Palestine activists call off demonstration at Home Bargains saying it has agreed to drop Israeli products from its shelves

The announcement came via the Londonderry branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), whose supporters are touting it as a significant victory for the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement in Northern Ireland.

As previously reported by the News Letter, a demonstration had been planned for 2pm on Saturday at the Home Bargains store in Pennyburn, Londonderry.

The organisers said it is to mark "National Boycott Israeli Goods Day," adding: "Join us with flags, placards and banners to send a message that Derry boycotts Israeli goods."

It would not have been the first corporate boycott demo of recent weeks.

Following the escalation in bloodshed in Israel/Palestine, activists had filmed themselves entering a Sainsbury's supermarket in west Belfast, parading, chanting, and shouting that the chain was supporting "genocide" by selling Israeli produce.

In the case of Home Bargains, the activists were angered by the sale of cosmetics made using Dead Sea minerals – something common to a number of brands.

Now the IPSC have axed their planned demo and released a statement saying: "Since organising the boycotting event at Home Bargains this Saturday, our members have spoken to staff in Home Bargains and we can confirm that all Dead Sea products have been removed from the second Isle [sic] with face creams, etc, also being removed.

"Stock, which landed today, is being kept in the storeroom.

"This is reassuring progress, and we thank Home Bargains management and staff for their considerate action."

Home Bargains has refused to confirm or deny any of this.

• – SHANNON RECALLS JEWISH BOYCOTT –

Former SDLP councillor Mary Durkan wrote: "Never underestimate the power of small wins!

"BDS works. Boycott and trade sanctions were crucial to the dismantling of Apartheid in South Africa.

"Over 40 years ago, Dunnes Stores workers refusing to handle South African goods, with their trade union, started a campaign that ultimately resulted in the Irish government introducing legislation to ban the importing of South African goods.

"Following engagement with Derry IPSC and customers, Home Bargains in Derry has removed Dead Sea Products and other Israeli products from its shelves.

"Míle buíochas [many thanks] to all involved. Keep up the solidarity!"

Jim Shannon, the DUP's spokesman on human rights issues, told the News Letter firms should not be "bullied or cajoled in relation to selling products".

He said: "I think it's wrong for any firm or company to feel cajoled or pushed in a direction where this time last week they were selling the products on their shelves without any bother whatsoever, and this week they feel pressure has been put upon them and they feel they can't sell it.

"What does that prove? What are they hoping to achieve by that? All they're hurting is the company who produce the products."

It has long been a complaint of BDS critics that such boycotts do not have any meaningful effect on state policy, and merely harm workers involved in growing or making the products.

Mr Shannon also took to social media on Friday (in relation to a different ‘boycott Israel’ campaign in the Republic of Ireland), saying: "The Jewish boycott was the first coordinated action undertaken by the Nazi regime against Jewish businesses and goods in April 1933.

"The result completely destroyed Jewish economic life.

"[This is] Ireland in 2023."

• – A RISING DEATH TOLL –

Over 1,400 people – largely civilians – are understood to have been killed in Israel during Hamas' incursion on October 7, with at least 212 people taken hostage according to the UN.

It has proven much harder to get reliable figures in Gaza, partly because the health system in the territory is under Hamas control.

Citing those health authorities, the UN said on Tuesday that the death toll had passed 5,000, with 62% of those dead being women and children.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated on Tuesday that perhaps 1,000 or so people were missing, presumed buried in the rubble of flattened neighbourhoods.

OCHA has kept a running tally of the number of people killed in Israel/Palestine from 2008 up to just before the most recent violence.

It stood at 6,407 Palestinians (3,803 civilians), and 308 Israelis (177 civilians) – to which all the fatalities above can now be added, pushing the total well into five figures.

Speaking about the current Israeli actions in Gaza, Mr Shannon said: "Israel has been very clear: they've targeted only, from my understanding, those places where Hamas have strongholds, they have ammunition dumps, they have observation posts, they have missile posts.

"The problem is Hamas enshrines themselves within the civilian population so whenever there are responses to missile attacks, sometimes they may target them - inadvertantly and innocently.

"I support Israel's right to wipe Hamas out, to make them not a terrorist organisation that in the future can do any harm to any Israeli or indeed any person."

It was put to him that, during the Troubles in Northern Ireland for example, people would not have accepted wiping out a loyalist housing estate in an effort to eradicate the UVF.

"Israelis say they're not targeting innocent civilians," said Mr Shannon.

"Their attacks last night for example were specific on Hamas locations…

"It's about tackling Hamas. I'm not quite sure if the figures [of 5,000+ dead] are correct - who knows if they are or if they're not?

"But it's quite clear innocents are dying and that has to be prevented in whatever way they can, as much as they can, and Israel has I believe an obligation to do that – but I think they are already doing that."