BDS: French retailer Carrefour notably complicit in crimes of Israel

The pro-Palestine Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has launched a worldwide campaign for a mass consumer boycott of the France-based multinational retailer Carrefour Group.

In a Monday statement, the Palestinian National Committee to Boycott Israel, the largest coalition of Palestinian political parties leading the BDS movement, accused the company of being “deeply implicated in apartheid Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise, which constitutes a war crime under international law.”

Fiona Ben Chekroun, the Europe coordinator for the BDS movement, called for the escalation of campaigns to boycott the Israeli companies involved in settlement construction across the occupied West Bank.

“We are calling for a global boycott of Carrefour Group and for divestment from it until it ends this criminal partnership with these two complicit Israeli companies and stops all sales of products from illegal Israeli settlements in its supermarkets and convenience stores.”

The Carrefour Group has recently signed a franchise agreement with Israeli companies Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan, both active in Israeli settlements. As a multinational retailer, Carrefour Group has more than 3,400 stores worldwide.

The BDS movement calls for people and groups across the world to cut economic, cultural and academic ties to Tel Aviv and help promote the Palestinian cause. Since 2005, the boycott campaign has sought to sanction all Israeli products made in the occupied Palestinian land. The movement has been so successful in causing economic damage to Israel that pro-Israel groups have labeled it “an existential threat.”

MG