This app looks very easy to work with. Users can scan a product’s barcode or enter the product name and within seconds learn how well the manufacturer “supports Israel.” It then displays “No Thanks” and asks you not to purchase a particular product. If you watch videos on TikTok or X, you’ll see companies like Coca-Cola and Nescafe on the list.
The app was launched on Nov. 13 and has been downloaded more than 100,000 times so far, and comments on social media indicate that people from all over the world, from India to Belgium, are interested in it.
The Islamic extremist group Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the European Union, the United States, Germany, and other countries, attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking approximately 240 hostages. The conflict has significantly escalated. .
Some 15,000 people have been killed on the Palestinian side since October 7 as a result of Israeli shelling of targets in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas-led Health Ministry. Since then, many people around the world have come to position themselves as either pro-Israel, pro-Palestinian, or even pro-Hamas. According to comments on social media, the “No Thanks” boycott app was downloaded primarily by pro-Palestinian supporters.
The app is no longer available for download from Google Playstore, and as of December 1, there is no version for iOS, or Apple devices. However, apps can still be downloaded indirectly.
But who is behind “No Thanks” and what exactly is its purpose? And why is this app no longer available on Playstore?
“I lost my brother.”
According to the app itself, “No Thanks” was developed by Ahmed Bashbaş, who currently lives in Hungary. When contacted by DW, he said he was a Palestinian from Gaza. Bashbash said he lost his brother “in this massacre” and his sister died in 2020 because medical aid from Israel did not arrive in time. “I did this on behalf of my brother and sister who I lost in this brutal occupation. My goal is to try to prevent what happened to me from happening to other Palestinians,” Bashubash said. told DW via email.
With the help of the websites Boikotzionism and Uratenpat, he compiled a list of companies allegedly supporting Israel. Boikotzionist websites promote the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” which can be interpreted as anti-Semitic. Some see the phrase as a slogan denying Israel’s right to exist.
According to the website operators, the list of brands to boycott includes world-famous companies such as Adidas, McDonald’s, Chanel, Netflix and Apple, as well as everything from food to cosmetics to streaming. All industries are included, including providers. Some companies are on the list because they have jointly launched a campaign condemning Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel since October 7th. Other companies have invested in Israeli startups, for example, and financed “the theft of Palestinian territory,” according to the website.
Criticism of Israeli policies or anti-Semitism?
Bashbash said he was told by Google that the app was banned because it contained the following sentence:
The app’s home screen said, “Learn if the product you’re holding is supporting the murder of Palestinian children.”
Experts say the sentence could be interpreted as either criticism of Israel or anti-Semitism. Mellon Mendel, director of the Anne Frank Educational Center, told DW that the phrase is a reference to the medieval anti-Semitic belief that Jews murdered children in order to make Passover bread from their blood. He said it reminded him of.
Uffa Jensen, deputy director of the Center for the Study of Antisemitism, also said the term could open the door to charges of antisemitism because it plays on the image of Israel as a child murderer. .
Another interpretation of this sentence, Mendel said, is the fact that children are actually being killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip during the current war. Because they are not intentionally killed, but die in the course of war, the ruling on products that support the killing of Palestinian children is controversial, as Mendel puts it, “as a means of stirring up emotions.” It can also be seen as an exaggeration. that.
Jensen added that Hamas also killed Israeli children on October 7. “Such passages are out of this context and highly polemical,” he continued.
What is the purpose of the boycott?
According to Mendel, the important question is: what is the precise purpose of the boycott? Since October 7, it has become clear that not everyone is pursuing the same goals: “Some want a Palestinian state alongside the Israeli state, while others want the destruction of the Israeli state. .The important thing here is to distinguish between these two groups.”
“The instrument of economic boycott, the individual’s decision not to buy a product, is initially legitimate,” Mendel continues. Furthermore, Arab boycotts of Israel are not new. It started in the early 1970s. A small number of left-wing Jews also criticize Israel and support such movements, Jensen said. The boycott is also propaganda against Israel. So overall, Mendel says, there is a need to distinguish between whether it is a call to criticize Israel or whether it is anti-Semitism.
But for a significant number of German social media users, such boycott calls remind them of the National Socialists’ 1933 call to “don’t buy from Jews.” However, such comparisons risk trivializing National Socialism and may themselves be considered historically inaccurate and problematic. “This means that there were specific reasons for the Nazi boycott of Jews, and that before 1933 non-Jewish Germans and Jewish Germans were two parties in conflict. It’s completely wrong historically,” Mendel explains.
Jensen also believes that the relationship with National Socialism is difficult. “Internationally, there are dozens of other examples of boycott measures.” He mentioned, for example, the decades-long boycott of South Africa into the 1990s due to racism at the time. On the one hand, these calls can be compared, but on the other hand, calls to boycott Israel are sometimes laced with anti-Semitic ideas.
Economic damage is unlikely
Moreover, the problem that arises for Israel as a result of such a boycott is not economic damage. Parallel to this, Mendel explains, are cultural and scientific boycotts. “Progressive forces in Israel, science, art and the peace movement are being marginalized and excluded in Europe and North America as well,” he said.
This escalation was also achieved in part through such measures. On the contrary, the overall objective should be to support peaceful progressive forces on both sides.
In the meantime, Ahmed Bashbash’s first goal is to make the app available again in popular app stores. The app is free and all profits from the app will go to Palestinian organizations supporting the people of the Gaza Strip, Bashbash said on the app.
This article was originally written in German.