Summary
Israel’s twenty-three-day offensive on Gaza starting December 27, 2008, treated in Chapter 14 of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions as the catalyst that spread BDS worldwide (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, PDF p.189-190, p.196-197).
Details
- The offensive killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, approximately 83 percent of them civilians, including more than 430 children, and destroyed thousands of homes, forty-five mosques, the Palestinian Legislative Council and ministries, scores of schools, a Red Crescent Hospital and thousands of factories and businesses (PDF p.189-190). Chapter 3 gives the toll differently — more than 1,440, of whom 431 children (PDF p.74); the discrepancy is recorded under Open questions on the source page.
- Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem — called in the text “the main Israeli human rights organization” — and other bodies accused Israel of war crimes, particularly since Israel first violated the June 2008 ceasefire on November 4, 2008, killing six resistance fighters (PDF p.190-191).
- The weeks following Cast Lead saw academic-boycott endorsements in Canada, SATAWU’s refusal to offload an Israeli ship in Durban, and Hampshire College’s divestment (PDF p.196-197); the wider siege context is treated at Gaza Siege.
Related pages
Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights, Gaza Siege, Gaza, Goldstone report, B’Tselem