Asa Winstanley<\/a><\/span> Activism and BDS Beat<\/a><\/span> 29 April 2020<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n Claire Doherty<\/span> SIPA USA<\/span><\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n The UK\u2019s Palestine Solidarity Campaign<\/a> won what it said was a historic legal victory for the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n BDS campaigners celebrated as the Supreme Court in London struck out an anti-divestment rule imposed by the government in 2016.<\/p>\n As the ruling was made by the UK\u2019s highest court, it cannot be appealed.<\/p>\n The Conservative government in September 2016 imposed a new guideline which stopped local authorities using their pension schemes to divest from Israel or any other country \u2013 regardless of human rights concerns.<\/p>\n The rule stated<\/a> that councils must not use their pension policies \u201cto pursue boycotts, divestment and sanctions against foreign nations and UK defense industries.\u201d<\/p>\n But the Palestine Solidarity Campaign challenged the government, and in 2017 the High Court ruled in its favor<\/a>.<\/p>\n That decision was overturned in 2018 by the Court of Appeal but has now been upheld by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Calling Wednesday\u2019s decision a \u201chistoric victory,\u201d Kamel Hawwash<\/a>, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said<\/a> that the ruling \u201csends a decisive message to the UK government that they should not be dictating how local government pension schemes choose to invest their funds.\u201d<\/p>\n Hawwash promised to continue fighting government anti-BDS measures.<\/p>\n Instead of attacking activists, said Hawwash, the government should be acting to uphold international law and defend human rights.<\/p>\n Jamie Potter, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign\u2019s lawyer, said the ruling means that local authority workers \u201cnow have the freedom to pursue their own principles in respect of the role of the arms trade and foreign countries in violations of human rights around the world, when determining how their pension monies are invested.\u201d<\/p>\n The anti-BDS rule was imposed by the Conservative government in 2016, as part of a wave of measures targeting the Palestine solidarity movement. The measures were announced in Jerusalem<\/a> at a press conference that Matt Hancock, a British government minister, held with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n But related rules on procurement<\/a> intended to outlaw BDS turned out to have no legal teeth<\/a> and failed their first test in court<\/a>. The Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on Wednesday represents the last defeat of that wave of the government\u2019s anti-BDS measures.<\/p>\n But the Conservative government \u2013 which has done its best to support Israel \u2013 seems unlikely to stop efforts to outlaw BDS.<\/p>\n The court ruling strikes out 2016\u2019s government regulations, but does not speak to any future anti-BDS law the government may bring in.<\/p>\n The Palestine Solidarity Campaign\u2019s director Ben Jamal told The Electronic Intifada that the court victory is a \u201cshot across the bows\u201d for the government\u2019s likely forthcoming anti-boycott legislation.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Boris Johnson<\/a> pledged to bring in a new law<\/a> to ban public bodies from using \u201cboycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries.\u201d That pledge was contained in the manifesto on which the Conservative Party fought a general election in December last year.<\/p>\n\u201cHistoric victory\u201d<\/h2>\n
New law?<\/h2>\n
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Die britische Pal\u00e4stina-Solidarit\u00e4tskampagne hat am Mittwoch einen, wie es hie\u00df, historischen juristischen Sieg f\u00fcr die Boykott-, Desinvestitions- und Sanktionsbewegung errungen.<\/p>\n