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Popular Android and iPhone app Buycott has gained popularity among shoppers looking to boycott goods deemed to support Israel. The app was developed by California-basedIvan Pardo, scans barcodes of products and identifies its corporate ownership. Initially, its users seized the opportunity identify products produced by industries belonging to the Koch brothers, among other things.
Since the Israeli aggression began, the app has seen a surge in users joining groups to identify Israeli products such as “Avoid Israeli Settlement Products” and “Long Live Palestine Boycott Israel”. The latter was created by a British teenager in April, floundering with a few hundred members till mid-July, when membership surged; it has over 220,000 members now.
“I noticed 3 weeks ago that we were seeing an unusual spike in traffic, but there hadn’t been any articles written about the app or Israel campaigns. Next thing I knew Buycott was a top 10 app in the UK and Netherlands, and #1 in a number of Middle Eastern countries. Word was spreading through social media”, the app’s founder Pardo said.
“Long Live Palestine Boycott Israel” lists 49 companies to boycott, including Sabra, PepsiCo and Israeli company Strauss, which has been subjected to boycotts before – in 2010, students from DePaul and Princeton Universities urged their cafeterias to stop using Sabra products after Strauss listed its financial support for the Israeli Golani Brigade unit.
Other companies among the 49 are SodaStream, which operates out of Ma’aleh Adumim in the West Bank. Actress Scarlett Johansson was forced to defend her role as ambassador for the brand after being criticized by aid group Oxfam, of whom she was an advocate; she later stepped down from her role at Oxfam.
Similarly, the app lists Starbucks under the “avoid” category since its founder Howard Schultz “was honoured by the Jerusalem Fund of Aish HaTorah with ‘The Israel 50th Anniversary Friend of Zion Tribute Award’ for his services to the zionist state”. Starbucks, however, has said that it has no ties with Israel.