Does Boycotting Make Any Difference? Pros vs Cons .

By Ayesha Imran

Several movements have sprung up amid Israel's war on Gaza encouraging people to boycott imported products from Israel or countries that more or less support Israel. Also, brands claiming to support Israel have been boycotted by many people around the globe. This is an attempt to support the vulnerable Palestinians who have been blocked from most of the aid that they desperately need to survive. As a result, 8000 children are facing malnutrition according to WHO statistics. This is just one suffering that Palestinians are going through; watching their children die from hunger before their very eyes and being completely disabled to help them. Even worse is picking pieces of your loved ones' torn bodies from under the rubble. Seeing such horrible scenes while scrolling on social media is enough to break one's heart and encourage them to take action and play their part. One thing that people tried to achieve was pressurizing the government to take action against the brutal Israelis through protests, writing emails to government officials, or through other means to communicate with the government. However, in most countries, and especially in the case of Pakistan which is the only Islamic nuclear power and so has the capabilities to send military aid, instead of just ignoring the demands, took actions against people such as refusing people to carry Palestinian flags in Pakistan Super Leagues 9th edition or arresting JI workers before Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami's Gaza march in Islamabad. In such situations, the way we can raise our voices is to boycott which is probably the only most convenient way to help Gazans while escaping unjust regulations. 


Despite all this, there are many people still unsure about whether they should boycott or not or how may boycotting help. So let's have a look at its negatives and positives.

Boycott: Short-Term Impacts

Pros 

Boycotting in the short run would lead to economic harm to the economies of several countries and companies providing support to Israel. This would discourage them from providing aid to or supporting Israel in international platforms like the UN. This would weaken Israel's position and would make them think twice about genociding the Palestinians if previously they were thinking about it once. It may not stop them completely but at least reduce their hostility. Even if as low as a fall in hostility of one percent would be achieved it would be a success for the whole of the muslim community. Furthermore, boycotting would ensure that not a penny of your hard-earned money goes into bombing or raiding innocent people's houses. At least you would not feel a pang of guilt when pictures of starving children come in front of your eyes since you would know that you have played your part, as much as you could do. The reality is that the masses in our country have underestimated their strength as an economic power due to being hopeless in many other fields such as being ruled by corrupt politicians despite being democratically elected or simply a shock in the  Cricket World Cup 2024 when India beat Pakistan, despite India making a target of only 120 runs, although Pakistani fans tried their best to encourage the team on social media before the match. But now it's time to unleash your economic power as a consumer, as you know, money rules the world.

Cons

What disadvantages would boycotting bring to you? You may have to give up eating from your favorite restaurants like Mcdonald's, KFC, Subway, Baskin Robbins etc. You would also have to give up on your favorite makeup and skincare brands like Maybelline, Clinique, etc. Similarly, it would be hard to let go of Pepsi, Cadbury, Coca-Cola and Nestle. Other things include all Unilever products such as Sunsilk, Palmolive, and so on. This would entail bringing a complete change to your lifestyle or using sub-standard local products which may have a negative impact on your lifestyle especially when you are living in a developing country like Pakistan. But is this fall in lifestyle greater than the fall in lifestyle your brothers and sisters in Palestine are facing? Now, that is something for you to analyze.

Boycott: Long Term Impacts

Pros

Huge multinational companies have the ability to relocate from one country to another due to reasons like high brand awareness globally and access to large sources of finance. When multinationals face losses or simply fall in their revenues, without any hope to have a rise in them in the near future they prefer to shut down their operations in the existing country and operate elsewhere. This would give opportunities to domestic firms, specifically those in the infant industry which have relatively low output and higher average costs, to expand and grow and unleash their own potential which may even lead to them becoming a multinational themselves. Competition from these large businesses may be a reason that Pakistan's industries are not prosperous enough and we rarely hear the idea of a multinational company originating from Pakistan. This would help reduce our economy's dependency on foreign firms and make our economy vulnerable to negative shocks in other economies. Highly dependent economies may easily be pressurized to accept unjust demands from MNCs such as relaxing health and safety laws at the workplace or reducing the national minimum wage aggravating both absolute and relative poverty by even a slight drop in the NMW in developing or underdeveloped economies. A fall in imports would also contribute to an improvement in the current account position of balance of payments and there would be less need for loans from other economies to finance the foreign exchange expenditure on imports hence helping the country escape from debt traps.  

Cons

A counterargument to what I discussed in the last paragraph is that multinationals relocating may cause unemployment in our country. This may lead to an economic downturn but for a short period since employment opportunities may be created by domestic firms expanding as a result of import substitution and lack of competition from foreign multinationals. Hence, balancing off the impact.

    Israel has bombed Gaza more than the entire bombing in World War 2. Such is our nervelessness that we are simply watching to what is happening and are either neutral or have become immune to the situation. I would like to add a quote from Ellie Wiesel here that says"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest". The decision is now yours.

*Boycotting pro tip: Whenever restaurant cravings, that you have to boycott, become unbearable go to places like Mcdonald's or Baskin Robbins which would allow you to test their products like a one-bite ice cream cone from any flavor that you want. Try more flavors for more bites!












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