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U.K. Parliament Introduces Bill Outlawing BDS in Universities and Councils [1]
['Jonathan Shamir']
Date: 2023-06-19
The parliamentary process to introduce a law that would stop Britain’s public bodies from boycotting Israel began on Monday, to the concern of several human rights organizations.
The bill, which received its first reading in the British Parliament on Monday afternoon, would prevent Britain’s local councils and universities from “adopting their own foreign policy” by boycotting Israel or companies that trade with it. Its sponsor is Michael Gove, who is secretary of state for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
The bill extends the ban on boycotts beyond Israel’s internationally-recognized borders to "the occupied Palestinian territories" and "the occupied Golan Heights."
A first reading is a formality where a bill is presented to the House of Commons, but no debate takes place. The second reading is already slated for July. There are a further five parliamentary stages before a bill can receive royal assent and become law.
A letter signed by over 60 civil society organizations, including Greenpeace UK and Liberty, warned that the boycott bill represents an attack on freedom of expression.
“If passed, this law will stifle a wide range of campaigns concerned with the arms trade, climate justice, human rights, international law, and international solidarity with oppressed peoples struggling for justice,” the statement said.
Local councils in Lancaster, Leicester and West Dunbartonshire (near Glasgow) have previously voted to divest from Israel, while many student unions across the country have adopted motions in support of the BDS movement that calls to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel.
The proposal was first laid out in the Conservative Party manifesto for the 2019 election and is the brainchild of Gove and Cabinet Secretary Oliver Dowden. Both of their ministries have already published internal guidelines against such boycotts.
“Such policies have led to concerns about antisemitism being legitimized through actions such as Jewish films being censored and Jewish university societies being threatened with bans,” Gove said.
Open gallery view Britain's Levelling Up, Communities and Housing Secretary Michael Gove speaking to members of the media on Sunday. Credit: HENRY NICHOLLS - AFP
The Board of Deputies, an umbrella group representing the British Jewish community, said it appreciated “how the government is working to prevent these organizations from setting their own foreign policy, which all too often creates a deeply divisive local situation as well as being deeply unsettling to local Jewish communities.“
The Jewish Leadership Council also backed the bill, accusing the BDS movement of “importing conflicts into communities which risk increasing levels of antisemitism.”
However, the Union of Jewish Students and several Jewish youth groups said they opposed the bill on the grounds that it violated civil rights, though they reiterated their opposition to BDS.
"Using legislation to clamp down on free speech and space for dissent harms democracy. Making it illegal for public authorities not just to boycott Israel, but China or Myanmar, to name just a few examples, will not make Jews safer – we must remain committed to the values of democracies, free speech and human rights." Danielle Bett, Director of Communications for the liberal Zionist organization Yachad told Haaretz.
Other Jewish organizations, such as Na’amod and Diaspora Alliance, also rejected the bill.
“A clear example of antisemitism being instrumentalized to promote anti-Palestinian politics and restrict our civil liberties. Anyone who thinks banning BDS helps the fight against antisemitism has no interest in actually fighting antisemitism,” said Diaspora Alliance’s U.K. director, Emily Hilton.
Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, posted a video on Twitter noting that the only precedent for such a bill was then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s 1988 law to “stop local authorities from supporting the boycott of South Africa.” He noted that the bill would impact any movement looking to make “ethical investment decisions.”
The position of the Labour Party with regard to the bill is unclear. Its leader, Keir Starmer, has publicly rejected BDS and previously instructed the party’s lawmakers to vote in favor of a similar bill that made it illegal for public pension funds to divest from Israel last year – though 22 MPs rebelled and voted against it.
Fourteen Israeli human rights organizations also wrote a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and other senior cabinet members calling on them to "withdraw the legislation," as such a bill "will make it extremely difficult for the occupied Palestinian territories to be recognised and treated differently to Israel proper, despite the UK government recognising the illegality of settlements." While acknowledging their different stances on BDS, they said that they are "clear, as civil society organisations committed to civil rights and free speech, that the nonviolent tactics of boycotts and sanctions are legitimate acts."
Anti-boycott legislation is most prominent in the United States, where 35 states have laws that either bar states from investing in companies that boycott Israel or require state contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel.
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[1] Url:
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2023-06-19/ty-article/.premium/u-k-parliament-to-vote-on-making-bds-illegal-for-universities-and-councils/00000188-d395-dbf8-a3e8-dbb51f620000
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