OVER 150 businesses and organisations across Scotland are now boycotting Israel amid the genocide in Gaza.
The firms have signed up to an initiative called Apartheid Free Zones (AFZ) Scotland – launched by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity campaign (SPSC) – that is looking to sign up shops, restaurants, businesses, community organisations, and trade unions across Scotland to commit to BDS practices.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has existed since 2005. It was initiated by a coalition of more than 170 Palestinian civil society organisations in an effort to put pressure on the Israeli economy in the mould of the anti-apartheid boycott of South Africa.
The National have previously reported on how there are five communities across Scotland that have dedicated AFZ groups, with many individual businesses across Scotland signing up too.
The SPSC have also created an interactive map which details the growing network of over 150 businesses, including 55 firms in Aberdeen alone.
The list is dominated by independent cafés and restaurants, small retailers, arts and cultural outfits, community projects and a handful of professional services.
Some examples include:
- A plant-based café and restaurant in Aberdeen called Grounded
- An LGBTQIA+ bookshop in Glasgow called Category is Books
- An organic veg‑box business in East Lothian called East Coast Organics
- A community‑run shop and café in Penicuik called Penicuik Storehouse
- A wholefoods co‑op in Inverness called Highland Wholefoods Workers Cooperative
You can check out the full list and an interactive map here.
The SPSC have also hailed the growth of the zones in Scotland, with a spokesperson telling The National that it is “extremely encouraging”.
“It’s another small sign, backed up by opinion polls, that public opinion is only going one way against the state of Israel, which is increasing a pariah,” they said.
“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions are methods of pressurising institutions (political, economic, or other) to adopt a course of behaviour they would not do so without pressure.”
The spokesperson added: “The international effort to have shops, businesses, and churches declare themselves to be an apartheid-free zone is very different. It allows people who are keen to declare their opposition to the Israeli genocide to take a public moral and political stance in line with their inner feelings.”
