Anger as UK moves to ban Israeli settlement boycott

Activists have accused the United Kingdom of a crackdown on human rights campaigners over plans to ban city councils, public bodies and some student unions

from boycotting "unethical" businesses, including those operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. 

As part of the measure, all publicly-funded institutions will be barred from boycotting goods or services by companies complicit in weapons trade, tobacco products or Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem,according to UK newspaper The Independent. 

Senior government officials told The Independent that the plan will be unveiled this week when Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock visits Israel. 

In a statement sent to Al Jazeera, a spokesperson for UK Prime Minister David Cameron's office said that boycotts "undermine good community relations, poisoning and polarising debate, weakening integration and fuelling anti-Semitism". 

The statement added that locally imposed boycotts "can roll back integration as well as hinder Britain's export trade and harm international relationship

Credit: Al Jazeera News