Boycat founder Adil Abbuthalha never speculated he would become a global face of the divestment movement against Israel from a dream he had over one year ago.

“I had this dream one night where I was arguing with someone about why they’re buying Starbucks… I was so mad, I don’t know why I was so angry. I woke up and everything in my head planned out the next 12 months…” he explained.

This led to the beginning of Boycat, an ethical shopping application that allows users to scan barcodes of products to see whether they have any connection to the weapons manufacturing industry or Israeli companies. The application has over 1.2 million users and has divested over $112 million from Israeli-tied companies as of December 2024, according to Abbuthalha.

Graduating from university at 19, Abbuthalha journeyed through different career paths at a young age before creating an influential software company by age 26.

“My situation after university was pretty random. I was a pre-med in college, and then I saw my brother go through med school, and I was like ‘there’s no way of doing that,” he recalled. “I began doing my own thing at 21, building products for different companies,” he said.

It was after a few years of working for the corporate world when he founded Boycat, and his name was seen in the international press as the app gained popularity. Shortly after, he was laid off due to “not moving business goals.” However, the correlation between the two convinced him otherwise.

“The reality is, these certain complaints started coming around after my interviews with Al Jazeera and other outlets,” he said.

With his newly found time, he began researching the different ways to boycott companies associated with Israel.

“You can boycott very specific companies and avoid buying from them," he said. "Another aspect is you boycott everything ever, which is what Zionists like to bring up a lot, where using your iPhone for example that has a chip made in Israel, or that you shouldn’t use Google or Amazon anymore."

Google, the world's most widely used search engine, and Amazon, the world's leading ecommerce retailer have reportedly worked with Israel to provide artificial intelligence services to the Israeli Defense Force in a program called Project Nimbus.

Google’s part of the project was contracted at roughly $1.2 billion.

According to Abbuthalha, completely boycotting giant companies tied to Israel such as these two would make life difficult for the average consumer or individual with internet service.

“If we were to boycott everything, we’d have nothing to use," he said. "That’s just the reality, and 90% of companies out there have some sort of stake (with Israel)."

However, another way to boycott is what Abbutalha calls the “middle ground” approach, which is what he uses for Boycat.

“My approach is more of a middle ground where if we can target those major companies, then also target the major parent companies and anyone that has major investments in Israel, then it’s the most efficient approach,” he said.

According to Abbuthalha, there are many companies which fit his “middle ground” criteria and are easier for Muslims in the United States or other Western countries to avoid.

“Anything PepsiCo and Coca Cola are super easy to avoid. On top of that, you have Starbucks and McDonalds,” he said.

PepsiCo, the American soft drink corporation, made a deal in November to completely buy out the US-based Israeli Sabra Dipping Company known for its hummus dips.

Moreover, PepsiCo bought the Israeli sparkling beverage company SodaStream in 2018 for $3.2 billion, which has been criticized for operating in an illegal settlement inside the occupied West Bank.

Coca Cola, the competitor of PepsiCo, was banned by the Arab League in the 1960s for 20 years, when it made a deal with then president of Israel Development Corp Abraham Feinberg, according to the New York Times.

The corporation has been accused of supporting Israel since.

McDonalds and Starbucks have also been accused of similar pro-Israel stances.

Starbucks sued the workers union Starbucks Workers United (SWU) after it shared a pro-Palestine post on X last October, and McDonalds Israel announced on Instagram that it would provide free meals to IDF soldiers, which reportedly went up to 100,000, according to Newsweek.

Targeting alleged Israeli-supporting parent companies such as PepsiCo and others will allow consumers to avoid boycotting almost every company in the West while still making an impact, according to Abbuthalha. This vision of boycotting eliminates what he calls “boycott fatigue.”

To make this vision a reality, Boycat signed a deal in November with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement (BDS), becoming its official partner, according to Abbuthalha. BDS rose to prominence in the 90s when it led the anti-apartheid boycott movement against South Africa.

Since then, BDS has led the anti-Israel boycott movement.

With the new partnership, Boycat users can choose to boycott goods from certain companies tied to Israel based on a detailed three-level system backed by BDS research.

Apple users have expressed mostly positive reviews of the app, explaining that this system makes ethical shopping easier. The app has 4.5 out of 5 stars on the App Store.

One user said, “I love this app. It made my life a lot easier and guilt free… With this app, you don’t have to spend hours researching every time you need to buy something.”

Another user expressed that the app helps them be aware of what they buy.

“It can be so hard to be a conscious consumer, especially because of monopolies and ‘parent’ companies. This app is so helpful and I’ve found it easy to use.”

In less than a year, the app has divested over $100 million and has over one million users. Abbuthalha hopes that this boycott movement will continue to gather people together in the economic fight against Israel.

“At an individual level, we’re very weak," he said. "But combined, we have a ton of power that we can see in the app as well. $112 million is not a small number, and as we keep growing, as we scale to millions, we can control hundreds of millions of dollars in weeks. That is the goal, In Sha Allah."