‘UK parliament to ban BDS,’ says British MP

MP from Conservative party says legislation banning BDS in the UK is in the works.

By World Israel News Staff

The United Kingdom is gearing up to introduce and pass legislation in parliament that would ban the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a British MP said during an online conference on Tuesday.

MP Robert Jenrick, the former State for Housing, Communities and Local Government and a member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party, said that he felt the BDS movement is waning in the UK.

“I think we’re beating BDS here. Today, there is no political party in the UK to support BDS, and this is becoming an increasingly fringe activity,” i24 News quoted Jenrick during a speech at the Leadership Dialogue Institute 2021 conference.

“What we want to do is pass legislation here, and I’m pretty confident it will be in the legislative program the spring of next year.”

Jenrick said he and his allies were partnering to ensure that the law would be drafted in a way that made finding loopholes extremely difficult.

“There’s a question of how broad that law can be, obviously I want it to be as broad as possible, so there’s next to no avenue that BDS could continue,” he said.

In October 2021, the UK’s Green Party, which officially endorses BDS, adopted a definition of antisemitism that specifically denied the idea that boycotting Israel fuels Jew hatred.

After pledging to fight against antisemitism, the Green Party noted that “this motion does not in any way conflict with other policies on, for example, BDS and freedom of speech, and will not prevent legitimate criticism of the actions of any nation state.”

In September 2021, the UK Labor party passed a resolution calling for international sanctions against Israel and labeling it an “apartheid state.”

“Conference condemns the ongoing Nakba in Palestine, Israel’s militarised violence attacking the Al Aqsa mosque, the forced displacements from Sheikh Jarrah and the deadly assault on Gaza,” the motion read.