QR codes for recalling the Gaza genocide

In the "Tis the season to end genocide" video, which was shared on Instagram by the New Jersey Palestine Action channel, activists can be seen spreading stickers at BDS target businesses like Starbucks, McDonald's, and Zara throughout Manhattan neighborhoods.

BDS is a Palestinian-led movement for freedom, justice and equality. The movement takes its inspiration from the boycott movement against Apartheid South Africa and seeks to pressure Israel into ending its occupation and violations by peaceful means.

Activists caught the attention of shoppers with colorful stickers and coupon codes, offering discounts and free items.

However, when customers scan the QR codes, they are presented with pictures from Gaza, where Israel's war, which has been raging for more than a year and a half and has been called a genocide by prominent human rights organizations, continues to kill, starve, and uproot Palestinians.

Activists urged people to boycott these companies in an effort to draw attention to their involvement in Israel's ongoing war on the Palestinian enclave.

They end the video by calling for an "arms embargo, an end to the siege of Gaza and an end to the 76 years of displacement, occupation and apartheid in Palestine".

"Americans, particularly in big cities like New York, are extremely tunnel-visioned and consumer-driven. It can feel like screaming into the void despite hundreds of demonstrations. This was an action that was designed to bring the genocide right to their periphery where they can't avoid it: to the complicity corporations that they refuel from daily," New Jersey Palestine Action said about the campaign. "Everything we do is for those in Gaza. We want the Palestinian people to know we will never forget them," the movement added.

On 16 December, the movement posted a reel showing an autonomous group tagging 68 storefronts in Manhattan that are currently being boycotted.

They have also translated stickers into Spanish due to the number of requests to do so. The group told Middle East Eye that they have received offers from people to translate them into other languages, such as German and French.

The group told the sticker movement has travelled to major countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Canada, New Zealand and many states in the US such as California, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Florida.