this information had come out as a WikiLeaks drop or something it would have been a bombshell revelation, and this guy is right here just bloody saying it.
*****
https://x.com/caitoz/status/
*****
There’s another report from Haaretz about the horrific things Israeli soldiers say they’ve been doing to civilians in Gaza, including descriptions of the murders of children.
Whenever I read these accounts I can’t help thinking about how there are westerners joining the IDF to participate in this genocide. People travel to Israel to massacre civilians and then fly back home to their real countries and resume their lives as though nothing happened, like they went backpacking in Europe or something. And now they walk among us in our communities, and we’re supposed to be fine with it.
*****
Netanyahu says he has been invited to visit with President Trump for the fourth time this year. At this point they should just save on jet fuel and move him into a room in the White House.
*****
Trump is repeatedly bombing civilian vessels under the ridiculous justification that drug traffickers are “terrorists”, without even providing evidence that they are drug traffickers. Trump has now admitted to the US bombing three Venezuelan boats on these completely evidence-free grounds.
When Yemen was attacking ships to enforce a blockade against a genocide, Trump declared them all terrorists and massacred hundreds of civilians. Now Trump is attacking civilian boats and calling them the terrorists.
*****
Ask a scientist when the universe began and they’ll tell you 13.8 billion years ago.
Ask a Young Earth creationist when the universe began and they’ll tell you six thousand years ago.
Ask a Zionist when the universe began and they’ll tell you October 7, 2023.
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