A group of Muslim-led organizations announced Saturday that it is starting an anti-BDS investment initiative to support Israel, its Arab citizens, and Palestinians employed by Israeli companies — positioning the effort as a principled counter-movement to the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign that has gained momentum since October 7, 2023.

The new group, dubbed the Unbreakable Bond Coalition, will launch its initiative in New York City on July 9. Representatives describe the effort as a direct alternative to BDS — arguing that economic bridges, not boycotts, are the path to peace, and that broad divestment campaigns risk harming the very Palestinian and Arab Israeli workers they claim to support.

The Unbreakable Bond Coalition brings together a range of interfaith and Muslim-led civic organizations united around a vision of Muslim-Jewish partnership and economic solidarity.

The fund raised through the initiative will be donated to four specific nonprofit organizations working at the intersection of Muslim-Jewish coexistence, interfaith dialogue, and counter-extremism.

A contracted financial institution, acting on behalf of the fund’s fiduciary board of trustees, will manage the money. The board has indicated confidence that the initiative can attract participation at a global scale.

The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement promotes economic and political pressure on Israel. It has seen ramped-up support in America and globally since the Hamas terror attack on October 7, 2023, which led to the ensuing war in Gaza. In recent months, BDS-backed divestment campaigns have successfully pressured several U.S. state pension funds to sell Israeli government bonds.

The Unbreakable Bond Coalition argues that this approach is counterproductive — that boycotting Israel ultimately harms Palestinian workers and Arab Israeli citizens whose livelihoods are tied to Israeli companies, agriculture, technology, and commercial networks.

Coalition representatives who have marched in New York’s annual Israel parade, visited Israel, and joined the March of the Living in Auschwitz described the campaign as both a financial and moral statement — designed to show that ordinary citizens, including Muslims and interfaith allies, can respond to hatred and polarization through investment and relationship-building rather than boycott and isolation.

The coalition’s launch comes amid an active debate in New York City over whether municipal pension funds should divest from Israeli-related investments. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has publicly voiced support for BDS, citing his belief in the efficacy of nonviolent economic pressure.

There is currently no policy in place for NYC pension fund divestment from Israeli-related investments. But Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, has issued a stark warning about the potential consequences of applying BDS-backed divestment strategies to New York’s pension funds.

The Unbreakable Bond Coalition’s initiative represents a growing current within Muslim civil society that views the BDS framework not only as economically counterproductive, but as morally at odds with the Abrahamic values of coexistence, justice, and human dignity that Islam, Judaism, and Christianity share.

With its July 9 launch in New York City and an October 9 deadline timed precisely to the anniversary of the Hamas attack — the campaign is both a market action and a moral declaration. At a moment when antisemitism is rising and interfaith relations are under strain, the Unbreakable Bond Coalition is choosing investment over isolation, and partnership over protest.