Fears of Israel boycotts stalk this SNP election - The Jewish Chronicle

The 2019 Conservative party manifesto included a pledge to “ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, divestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries”. Thus far, this commitment has not been honoured in legislation, although it is understood that a Bill is now about to be published.

As is well known, the only established campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (“BDS”) in the UK is the pro-Palestinian campaign against Israel. Whilst the manifesto pledge was crafted in general terms, its target is clear. The aim is to make it unlawful for public bodies in the UK to support the BDS campaign against Israel.

There are two reasons why this matters. First, the BDS campaign undermines community cohesion. Singling out Israel when, at the same time, a blind eye is turned towards human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia, Iran, or China (to name but three) is to target the only Jewish state in the world. Holding Israel to a higher — or different — standard is a form not merely of anti-Zionism, but of antisemitism. Given the very high number of Jewish people in the UK who regard support for Israel as part of their identity, the government is right to argue that community cohesion is threatened when public authorities seek to support BDS.

Secondly, the BDS campaign undermines British foreign policy. Israel is one of the UK’s principal allies and main trading partners in the Middle East. Trade between the two countries is now worth more than £4 billion annually. At the same time, defence, military and intelligence ties between the UK and Israel are both deep and strong. Foreign policy in the UK is for the UK government to set. It is not for other public bodies to use their powers to undermine it.

The pledge was included in the Conservative manifesto because there is a clear need to take legislative action to outlaw public bodies’ support for the BDS campaign against Israel. Two examples will suffice to show why this is so.

In 2014 Leicester City Council passed a resolution committing it to boycott Israeli goods and produce. Jewish Rights Watch challenged the lawfulness of this resolution in court, but the case was lost. The Court of Appeal ruled that the resolution was a breach neither of local government law nor of the public sector equality duty imposed by the Equality Act.

More recently, UK ministers sought to adjust public sector pension rules to the effect that fund managers should not be able to use their powers over pension funds to support divestment from Israel. The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign took ministers to court, arguing that the rules were an unlawful breach of UK pensions law. In 2020 they won their case in the Supreme Court — albeit only narrowly and in the face of a powerful dissent.

The manifesto commitment is designed, in effect, to reverse the results of these two cases.

In crafting the legislation, UK ministers have had to give careful consideration to its scope. Which public authorities should be legally bound not to pursue BDS campaigns that undermine British foreign policy? Should the legislation apply only to local authorities in England, or should it apply to all public authorities across the whole of the UK?

It is understood that ministers have come to see that the latter path must be preferred. From a Scottish perspective, this is essential. The frontrunner to replace Nicola Sturgeon as first minister of Scotland is her SNP colleague Humza Yousaf MSP. Mr Yousaf has a long track record of voicing criticism of Israel and support for Palestinians. His wife (herself an SNP councillor in Dundee) has family in Gaza.

Mr Yousaf is a hapless and accident-prone politician. Despite being frontrunner he may yet fail in his bid to lead his party. But if he does not fail, you may be assured that placing the Scottish government at the forefront of the BDS campaign against Israel is exactly the sort of cheap, gesture politics that appeals to Humza Yousaf.

The UK government must have the courage of its convictions. It must bring forward the legislation it promised in its 2019 manifesto. In doing so, it must ensure that the legislation applies to all public bodies across the whole of the United Kingdom, including the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The coherence of Britain’s foreign policy and the welfare of the Jewish community in our country are far too important to be left to the whims, to the prejudices, and to the hostility towards Israel we see all too often in our public authorities in modern Britain.

Adam Tomkins is Professor of Public Law at the University of Glasgow; he was a Scottish Conservative MSP from 2016-21

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