Erekat slams UK move to ban Israeli settlement boycott

PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat protested on Wednesday Britain’s plan to ban the boycott of Israeli goods under new government rules.

Erekat said in an emailed statement that he had met with the British Minister for the Middle East Tobias Ellwood in his office in the West Bank city of Jericho and strongly protested the move.

“It would be a reward to Israel, the occupying power, for its destructive approach towards the two-state solution and its continuation of settlement activity, imposing new realities on the ground and war crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people,” the statement said.

“The decision contradicts international law and international legitimacy,” it added.

The British government announced on Monday that it will punish publically funded bodies such as local municipalities and universities who boycott goods or services from companies complicit in the weapons trade, tobacco products or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock said earlier this week that “boycotts undermine good community relations, poisoning and polarizing debate, weakening integration and fuelling anti-Semitism”.