UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the Conservative government will pass a law outlawing public bodies from engaging with Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS). BDS is an international movement that aims to isolate Israel by “forcing companies, institutions, and governments” to end economic support to the majority Jewish state, according to reports.
The news was announced on Dec. 15 by UK Special Envoy for post-Holocaust issues, Eric Pickles, who spoke at the International Institute for Strategic Dialogue’s conference in Jerusalem.
LATEST: To rapturous applause in Jerusalem , @EricPickles expresses pride that new incoming @Conservatives Government under @BorisJohnson will make it illegal for any public body to engage in any way with BDS. “BDS is antisemitic and should be treated as such” pic.twitter.com/O8bXWsdhMK
— CFoI (@CFoI) December 15, 2019
Pickles who also serves as the chairman of “Conservative Friends of Israel,” said that under the new law, it will be illegal for public bodies to work with those who boycott, divest from or sanction Israel in any shape or form, the Jerusalem Post reported.
“BDS is antisemitic and should be treated as such,” he said on Sunday.
Video footage of the founders of the BDS effort shows them saying they want a one-state solution: Palestine.
The Conservative Party’s manifesto, published late last month, states it will “ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, divestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries.”
Pickles was also highly vocal about the crushing defeat of the opposition Labour Party, whose leader Jeremy Corbyn, has been highly criticized for his handling of allegations of anti-Semitism within the party.
The thing that makes me happiest with the result this evening is that the Party that allowed Antisemitism to flourish has been rejected. Labour must now sort itself out or stay in the political gutter for decades
— Lord (Eric) Pickles (@EricPickles) December 12, 2019
Following the announcement of Johnson’s resounding election victory on Dec. 13, Pickles said the result made him happy because “the Party that allowed Antisemitism to flourish has been rejected.”
“Labour must now sort itself out or stay in the political gutter for decades.”
Speaking on Sunday, he described anti-Semitism as “an attack on the British way of life and British identity.”
LATEST: @EricPickles – “Antisemitism is an attack on the British way of life and British identity. Without our Jewish citizens we would be a lesser nation” pic.twitter.com/yBCyXmUPTK
— CFoI (@CFoI) December 15, 2019
“Without our Jewish citizens, we should be a lesser nation,” he added.
In the final few weeks of the election campaign, Corbyn was heavily criticized by the UK’s Chief Rabbi in an article in the Times Newspaper over how he dealt with allegations of anti-Semitism in the Party.
He wrote that “British Jews are gripped by anxiety,” over Labour potentially forming the next government, citing “130 outstanding cases,” of anti-Semitism involving the Labour Party.
Corbyn’s handling of the situation had been “incompatible with the British values of which we are so proud,” Mirvis wrote.
“It is a failure to see this as a human problem rather than a political one. It is a failure of culture. It is a failure of leadership. A new poison—sanctioned from the top—has taken root in the Labour Party,” he said.
