This strategy focuses civil society efforts on a concentrated set of achievable, high-impact goals to challenge Israeli impunity, protect Palestinian lives, and press governments into meaningful action. It prioritizes feasible and effective levers of influence, while avoiding initiatives that consume resources without the real prospect of impact.
1. Focus on What Can Work
Calls for international military intervention – such as under the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) doctrine – reflect deep moral urgency but face significant political obstacles and risk being strategically counterproductive. The credibility of R2P has been undermined by its uneven application, particularly during the Gaza crisis. Pursuing these approaches risks diverting valuable energy and raising unrealistic expectations. Palestinians deserve strategies that lead to tangible and achievable outcomes. Advocacy should therefore prioritize actions with clear potential for material impact.
2. Humanitarian Access: Pressure Where It Matters
The brutal reality is that only Israel’s closest allies – primarily the U.S. and its Western partners – can compel it to allow humanitarian aid. No celebrity campaign and no NGO petition will shift this dynamic on its own. Hence, public campaigns should focus on pressuring governments to exercise real leverage. However, a coordinated international convoy with high-profile diplomatic, humanitarian and media figures could play a catalytic role by increasing the political costs for Israel’s continued obstruction. It would force a public reckoning on complicity, especially since access is likely to be denied. This could generate sustained media coverage and serve as a lightning rod for more pressure.
3. Immediate Civil Society Campaigns: Strategic Priorities by Date
We must mobilize around concrete moments when public pressure can influence outcomes:
a. UN Recognition of Palestinian Statehood (June 2025)
What’s happening: In June 2025, the UN General Assembly will vote on granting Palestine full membership status.
How it works: Even if a U.S. veto blocks Palestinian statehood at the Security Council, the General Assembly retains a critical pathway through the “Uniting for Peace” resolution. This mechanism allows the Assembly to convene an emergency session when the Council fails to act due to a veto, and to recommend collective measures. While it
cannot grant full UN membership, it can reinforce the international consensus on Palestinian statehood, increase pressure for recognition, and lay the groundwork for coordinated diplomatic and legal action. In the face of paralysis at the Council, the General Assembly offers a vital platform to advance justice and accountability.
Action needed: Public pressure on the USA’s normal allies (especially Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the U.K.) to vote in favour and elevate recognition.
Why it matters: This creates legal, diplomatic and symbolic shifts – bolstering Palestine’s claims in international law and isolating Israeli rejectionism. Some impacts could be short-term.
b. Suspension of sections of the EU-Israel Trade Agreement under Article 2 (Mid–Late 2025)
What’s happening: The Netherlands initiated a formal review of Israel’s compliance with human rights obligations in the EU-Israel Association Agreement. The Dutch proposal was accepted in mid-May 2025 by a majority of EU foreign ministers, with support from 17 member states including Ireland and Spain, who had been long-standing advocates for such a review.
Why it matters: This agreement is hugely important to Israel. The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner, making up 28.8% of Israel’s total exports and 34.2% of its imports. In contrast, exports to Israel accounted for 0.7% of the EU’s total exports to countries outside the EU (extra-EU exports) in 2024. This asymmetry gives the EU considerable leverage in trade discussions. While the whole agreement can only be suspended by a unanimous decision, specific sections can be changed by Qualified Majority Voting.
Action needed: Raise public awareness of the EU’s ongoing review to prevent it from being quietly undermined and to pressure the European Commission to complete it swiftly. Build momentum among EU member states – securing a critical mass could trigger a qualified majority vote to suspend parts of the EU-Israel Association Agreement. Highlight precedents where similar reviews led to the suspension of trade agreements with other countries over human rights violations. The core argument must emphasize the Commission’s legal obligation to act – and the Council’s responsibility under EU law to respond once the review is submitted. If Israel is found in violation, governments must support concrete measures, including suspension.
Key targets: We need a campaign focused on 12 countries. These 6 countries were among those that voted for the review and are influential re: foreign policy decisions related to the Middle East: 🇫🇷 France; 🇳🇱 The Netherlands; 🇪🇸 Spain; 🇸🇪 Sweden; 🇮🇪 Ireland; 🇵🇱 Poland. These 4 countries were opposed and are influential re: foreign policy decisions related to the Middle East: 🇩🇪 Germany; 🇮🇹 Italy; 🇬🇷 Greece; 🇨🇾 Cyprus. These 2 countries were neutral/abstained: 🇦🇹Austria; 🇱🇻Latvia
c. Arms Embargo and Military/Security Cooperation Ban
What’s happening: Several governments continue to supply lethal weapons and share intelligence with Israel, in direct violation of international law obligations.
Focus points: Halt exports of F-35 fighter jets and their components – especially by the U.S., the U.K., Italy, the Netherlands, and companies in Canada and Australia. Ban on all lethal arms, crowd-control weapons, and drone systems. End military/intelligence cooperation (joint exercises, training, data sharing).
Action needed: There are already campaigns on this topic, including court cases in some countries (e.g., the U.K., the Netherlands). Support these campaigns and, if there are countries where they don’t exist but are needed, start one. Demand parliamentary debates, export license suspensions, and legal challenges. Expose how these ties fuel war crimes and embolden impunity.
4. Beyond Governments: Building Bottom-Up Momentum
In many parts of the world, governments are failing the Palestinian people – whether through open hostility, covert collaboration, or sheer unwillingness to act. From the United States and Germany’s diplomatic shielding of Israel to India’s growing arms trade – complicity takes many forms. Meanwhile, others like Australia, Canada and the U.K., maintain deadly military and intelligence ties while mouthing vague support for international law. And too many governments in the Global South – despite strong public support for Palestine – are still watching from the sidelines.
When direct lobbying hits a wall, civil society must mobilize the power of non-state actors, subnational institutions, and transnational solidarity networks. These actors can reshape public discourse, drive moral clarity, and create the political space that hesitant governments currently lack.
a. Mobilize Non-State Actors
When governments are immovable, pressure must come from institutions that shape elite and public opinion:
- Universities and research centers: End academic cooperation with Israeli institutions complicit in apartheid and occupation.
- Faith communities: Mobilize interfaith and religious networks to denounce complicity and demand moral accountability.
- Labor unions: Boycott Israeli arms manufacturers, contractors, and logistics firms.
- Municipalities and city councils: Pass symbolic recognitions of Palestinian statehood and suspend partnerships with Israeli companies that support apartheid and occupation.
- Professionals & their associations: Health care workers, humanitarian staff, artists, and journalists can publicly denounce Israel’s targeting of their peers in Gaza.
- Civil society and disability rights advocates: Document the disability toll of the war—including injuries, trauma, and long-term impacts on children—through submissions to UN bodies like the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. These efforts, echoed in UN reports on mass starvation, reinforce legal accountability and public awareness..
- Corporations and investors: Divest from Israeli weapons manufacturers, settlement-linked enterprises, and implicated surveillance tech firms. Pressure institutional investors and pension funds to end complicity in human rights violations through ESG frameworks and shareholder activism.
These actors help normalize bold positions and insulate politicians from right-wing backlash.
b. Elevate the Role of the Global South
Some Global South countries – notably South Africa and Malaysia – are already punching above their weight diplomatically. Their moral clarity stands in stark contrast to the silence or complicity of many richer nations. The Hague Group – which has been instrumental in supporting the actions of the International Criminal Court (ICC), including the arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant – should be empowered to do more: expanding legal coordination, tabling UN resolutions, and rallying support in the Non-Aligned Movement.
Other pivotal states like Algeria, Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria have the population, regional weight and diplomatic capacity to escalate pressure – but need organized civil society support to take bolder stances.
c. Leverage Global Legal Forums and Norms
Civil society can fuel momentum for:
- New International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinions – In July 2024, the ICJ affirmed that Israel’s occupation is illegal. Building on this, civil society can now push for a follow-up advisory opinion addressing two key questions: whether the occupation amounts to the crime of apartheid (a possibility already referenced in the July opinion), and what concrete obligations third-party states hold in light of the ICJ’s successive orders in January, March, and May 2024 – particularly regarding the duty to prevent genocide, including halting arms exports.
- Universal jurisdiction cases – These are filed in national courts across Europe, Latin America, and Africa targeting Israeli officers holding positions of command during the fighting in Gaza and seek to prosecute them as war criminals.
- ICC warrants and prosecutions – These sustain public attention and political cover for international legal institutions.
- Uphold the ICC’s independence and resist U.S. intimidation – As the host state of the ICC, the Netherlands has a particular responsibility to safeguard its integrity. The Dutch government should be expected to take a principled and proactive stance in ensuring the Court can operate without interference or intimidation, including in response to any threats or sanctions issued by the United States.
d. Counter Media Narratives and Cultural Normalization
Where direct lobbying fails, shifting public opinion through culture, media, and education becomes essential:
- Support and amplify Palestinian voices in international media.
- Pressure publishers, streaming platforms and media houses to stop laundering Israeli state narratives.
- Push for museum, art, and academic boycotts of apartheid-complicit institutions.
e. Focus Resources, Win Victories
Everything above is ambitious, but none of it is symbolic. Each action helps to isolate Israel, delegitimize occupation, and bring accountability closer. But we must organize with discipline:
- Set clear targets.
- Choose winnable campaigns.
- Use political moments (UN votes, trade reviews, arms licensing decisions) to mobilize.
- Document victories and keep building.
This isn’t just about expressing solidarity. It’s about building leverage – from the bottom up – where top-down diplomacy has failed.
5. Build Hope, Not Hype
Strategic campaigning means choosing battles that matter – and that can be won. We cannot afford to waste the time, hope, or energy of those who care. Every petition, protest, and post must target real levers of power. Palestinians don’t need more noise. They need victories – legal, diplomatic, economic – that shift the balance and restrain the violence.