This revised and updated factsheet explains why the Palestine solidarity movement in Canada has been calling for boycott of Indigo Books & Music Inc., since 2006. It outlines how the founder and CEO of Indigo Heather Reisman co-founded the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, which encourages foreigners to join the Israeli army and continue their studies in Israel. The factsheet also explores additional ties between HESEG and the Israeli military.
Founded in 1996, Indigo Books & Music Inc., is the largest Canadian book retail chain. Heather Reisman is founder and CEO of the company, while her husband Gerry Schwartz is the founder and former president of Onex Inc., and a member of the board of directors at Indigo. Between them, they control over 60% of the shares of the company.
In 2005, Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz established the HESEG Foundation for Lone Soldiers, which encourages foreigners to join the Israeli army and continue their studies in Israel. Since any purchase at Indigo generates income for Heather and Schwartz, shopping at Indigo indirectly supports Israel’s military activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Due to the links to the HESEG Foundation, the Palestinian solidarity movement in Canada has been encouraging a boycott of Indigo for many years. In 2006 and 2007, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and other groups led many boycotts, pickets, and vigils in front of Indigo stores in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and across the country. In 2010, professors at Mt. Allison University protested the awarding of an honorary degree to Reisman due to her support for HESEG. In 2023, an Indigo store in Toronto was splattered with red paint and posters accusing Reisman of funding genocide in Gaza.
The boycott is also a response to the call from Palestinian civil society, who in 2005 asked the international community to use non-violent forms of economic pressure to force Israel to comply with international law. This strategy includes the use of boycotts against companies that are complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. (more...)
Boycott Campaign: Indigo Books & Music Inc.
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