BDS Organizational Structure

At the heart of the global BDS movement is the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC). Formed in 2007, the BNC acts as the effective executive leadership, coordinating strategy and messaging across the international BDS campaign. The committee itself is a coalition of approximately 29 Palestinian unions, NGOs, and political groups. Rather than functioning as a traditional hierarchical organization, BDS purposefully maintains a decentralized, network-based structure. This model provides two key advantages:

• Operational Denial & Flexibility: Country and campus chapters appear independent and volunteer-driven, allowing for flexibility and protection of the core leadership.
• Global Coordination: The BNC centrally controls core strategies, major messaging, and official campaigns, ensuring worldwide cohesion.

Departments and Divisions: Types of Boycott

BDS promotes three primary forms of boycott, each often managed or guided by specific departments or affiliated campaigns:

1. Economic Boycott

• Target: Israeli goods, services, and corporations or institutions with ties to Israel.
• Method: Calls to refuse the purchase of Israeli products, pressure campaigns on supermarkets, online platforms, or national suppliers, and attempts to blacklist companies or brands.
• Key Campaigns: Labeling and banning of products from Judea and Samaria, and pressure on major multinationals to divest from Israel.

2. Academic Boycott

• Target: Israeli academic institutions and international researchers involved with Israel.
• Method: Promoting the severing of ties between universities, preventing joint research, boycotting academic conferences held in Israel, and discouraging Israeli scholars from participation.
• Department: The “Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel” (PACBI), one of BDS’s founding arms, oversees and orchestrates much of the academic boycott activity.

3. Cultural Boycott

• Target: Israeli artists, performers, cultural events, and those engaging with Israeli culture.
• Method: Calls to ban Israeli film, art, and music from international festivals; campaigns to pressure artists not to perform in Israel or collaborate with Israelis.
• Actions: Direct outreach to artists, public shaming, and global petitioning.

4. Divestment

• Target: Institutional and government investments in Israel or companies linked to Israel.
• Method: Lobbying universities, churches, pension funds, and other large institutional investors to sell shares in Israeli or “complicit” corporations.
• Success Tactics: Campus campaigns leading to university divestment votes, pressuring religious groups to pass anti-Israel investment policies.

5. Sanctions

• Target: Political push for governments and international organizations to enforce sanctions on Israel.
• Method: Lobbying the UN, EU, national legislatures, and global bodies to restrict or punish Israel diplomatically, economically, or militarily.
• Narrative Tactic: Comparison to apartheid-era South Africa to justify blanket sanctions.

Why the Structure is Hard to Expose

BDS is explicitly designed as a “loose coalition,” meaning leadership names are few and direct lines of control are obscured. The BNC, via sub-groups like PACBI, acts as the movement’s nerve center but grants day-to-day autonomy to local chapters, activist collectives, and volunteer-driven “campaigns.” This structure:

• Conceals direct links to violent or terror-affiliated entities.
• Allows rapid denial of involvement in illegal activity.
• Protects its leaders from legal or reputational consequences.
• Makes it difficult for law enforcement and the public to assign accountability.

Fact

Just like Hamas is more than just a terrorist organization—it's an idea and a core part of a global terror network—so is BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions).

BDS is not a single entity but a decentralized network of groups and individuals, united by a common goal: the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state.

Its leaders openly call for Israel’s isolation and delegitimization, operating in tandem with the same network of organizations and state sponsors—most notably Iran—that fund and support anti-Israel terror worldwide.

Far from being a grassroots movement for “human rights,” BDS provides cover and support for those who seek Israel's elimination, undermining peace and fueling the same extremism that led to the October 7 massacre.

BDS Departments & Arms

Department/Campaign	Focus Area	Notable Activities/Initiatives
BDS National Committee (BNC)	Governance, strategy	Setting global priorities, messaging
PACBI	Academic/cultural boycott	Campaigns to boycott academic events, divestment from Israeli universities
Boycott Departments (country chapters)	National/local boycotts	Supermarket, campus, arts event boycotts
Divestment Taskforces	Institutional investments	University, religious organization campaigns
Sanctions Advocates	Political lobbying	Pushing for government sanctions, embargoes