Why boycott?
Profit built on violence has long been treated as business as usual. From war to resource extraction, corporations continue to profit through exploitation. In places like Occupied Palestine, Sudan, and Congo, we see this playing out in real time. These crises are not separate—they are bound together by global systems of profit and power. What we’re seeing is the long afterlife of colonialism.
Boycotts are one way to resist. By linking everyday choices to larger struggles, we remind corporations and governments that exploitation has consequences. The Montgomery Bus Boycott showed how a community, refusing to ride segregated buses for over a year, could dismantle a racist policy. In South Africa, decades of consumer boycotts helped expose and weaken apartheid on a global scale. They worked because people organized, stayed committed, and refused to let up.
Boycotts are not about personal purity. They are about collective power. One person withholding money won’t change much. But when millions stay committed, boycotts have shifted policies, challenged exploitative labor, and helped dismantle oppressive systems. The point is not just to say no to corporate exploitation, but to say yes to sustaining smaller, local economies instead.
Remember: a boycott in one place pushes back against the whole system.
How the directory works
The directory is designed to make boycott research simple. You can use the search bar to look up any brand, parent company, or key words. From there, filters let you narrow the results:
Category → the sector a company belongs to (beauty, food, tech, clothing, etc.)
Violation → the documented harms: Environmental Harm, Human Rights, Animal Harm, Political Influence, Military & Conflict Complicity
BDS Campaign → shows where boycott energy is already organized and visible:
- BDS Priority: official top targets named by the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement.
- BDS Pressure: companies under active protest, lobbying, or legal campaigns.
- BDS Grassroots: widely boycotted at the community level around the world.
- Israeli Company: corporations identified as key contributors to Israel’s GDP and global influence, though not formally listed by BDS.
Where to start
If your priority is Palestinian liberation, use the filters to surface the clearest targets:
1. Select Military & Conflict Complicity under Violations to see companies tied to the Israeli military, weapons suppliers, and occupation infrastructure.
2. Add BDS campaign tags (Priority, Pressure, or Grassroots) to highlight where global organizing is already underway. You can also filter directly by BDS tags on their own to see just those targets.
3. Watch for Israeli Company tags to identify firms that directly sustain Israel’s economy and soft power.
Every brand tagged with Military & Conflict Complicity has ties to Israel, but not all appear on the official BDS list. Start with BDS-tagged companies for the strongest collective impact, then expand your boycott to others to deepen the pressure.
The same corporations profiting from occupation are also driving exploitation worldwide. Use the filters to act across five violation areas:
Environmental Harm → destructive extraction, emissions, and waste
Human Rights → unsafe factories, child labor, union busting, wage theft
Animal Harm → factory farming, testing, and habitat destruction
Political Influence → lobbying, disinformation, and policy capture
Military & Conflict Complicity → weapons, surveillance, and infrastructure sustaining wars and occupations
Choose the harms that matter most to you, start with categories you touch every day, and scale your boycott outward. Each search, filter, and refusal adds up to collective pressure on the systems profiting from violence.
Method & Disclaimer
Sources: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, WHO, UN reports, academic studies, procurement filings.
Updates: Every 60 days, with “last updated” noted on each entry.
Right of reply: Companies can submit documented corrections for review.
Impact criteria: Ratings reflect how many violation areas a company is documented in, combined with its scale of operations (revenue, market reach, influence).
The Boycott Directory is an independent research tool designed to share publicly available information about companies, industries, and supply chains. The content provided is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice, financial advice, or professional services.
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