London – The United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been urged by a group of anti-apartheid organisations to scrap the “worrying” anti-BDS Bill that would restrict the right of public bodies to launch boycott campaigns.
On Thursday, a group of anti-apartheid organisations, led by the UK-based Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA), have submitted a petition to Downing Street urging Johnson to scrap the anti-BDS Bill and instead protect the #RightToBoycott in the UK.
The group includes the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions UK, the Stop the War Coalition, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Amos Trust, Liberal Democrats Friends of Palestine and Conservative Friends of Palestine.
“The right of public bodies to boycott and divest from those who abuse human rights and fail to comply with international law must be upheld,” reads the submitted petition.
“In a free society, public bodies must retain the right to make ethical choices”.
“This is worrying legislation” says Shamiul Joarder, Head of Public Affairs at FOA.
“Public bodies must retain the right to boycott and divest from those complicit in Israeli apartheid. This is a first step towards criminalising the individual right to BDS in the UK, and part of a wider crackdown on anything that opposes government policy, as seen by the Public Order Bill which allows police to shut down protests that are ‘too noisy’,” FOA’s Joarder adds.
Earlier in May, during the Queen’s Speech opening of Parliament, Prince Charles said the government will introduce “legislation [that] will prevent public bodies engaging in boycotts that undermine community cohesion.”
“The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Bill will stop public bodies [from] imposing their own boycotts on foreign countries,” the BBC reported at that time.
Several pro-Palestine groups and activists slammed the announcement, saying such a move is apparently aiming at restricting support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement which aims to pressure ‘Israel’ to comply with international law and end its illegal occupation of Palestine through the promotion of boycotts and sanctions.
They also said the move would prevent public bodies from making ethical decisions to boycott and divest from firms complicit in Israeli apartheid against Palestinians.
Thus, the legislation would essentially ban public bodies from supporting the peaceful BDS movement.
“In a free society, public bodies must have the right to make ethical choices,” FOA said in a statement that time, adding it is “extremely concerned” by the legislation.
In the case of Palestine, FOA noted, “boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is a peaceful movement calling on Israel to comply with international law and end its illegal occupation of Palestine.”
“Recently, we have seen the power of BDS with Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine – we must now see the same for Palestine.”
“The right to boycott, divest from and sanction those who abuse human rights and fail to comply with international law must be upheld.”
“FOA remains committed to protecting the right of public bodies to make ethical choices through BDS.”
The BDS movement is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world. Since its launch in 2005, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.
Several countries and US states have banned the BDS movement. Many US states are using anti-boycott laws and executive orders to punish companies that refuse to do business with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Opponents of the BDS movement who support ‘Israel’ view it as anti-Semitic and designed to destroy Israel’s economy.
FOA is a UK-based campaigning organization concerned with defending the human rights of Palestinians and protecting the sacred al-Aqsa Sanctuary in Jerusalem.
