Anti-BDS laws are diabolical given Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians

Among a series of bizarre measures before they are voted out of office for an entire generation, British Conservatives are seeking to introduce legislation that would prevent local councils, universities and other public bodies from boycotting Israel. The timing, with thousands of Palestinian civilians being slaughtered by the occupation state, could not be more diabolical.

The bill regarding the occupied Palestinian territories specifically names Israel and proposes to make it illegal to take positions against Israeli settlements, which are illegal in themselves under international law. It is doubly wrong since this contradicts Britain’s established political position regarding the illegality of the occupation. It also contradicts its foreign policy and undermines freedom of expression. Furthermore, it goes against international law, and reinforces a strange exceptionalism in UK primary legislation.

The government is rushing to pass the bill through parliament to create political hand grenades in its ongoing far-right culture war, and seeks to brand the opposition Labour Party as anti-Semitic. Although a high percentage of Labour’s popular base is innately pro-Palestinian, and although the accusation of anti-Semitism carried some weight under previous leaders, it seems that some of its new leaders now believe that they can prove they are ready to govern only by flaunting pro-Israel clichés.

Labour has opposed the government’s pro-Israel measures in a starkly lacklustre manner, citing freedom of expression concerns, while emphasising that the party “completely opposes a policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions [BDS] against Israel.”

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The world has changed beyond recognition since the anti-boycott measures were first conceived: more than 26,000 Palestinians – 70 per cent of them women and children – have been killed in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, with thousands more buried under the rubble, and tens of thousands wounded. Horrified British citizens, along with the rest of the world, have absorbed a daily dose of atrocities and massacres through traditional and social media.

It is not just those from Muslim backgrounds or ethnic minorities, but also young people and university students, as well as others from every social grouping who are angry at the way the country’s political class restricts itself in order to avoid criticising Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Britons who have experience working in the Gulf states and the rest of the Arab world have a more nuanced understanding of the Palestinian issue. Huge numbers have taken part in pro-Palestine demonstrations in major cities in the UK, which were condemned by right-wing media and prominent politicians as “hate marches” in which “anti-British extremists” participated.

Ahead of the General Election due this year, the Conservative Party is tearing itself apart in an extraordinary right-wing death march.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s popularity rating is minus 49, and Labour leads by 28 points in the opinion polls, but the Conservatives’ solution to their chronic unpopularity has been to get embroiled in a civil war over plans to deport refugees and asylum seekers to Rwanda. The proposal was initially blocked by the Supreme Court, which unsurprisingly ruled that Rwanda was not safe for asylum seekers. Sunak’s solution is to ask parliament to pass a law declaring Rwanda to be a safe country. Ironically, it has been reported that four Rwandans have been granted asylum by the Home Office in London in the past four months, because they were “at risk from the regime” there.

Extremists within the ruling party wanted to go further by taking potentially illegal measures to block the jurisdiction of institutions such as the European Court of Human Rights, enabling the government to violate human rights law with impunity. It is no wonder that they are so keen to create a common cause with the outcast Benjamin Netanyahu’s regime in Israel. Many ministers have rushed to show support for Israel since 7 October, so any attempt to target the apartheid state with calls for entirely peaceful boycotts is attacked immediately.

READ: UK: Labour suspends MP for referencing Gaza as an example of genocide

Attitudes toward the BDS movement vary across the Western world. Several major European cities have cancelled twinning agreements with Israel, including Barcelona, which severed its relationship with Tel Aviv. At the other end of the spectrum, Germany and the US cancelled several events organised by pro-Palestinian figures on the basis of alleged “anti-Semitism”.

The municipality of Oslo, a city with great symbolic importance to the peace process, has passed a law banning the label “Made in Israel” on goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements. Ireland is seeking to enact legislation to ban trade with settlements. This follows a 2019 ruling by the European Court of Justice that all goods produced in “Israeli-occupied territories” must be labelled as such so as not to mislead consumers. Moreover, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in 2020 that anti-boycott legislation violates freedom of expression.

The situation is radically different in the US, where 35 states have already passed laws prohibiting boycotts of Israel. Although the courts have addressed these restrictions on freedom of expression, many companies have been harassed after refraining from investing in illegal settlements. Students at prestigious American universities who supported the BDS movement have been added to job recruitment blacklists.

It is strange and infuriating that at a time when Israel is facing genocide charges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the UK and other countries are seeking to take measures that would criminalise those who take a principled position on war crimes, crimes against humanity and the persecution of Palestinians.

I love Britain as the free, democratic country that adopted me, so it is painful on every level to see such anti-libera measures imposed, as if the free world wants to undermine everything it stands for. Those who seek to punish us for acting according to our conscience should not only be removed from office, but they themselves should face accountability for advocating measures that walk all over democracy, freedom and justice for the sake of their own political advancement.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Al-Quds Al-Arabi on 28 January 2023

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