Dalit Baum, Ph.D., is the founder of “Who Profits from the Occupation”, an activist research initiative of the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel. During the last four years, “Who Profits” has become a vital resource for dozens of campaigns around the world, providing information about corporate complicity in the occupation of Palestine.

Dalit is a feminist scholar and teacher in Israel, teaching about militarism and about the global economy from a feminist perspective in the Haifa University and the Beit Berl College. This year she is visiting the U.S. as an activist in residence with Global Exchange, directing a new program titled Economic Activism for Palestine, which aims to support existing divestment campaigns in the U.S. as well as help new ones through education, training, networking and the development of dedicated tools.

The following is an excerpt from a letter Dalit sent out to Global Exchange’s Economic Activism for Palestine email list this week. If you’d like to join this email list to stay updated about this new project you can sign up here.

Who really profits from the Israeli occupation? What economic interests further entrench the colonization and exploitation of Palestinian land and resources? How can we influence corporate policies affecting Palestine – and through this work weaken and isolate the occupation?

I’m Dalit Baum, and as a feminist anti-occupation activist teaching gender and the global economy at Haifa University and Beit Berl College in Israel, I found these questions crucial to our work for justice in Palestine. To try to answer them I helped start and have coordinated an activist research initiative called Who Profits from the Occupation within the Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel. During the last four years, Who Profits has become a vital resource for dozens of campaigns around the world, providing information about corporate complicity in the occupation of Palestine.

The Economic Activism for Palestine project responds to the July 2005 Unified Call of Palestinian civil society for a wide variety of initiatives such as boycotts, divestment and sanctions until Israel complies with international law and universal principles of human rights. Through our new project, Global Exchange will increase its participation in a growing network of civil society initiatives around the world, dedicated to changing corporate policies and making the occupation less profitable. We will support existing campaigns for divestment and corporate accountability nationally, as well as help create new ones through education, training, networking and the development of dedicated tools.

I am very excited to be part of this new project and look forward to working with you for justice in Palestine through corporate accountability.

Ways To Get Involved With Dalit’s Work:

Topics Dalit Covers:

  • Corporate involvement in the Israeli occupation: developing effective responses
  • Economic Activism for Palestine: learning from our successes
  • The feminist anti-occupation movement in Israel and BDS
  • Activist workshop 1: Corporate research effective campaigns: sharing our knowhow
  • Activist workshop 2: Strategic target choice for BDS: where is the salt?