I don't normally publish press releases from the Labour Party but this might be of interest to readers and local councillors in the context of previous postings on this blog regarding proposed government curbs on the rights of councils and other public bodies to make ethical choices regarding procurement and pension fund investments.
This statement was released today by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East:
This statement was released today by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East:
This week the Cabinet Office (17/2/2016)
published new government guidelines intended “to stop inappropriate procurement
boycotts by public authorities.”
Principally aimed at the Palestine supporting
BDS campaign it intends to remove the freedom from local authorities and other
bodies to refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms
trade, fossil fuels, tobacco and other products.
The change in policy has been condemned by
politicians, charities, campaigning and church groups and in the press. Many
pointed out that these rules, as intended, would have blocked many groups from
supporting the campaigns against Apartheid South Africa.
A spokesperson for Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn
MP stated:
People have the right to elect local representatives able to make
decisions free of central government political control. That includes
withdrawal of investments or procurement on ethical and human rights grounds.
During the General Election LFPME asked
candidates to sign up to our 6 election pledges, one of which was - ‘Illegal
Settlements: Call for a complete freeze on illegal settlement growth in order
to save any hope for a viable two state solution, and end all trade and
investment with illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory.’
Boycott campaigners have reacted to the new
guidelines as simply re-stating existing policy, which will not stop groups
from following an ethical procurement policy that discriminates against
companies based on their human rights record or compliance with international
law.
Grahame Morris MP Chair of the Labour Friends of
Palestine and the Middle East said:
We have reached a contradictory situation in which we in the
International Community economically sustain a major obstacle to peace—the
illegal settlements.
Settlement products are the proceeds of crime. They are illicit goods,
the product of a brutal occupation and the exploitation of the occupied and
their resources. By trading with those who produce them, we financially
encourage them.
Those settlements are built on the foundations of immense
suffering—that of the Palestinians who have seen their homes destroyed, have
been expelled from their own land and are living under brutal oppression—yet we
make the illegal settlement enterprise profitable for the occupying power.
That seems to me a gross injustice.
Commenting about the BDS movement, Mr Morris
added:
We should not have to boycott settlement goods; we should not be
allowed to buy them in the first place. I am appalled that the government are
more focused on preventing boycotts and disinvestment from the illegal
settlements rather than attempting to end settlement trade.
This undermines their commitment to international law, human rights and resolving the conflict.
