The UK government's Anti-Boycott Bill, which would give Israel special legal protection, passed its third reading after a debate in Parliament yesterday. On the topic Economic Activity of Public Organizations (International Affairs), there were 282 votes in favor and 235 votes against. The text now goes to the House of Lords.
The bill seeks to prevent public bodies such as local councils from running their own financial campaigns and specifically focuses on banning boycotts against Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and the occupied Golan Heights. It is 193 U.N. Israel is the only member state to receive special protection under UK law.
The bill has received widespread criticism from human rights groups who have campaigned against it since it was introduced in parliament, with protests outside parliament against the bill during the vote.
Senior Conservative MP Alicia Kearns has launched a fierce attack on a controversial bill as eight Conservatives voted against the proposed legislation. Kearns, the Conservative chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told the Guardian the bill undermined freedom of expression, was against international law and risked isolating the UK on the world stage.
“This bill is flawed in four key areas: it breaks our foreign policy; it undermines freedom of expression; it is against international law; and it promotes a strange exceptionalism in UK primary law,” Kearns said.
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“We rely on a rules-based system to protect ourselves and our allies, and yet there is a risk of violating UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which the UK was instrumental in drafting,” Kearns added. “Legislation developed by the Department for Equalization, Housing and Communities must not detract from our foreign policy, undermine it or marginalize us internationally.”
Kearns, one of the Conservative Party's most prominent centrists, criticized UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron during a panel hearing yesterday. Refuting the former prime minister's answers about Gaza's status under British law, he insisted that it was part of the occupied Palestinian territories under international and British law.
Transfer is of great importance because a country that is an aggressor has no right of self-defense under international law.
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