Government makes step toward banning public sector support for BDS

A Conservative MP has forwarded an amendment to the Public Service Pensions bill which couldĀ  prevent the public sector from allying itself within the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

The BDS movement describes its objective as to utilise global pressure to halt what it argues is Israeli apartheid and colonialism. Omar Barghouti, a key leader of the movement, has previously stated that he opposes ā€œa Jewish state in any part of Palestine.ā€

Former housing secretary Robert Jenrickā€™s amendment, first debated yesterday, aims to remove the possibility of public sector pension schemesĀ  investing in decisions that conflict with British foreign policy.

Jenrick told MPs yesterday: ā€œPublic service pension schemes paid for by the taxpayer, by one means or another, and underwritten by the state, are quite clearly the preserve of the United Kingdom Government, and as such, it is perfectly legitimate that the United Kingdom Government has a say in regulating how public pension schemes manage the money that is provided to them by we, the taxpayers of the country.

ā€œFor too long, weā€™ve seen public pension schemes pursue pseudo-foreign policies. All too often, the foreign policy of these public pension schemes is, I’m afraid, exclusively focused on rewriting the UKā€™s relationship with the worldā€™s only Jewish state.ā€

Jenrick, who claimed last DecemberĀ  that the government would work toward ā€œoutlawingā€ BDS, went on: ā€œWere this amendment to pass, it should merely be the beginning of a wider effort to tackle BDS within the private sector, and that we as a government make good on our manifesto commitment to a full BDS bill.ā€

He told the Jewish Chronicle newspaper earlier this week: ā€œBDS against Israel is all too often connected to antisemitism her in the UK and does nothing to promote peace and is increasingly out of step with the mood in the Middle East following the Abraham Accords, whereby a number of Gulf states are forging productive links with Israel.ā€

Labour MP Zarah Sultana, herself a BDS supporter, referred to 123 UK councils who had adopted policies opposing Apartheid in South Africa by 1989.

ā€œWhile the prime minister Margaret Thatcher was calling the ANC and Nelson Mandela ā€˜terroristsā€™, and Young Conservatives were proudly wearing badges calling for him to hanged, local authorities were on the right side of history.ā€

ā€œThis amendment, in the name of the member for Newark, would ban local councils from taking such a stand.ā€