FiMED – Follow-up

The "Don't Swallow Teva (Slik Geen Teva)" campaign is at the forefront of Palestina Solidariteit's participation in the Manifiesta solidarity festival, to be held on 12 and 13 September in the Belgian city of Ostend.

The organisation announced that its presence at this year's festival will focus entirely on promoting the boycott campaign against Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva Pharmaceuticals, with a dedicated stand, leaflets and banners across the festival site, as well as calls on visitors to join the campaign.

The campaign, launched nationally in Belgium by Palestina Solidariteit, calls on people not to buy Teva medicines, on doctors not to prescribe its products and on pharmacists not to sell them, as part of a pressure campaign linked to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The organisation accuses the company of profiting from the Israeli occupation and says it has financial and institutional ties with Israel and the Israeli army. It also notes that campaigns to boycott the company are active in a number of countries and that Teva is one of the BDS movement's priority boycott targets; these are accusations and positions held by the campaign's organisers.

Palestina Solidariteit says the campaign has already achieved local results in Belgium, including several pharmacies in Herent stopping sales of the company's products, a ban on Teva products in care institutions run by the city of Leuven, and hundreds of healthcare workers and health institutions declaring their support for the boycott.

The participation in Manifiesta is part of the organisation's wider push to strengthen economic boycotts linked to the Palestinian cause, as the campaign seeks to move the boycott from local initiatives to broader pressure on an Israeli company operating in international markets, including the European market.