Since we started Bayyāra, a lot of people have asked us about the best ways to support Palestine. It isn't easy to figure out, because a key aspect of Israel's genocide is its refusal to allow aid into Gaza, and its throttling of international aid agencies like MSF and UNRWA.
Below, you'll find our list of the most effective ways to support Palestine – from the perspective of a Gazan living in New Zealand.
If there's anything we should add to the list – or if you have any questions – you can leave a comment at the bottom of this post or contact us here.
Thank you for your solidarity. ❤️
Method #1: Donate to Gazans Directly
With all the challenges faced by aid agencies, one of the best ways to support Gazans is through direct donations – an approach known as 'mutual aid'.
In New Zealand, there are several ways to do this:
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Team Assal is a small but dedicated group of Palestinians working tirelessly to provide food, water, and essential aid to families in Gaza. At the time of writing (August 11, 2025), their activities had been restricted and they're instead passing donations directly to families in Gaza. Kiwis can donate to Team Assal through the Justice for Palestine website here.
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Convoys of Good is an NZ-registered charity which holds regular fundraisers, and sends all donations to Gazan families. Donations can be made to their ANZ account (01-0171-0633646-00) using the name "Convoys of Good".
- Emily Writes, a Wellington-based writer, manages the well-known Aotearoa to Gaza Mutual Aid Fund which PayPal recently tried to sabotage. To avoid PayPal, donations can be sent to Emily's bank account using the name "Emily" and the account number 38-9004-0845765-05.
Method #2: Donate to Palestinian Charities
Here are a few local charities we've come across which are doing excellent work on the ground in Gaza:
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Palestine Children's Relief Fund
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HEAL Palestine
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Gaza Municipality (i.e. funding the local city council directly)
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Palestine Red Crescent
- Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
Method #3: Buy Palestinian Products
By purchasing products made in Palestine, you help local farmers and artisans stay afloat despite all the challenges of occupation and apartheid. In NZ, the following businesses offer genuine Palestinian products:
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Bayyāra was established in 2024 by Noor, a Palestinian from Gaza, and Matt, a Kiwi from Nelson. We sell Hebron ceramics, Nablus soap, extra virgin olive oil, traditional embroidery, and other products of cultural significance to Palestinians.
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Preserved Identity is a Palestinian-owned social enterprise, offering everything from medjool dates and zaatar to solidarity items and tatreez handicrafts.
- YOLO medjool dates are grown in the West Bank and sourced from a genuine Palestinian supplier called Nakheel Palestine. These delicious dates are available at all major NZ supermarkets.
Method #4: Get Political
Despite Aotearoa's small size and its distance from the genocide, there's a lot more our country could be doing to support Palestine and make things slightly more difficult for Israel. Grassroots political action is powerful here, because each vote counts for more than in much larger countries.
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Lobby your MP to support sanctions on Israel and NZ recognition of Palestine. In particular, Chloe Swarbrick recently introduced the Unlawful Occupation of Palestine Sanctions Bill, which needs support from just six government MPs in order to pass.
- NZ should also be offering humanitarian visas to Palestinian victims of genocide. We wrote an article about this failure in April 2024, and unfortunately nothing has changed since then. Push the government to introduce these visas.
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Join protests, rallies, and vigils in support of Palestine. These are a great way to demonstrate the mood of the country to politicians.
- Vote in local and national elections for candidates who have voiced support for Palestine. Make it a hot electoral issue.
Method #5: Review your KiwiSaver
Check your KiwiSaver provider at mindfulmoney.nz/kiwisaver/checker. If necessary, switch to a more ethical provider, such as Pathfinder – and don't forget to tell your old provider why you're switching.
Method #6: Hire Palestinian Freelancers
Gaza has long been known as a centre for higher education in the Arab world, and boasts an extremely literate, talented, and entrepreneurial population. In recent decades, this was partly driven by necessity: the precariousness of life in Gaza meant that one had to seek out every possible advantage.
After all, if you speak fluent English and possess a marketable skill such as graphic design or web development, you can undermine Israeli attempts to crush your spirit by working for overseas clients.
As a New Zealander, you can support Palestinian (and even Gazan) freelancers on the following platforms:
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Upwork for graphic designers, web developers, and illustrators.
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italki for Arabic tutors.
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Preply for tutors of science, maths, and other academic subjects. It could be a relatively affordable way to help your kids learn something new!
- Avoid Fiverr – it's an Israeli-owned, zionist company which should be boycotted. Which brings us to:
Method #7: Boycott Zionist Companies
In addition to supporting Palestinians, it's necessary to withdraw support from Israel. Many well-known companies are either Israeli-owned (such as Ahava and Sodastream) or maintain extremely problematic ties with Israel and its military (such as CAT and Chevron).
We strongly support the mission of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. The BDS movement takes the view that campaigns should be highly targeted to have a measurable impact. Rather than ask people to avoid literally everything connected with Israel, it's more effective to overwhelmingly target the worst offenders.
The current BDS list is summarised in this image, with explanations for each target (republished from the BDS website) below.
1. Consumer boycott targets:
Hewlett Packard Inc (HP Inc)
HP Inc (US) provides services to the offices of genocide leaders, Israeli PM Netanyahu and Financial Minister Smotrich. HPE, which shares the same brand, provides technology for Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority, a pillar of its apartheid regime.
Aotearoa Connection: HP is mainly known here for laptops, desktop computers, and printers. It's easy to find great alternatives for most of its consumer products.
Chevron (including Caltex and Texaco brands)
US fossil fuel multinational Chevron is the main corporation extracting gas claimed by apartheid Israel in the East Mediterranean. Chevron generates billions in revenues, strengthening Israel’s war chest and apartheid system, exacerbating the climate crisis and Gaza siege, and is complicit in depriving the Palestinian people of their right to sovereignty over their natural resources. Chevron has thousands of retail gas stations around the world under the Chevron, Caltex, and Texaco brand names.
Aotearoa Connection: In New Zealand, Caltex is owned by Z Energy, which pays Chevron a licensing fee to use the brand name. We don't advocate for a boycott of Z Energy, but we do believe that Z's Caltex-branded petrol stations should be avoided.
Siemens
Siemens (Germany) is the main contractor for the Euro-Asia Interconnector, an Israel-EU submarine electricity cable that is planned to connect Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory to Europe. Siemens-branded electrical appliances are sold globally.
Aotearoa Connection: Siemens mainly serves the industrial and healthcare sectors in NZ.
Carrefour
Carrefour (France) is a genocide enabler. Carrefour-Israel has supported Israeli soldiers partaking in the unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza with gifts of personal packages. In 2022, it entered a partnership with the Israeli company Electra Consumer Products and its subsidiary Yenot Bitan, both of which are involved in grave violations against the Palestinian people.
Aotearoa Connection: None.
AXA
Insurance giant AXA (France) invests in Israeli banks financing war crimes and the theft of Palestinian land and natural resources. When Russia invaded Ukraine, AXA took targeted measures against it. Yet, Axa has taken no action against Israel, a 75-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid, despite its ongoing genocidal war on Gaza.
Aotearoa Connection: None.
SodaStream
SodaStream is an Israeli company that is actively complicit in Israel's policy of displacing the indigenous Bedouin-Palestinian citizens of present-day Israel in the Naqab (Negev) and has a long history of racial discrimination against Palestinian workers.
Aotearoa Connection: Sodastream's products are widely available in New Zealand, including in major supermarkets. Fortunately we have a fantastic, homegrown alternative by the name of Oh Bubbles.
Ahava
Ahava cosmetics is an Israeli company that has its production site, visitor centre, and main store in an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Aotearoa Connection: Ahava's NZ stockists include Pharmacy Direct, Cosmetics Now, Fresh Beauty Co., and Harvey Norman. Swap your Israeli cosmetics for homegrown alternatives like Living Nature, Emma Lewisham, and Wellington Apothecary.
RE/MAX
RE/MAX (US) markets and sells property in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land, thus enabling Israel’s colonisation of the occupied West Bank.
Aotearoa Connection: RE/MAX operates in New Zealand. If you're listing or buying a property, try to avoid them.
Israeli produce in your supermarkets
Boycott produce from Israel in your supermarket and demand their removal from shelves. Beyond being part of a trade that fuels Israel’s apartheid economy, Israeli fruits, vegetables, and wines misleadingly labeled as “Product of Israel” often include products of illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land. Israeli companies do not distinguish between the two, and neither should consumers.
2. Divestment & exclusion targets:
Though the BDS movement calls for divesting from and excluding from procurement/investment all the companies in the four authoritative databases listed above, we are focusing on the following targets:
Elbit Systems
Elbit Systems is apartheid Israel’s largest arms company. It “field-tests” its weapons on Palestinians, including in Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in Gaza. On top of building killer drones, Elbit makes surveillance technology for Israel's apartheid wall, checkpoints and Gaza fence, enabling apartheid. The US and EU use Elbit's technology to militarise their borders, violating refugee and indigenous peoples' rights.
Intel
Intel has announced that it will invest $25 billion in apartheid Israel as Israel’s Gaza Genocide continues, signalling its commitment to bolstering apartheid. The company’s first development centre outside the US was opened in Haifa in 1974. For decades, Intel has invested in apartheid Israel. Its plant at “Qiryat Gat” is built on Palestinian land within the boundaries of the Palestinian village of Iraq al Manshiya, which was ethnically cleansed and razed to the ground and then replaced by the Israeli settlement of Qiryat Gat.
HD Hyundai/Volvo/CAT/JCB
Machinery from HD Hyundai (South Korea), Volvo (Sweden/China), CAT (US), and JCB (UK) has been used by Israel in the ethnic cleansing and forced displacement of Palestinians through the destruction of their homes, farms, and businesses, as well as the construction of illegal settlements on land stolen from them, a war crime under international law.
Barclays
Barclays Bank (UK) holds more than £1 billion in shares of, and provides more than £3bn in loans and underwriting to nine companies whose weapons, components and military technology have been used in Israel’s armed violence against Palestinians.
CAF
Basque transport firm CAF builds and services the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR), a tram line that serves Israel's illegal settlements in Jerusalem. CAF benefits from Israel’s war crimes on stolen Palestinian land.
Chevron and Chevron-owned Noble Energy
US fossil fuel multinational Chevron is the main international corporation extracting gas claimed by apartheid Israel in the East Mediterranean. Chevron and Chevron-owned Noble Energy generate billions in revenues, strengthening Israel’s war chest and apartheid system as well as exacerbating the climate crisis.
HikVision
Amnesty International has documented high-resolution CCTV cameras made by Hikvision (China) installed in residential areas and mounted to Israeli military infrastructure for surveillance of Palestinians. Some of these models, according to Hikvision’s own marketing, can plug into external facial recognition software.
TKH Security
Amnesty International has identified cameras made by TKH Security (Netherlands) used by Israel for surveillance of Palestinians. TKH provides Israeli police with surveillance technology that is used to entrench apartheid.
3. Pressure targets:
The BDS movement calls for pressure against these companies, including boycotts, if reasonable alternatives exist.
Google and Amazon (US)
In May 2021, as the Israeli military bombed homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and threatened to push Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud technology to the Israeli government and military. By supporting Israeli apartheid with vital technologies, Amazon and Google are directly implicated in its entire system of oppression, including its unfolding genocide in Gaza. Join the #NoTechForApartheid campaign.
Airbnb/Booking/Expedia
Airbnb (US), Booking.com (Netherlands) and Expedia (US) all offer rentals in illegal Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land.
Disney
The Disney-owned Marvel Studios (US) is promoting in the next Captain America film a “superhero” that personifies apartheid Israel. Both companies are therefore complicit in “anti-Palestinian racism, Israeli propaganda, and the glorification of settler-colonial violence against Indigenous people,” as Palestinian cultural organisations have stated.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries
Teva is an Israeli pharmaceutical company and the world’s largest generic drug manufacturer. Teva benefits from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands allowing the company to exploit the captive Palestinian market.
4. Grassroots organic boycott targets:
McDonald’s (US), Burger King (US), Papa John’s (US), Pizza Hut (US), WIX (Israel), etc. are now being targeted in some countries by grassroots organic boycott campaigns, not initiated by the BDS movement. BDS supports these boycott campaigns because these companies, or their branches or franchisees in Israel, have openly supported apartheid Israel and/or provided generous in-kind donations to the Israeli military amid the current genocide. If these grassroots campaigns are not already organically active in your area, we suggest focusing your energies on our strategic campaigns above.
Recently, McDonald’s franchisee in Malaysia has filed a SLAPP lawsuit against solidarity activists, claiming defamation. Instead of holding the Israel franchisee to account for supporting genocide, we are now witnessing corporate bullying against activists. For both these reasons, we are calling to escalate the boycott of McDonald’s until the parent company takes action and ends the complicity of the brand.
Remember, all Israeli banks and virtually all Israeli companies are complicit to some degree in Israel’s system of occupation and apartheid, and hundreds of international corporations and banks are also deeply complicit. We focus our boycotts on a small number of companies and products for maximum impact.