Peace Vigil: Boycott HP

Spread Awareness: Boycott HP
We'll be standing with signage and handing out flyers about HP's complicity with the suffering of Palestinians. We vigil and flyer in the same location most Wednesdays focusing on different subjects.

Our action is part of a Global Week of Action taking place Nov 25-Dec 3 targeting Hewlett-Packard (HP) companies for their role in providing services and technologies that enable Israel’s brutal military occupation and suppression of Palestinian human rights.

These services and technologies are found in / support:
Israel’s notorious military checkpoints that deny Palestinians freedom of movement;
A segregated ID system that racially profiles Palestinians;
Illegal settlements built on stolen Palestinian land;
Israel’s prisons system where Palestinian are routinely held without charges and torture is widespread and systematic;
The devastating naval blockade of the Gaza Strip amounting to collective punishment, which is against international human rights and humanitarian law.

HP cannot claim to be a beacon of social responsibility while providing the technology of Israeli apartheid.

There has been a complete lack of transparency and responsiveness by HP companies to concerns about complicity in Israel’s oppressive policies.

Palestinian rights campaigners are demanding HP companies:
Completely step away from their involvement in the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime;
Make a commitment to public transparency and reporting on all their operations in Israel/Palestine to ensure future compliance;
Use their leverage with other companies to help them step away from similar harmful business activities;
Compensate the communities and individuals who have suffered from HP services and technologies.

There are more than 100 actions happening worldwide in more than 100 cities in more than 20 countries on 6 continents at offices of HP companies as well as at stores urging consumers to boycott HP.
The dates of the week of action were chosen to coincide with:
Black Friday, on November 25, the start of the holiday shopping season in the United States;
United Nations International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29;
HPE’s Discover 2016 Event in London November 29-December 1.

In 2005, Palestinian civil society organizations issued a historic, rights-based call to the international community for Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) targeting Israel and institutions complicit in its oppressive policies toward Palestinians until it complies with international law and ensures freedom, justice, and equality. BDS promotes time-honored, respected tactics used to achieve social change throughout history, including in the U.S. Civil Rights and South African Anti-Apartheid Movements.
Just as Polaroid was a landmark boycott target in the 1970s for providing imaging to the South African Apartheid regime, so are HP companies a critical target today for providing imaging services to Apartheid Israel.
In the U.S. alone, the Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation, Mennonite Central Committee, and Unitarian Universalist Association have already divested from HP companies due to their involvement in the occupation.
At a time when BDS is under increasing legislative attack, it’s clear that the BDS movement is growing even more quickly as organizers defend their right to use these time-honored, nonviolent tactics for change.

We are showing HP companies that enabling Israeli apartheid is bad for business. Just as companies like Veolia have stepped away from Israeli contracts following worldwide BDS campaigns, so too can the HP companies -- especially if they want to begin to live up to their stated principles.