Draft:Adil Abbuthalha

Adil Abbuthalha is an American entrepreneur and activist, best known as the founder of Boycat, a mobile application that promotes ethical shopping in support of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

==Early life and education== Abbuthalha was raised in California, spending time in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Davis. He demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit early on, launching a tutoring business at age 15 and a clothing line by age 16. While attending college in Davis, he founded a media company that partnered with major brands and later established as a product consulting startup, Stellato Studios, which expanded to several cities and raised significant funding before its acquisition in 2021.

After a stint as a data scientist in Silicon Valley, Abbuthalha redirected his career toward activism following escalating conflict in the Gaza Strip. Citing the Israeli military offensive in October 2023 as a turning point, he resolved to leverage consumer activism as a means of protest.

Inspired by a personal epiphany on November 14, 2023, Abbuthalha began developing Boycat—a barcode-scanning app designed to help users identify products from companies linked to the occupation of Palestine and to suggest ethical alternatives. Despite not having a formal background in coding, he learned the necessary skills through online tutorials and artificial intelligence tools. The app officially launched in January 2024, quickly attracting over 200,000 users and diverting millions of dollars from companies associated with the occupation.

The app enables users to scan product barcodes and determine whether manufacturers have ties to the Israeli occupation. Its rapid adoption has led Boycat to become one of the top 1% most-used browser extensions, with significant economic impact noted within its first year. In response to challenges such as removal from app stores and political pushback, Abbuthalha expanded his efforts by launching Buycat, an online marketplace that aggregates ethical brands to further support socially responsible consumer choices.

Abbuthalha advocates that consumer spending is a powerful tool for effecting social change, arguing that every purchase serves as a vote for justice. While Boycat initially focused on the Palestinian cause, he envisions expanding the platform to include campaigns addressing other human rights and social justice issues, such as the rights of Uyghur Muslims, conflict minerals, and climate sustainability. His broader ambition is to build an alternative economy where ethical, locally owned, or community-supported businesses flourish, reducing reliance on corporations associated with human rights abuses.