Agorism for Palestine

Lately I’ve been getting some very interesting social media ads. While I normally ignore social media ads (even going as far as to habitually block most of them), these two had me intrigued, so I took note of the brands so I could research more about them later. Turns out I’m really glad I eventually looked into them because they were both Palestinian-owned businesses that donate profits to Palestine.

The first one I came across was Palestine Cola. Run by a Palestinian family based in Sweden, Palestine Drinks donates 100% of the profits from Palestine Cola to the SafadFoundation which works on educational, health care, sustainability, and cultural preservation projects in Palestine. Currently only their default cola flavor is available for order in the U.S. but they are promising to make other flavors available soon including sugar-free cola, orange, and even lemonade and their own Palestine Energy Drink.

Then I discovered the Palestinian Coffee Company, owned by a first generation Palestinian American that donates 20% of their profits to HEAL Palestine and the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. They supply a great selection of Arabic coffee blends, ground and roasted in New Jersey, both in bag and pod form, as well as accessories such as mugs and tumblers.

Yes, both of these are in one sense just traditional capitalist business who donate to charities. But these aren’t just any charities. These are charities created by Palestinians for liberatory goals. Funding radical liberation causes is a form of countereconomics. These businesses, consciously or not, are participating in agorism.

And this isn’t the only example of the use of countereconomics to support Palestine. From the boycott and divestment tactics of the BDS movement to the call to buy Palestinian olive oil to the Palestinian use of cryptocurrency as an alternative to Israeli currency and as a means to take instant donations from around the world without censorship, the pro-Palestine movement is in no shortage of agorist tactics it is knowingly or unknowingly utilizing.

In a world where many of us are too broke to donate to Palestinian causes directly, allowing us opportunities to aid the cause via our purchasing choices allows us to collectively have power and a voice. Whether you choose to download the Boycat app which is officially partnered with BDS in order to avoid Israeli products, you choose to buy Palestinian products such as cola, coffee, or olive oil, you donate directly to Palestinian organizations via cryptocurrency or any other type of useful currency, or some combination of the three, it is important to do what you can to aid the cause. I’m not saying these products are otherwise ethically made or advocating any form of ethical consumption (which obviously doesn’t exist under capitalism), but I am saying that we can use agorist tactics to help stop a genocide. So do it.

The Center for a Stateless Society (www.c4ss.org) is a media center working to build awareness of the market anarchist alternative