Discover our new website and say bye to Wix!
Article synopsis
We were engaged in apartheid by hosting our website on Wix– time for a reckoning! We made a swift switch to Squarespace as soon as we noticed to re-align ourselves with BDS principles. Wix, like Google, McDonald’s, and AXA, is complicit in genocide by providing Israel with services, technology and/or funding. Join us in making the switch away from the neoliberal economy and reinvest in your principles! Find ways to make everyday consumer behavior less harmful with some easy tools.
She’s sleek. She’s shiny. And she’s genocide-free!
Multinational companies are deeply entrenched in our everyday lives – using our hard-earned money to fuel genocide and occupation in Palestine and around the world. From Disney+ to Airbnb and Coca Cola, money from household names contribute to the daily slaughter, knowingly, and even in spite of major damage to their profits.
Wix is also one of those companies – and we were guilty of funding it. Mistakes or lack of knowledge do not need to lead to cancellation, they are opportunities for growth that can either be seized or rejected. As soon as one of our members noticed, we started transferring to Squarespace.
Wix ties to genocide
Wix is a grassroots organic boycott target supported by the official BDS campaign. This means that though the BDS movement did not call for this boycott, it grew organically and was endorsed afterwards “because these [organic boycott target] companies, or their branches or franchisees in Israel, have openly supported apartheid Israel and/or provided generous in-kind donations to the Israeli military amid the current genocide.”
Specifically, Wix is a publicly traded company in Israel, headquartered in Yafa (Tel-Aviv). They are openly in support of the Zionist enterprise and even developed a “Stand With Israel” badge for websites to display, encouraging clients to collect donations for the genocide and its PR, and spread Hasbara (Zionist propaganda). Wix fired an Irish worker over their support for Palestine in October 2023, for which they later had to pay 35,000 €.
What is BDS?
BDS is the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. Its origins are often traced to the NGO Forum of the Durban I conference in 2001, where Palestinian activists met with South-African anti-apartheid activists who helped them identify parallels and apply the language of apartheid to their situation. The Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa was greatly helped by global boycotts from civil society; for example, there were consumer boycotts of Barclays Bank and Shell as well as cultural boycotts leading to the expulsion of South Africa from the Olympics in 1970.
Though we need to be careful not to overstate the effects of boycotts and sanctions on South Africa as we remember the immense amount of sacrifice from South Africans who led campaigns of civil disobedience and armed resistance like the African National Committee, this is historical proof of the tactic’s effectiveness. BDS was officially founded in July 2005 (one year after the International Court of Justice ruled the West Bank wall illegal) and celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
Its demands to Israel remain unchanged:
end the illegal occupation along 1967 borders and dismantle the illegal apartheid wall
give full and equal citizenship to Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel inside the 1948 borders
respect and promote the Palestinian right of return as per UN Resolution 194
Boycotts can take many forms – economic boycotts ask consumers to vote with their dollars. Cultural boycotts call upon the sector to shun Zionists and genocide apologists such as Tali. Academic boycotts refuse collaboration with universities and institutes involved in excusing or whitewashing occupation and other crimes.
Divestment is what the various Gaza encampments across the world have demanded. Our neoliberal world has many institutions and funds that funnel money to Israel. This includes the Luxembourgish pension fund which remains invested in Caterpillar, a company that manufactures special D9 bulldozers for the destruction of Palestinian villages – the same model that was used to kill US activist Rachel Corrie in 2003 in the West Bank.
Sanctions is what we need the government to enact on Israel – meaning the criminalization of Israeli individuals or at best the entire regime, as demanded by the petition to be debated on 2 July. The UK, Canada, Australia, Norway, and New Zealand recently sanctioned Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for example, two of the most notorious genocidal maniacs that form the heart of Netanyahu’s governing coalition.
Boycat App and BDS Luxembourg
The BDS Campaign has a calculated strategy with expressed targets to maximize efficiency. Not every company implicated with the genocide is on the list, because it is an overwhelming amount. Here are the main targets endorsed by the official campaign:
However, if you want to do even more, there is the Boycat App. It lets you scan items and look up any brand and to alert you of any ties to the occupation. It also has a map feature that will warn you of complicit locations. As the official partner of BDS, it is the most up-to-date resource to my knowledge. A good rule of thumb is to prioritize locally sourced and produced products, and to stay clear of big multinationals. Not only are those products and services usually apartheid-free, they contribute to our artisanal and cultural heritage while protecting the environment. Even if there is a leisure product you absolutely need, like those new trendy Adidas shoes, you can definitely thrift them with some effort and keep your money out of their hands. I will do the research for you if I have to!
déi aner strongly encourages you to follow BDS Luxembourg on Instagram and support their campaigns. We are more complicit than you might think. And if you or anyone you know hosts a website on Wix, this is your sign! Get the hell out of there!
