LONDON (Dispatches) – The UK government revealed its long-anticipated plan to ban the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign during Queen Elizabeth II’s speech on Tuesday.
Delivering the yearly address to parliament, which outlines the government’s agenda for the next session, Prince Charles said that the government will introduce “legislation [that] will prevent public bodies engaging in boycotts that undermine community cohesion”.
The anti-BDS legislation will curtail the freedom of public bodies from adopting ethical positions against human rights abusers by proscribing boycotts and divestment campaigns against foreign countries.
The bill is widely believed to be a heavy blow to supporters of Palestinian rights in Britain and an attempt to silence the BDS movement, which aims to pressure the Zionist regime to put an end to its occupation of Palestine as well as its atrocities against Palestinians.
It comes while the UK government and other Western powers have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow and its allies over Russia’s military campaign against Kiev.
In addition, Russia is now being subject to a number of boycotts as large businesses and organizations in the UK and several other countries are cutting ties with the country.
Meanwhile, pro-Palestinian groups in Britain denounced the proposed bill and said they would campaign against it.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) described the bill as an attack on free speech.
“In the case of Palestine, boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is a peaceful movement calling on Israel to comply with international law and end its illegal occupation of Palestine,” the FOA said in a statement.
“FOA remains committed to protecting the right of public bodies to make ethical choices through BDS,” it added.
Since 2005, the BDS movement has sought to sanction all Israeli-made products produced on illegally occupied Palestinian land.
The movement’s success in causing economic damage to the Zionist regime has prompted pro-Zionist groups to brand the BDS an “existential threat.”