UK proposes anti-boycott bill

June 22, 2023

The UK government’s proposed legislation aimed at preventing local councils from imposing boycotts on Israeli goods is an attack on freedom of expression, according to civil society groups.  

The Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matter) bill would prohibit public bodies from making investment decisions based on political or moral disapproval of foreign states’ conduct. 

The proposed bill, which was unveiled on June 21, seeks to prevent public bodies from adopting their own foreign policy and enacting sanctions and divestment campaigns.  

Communities secretary Michael Gove, who introduced the bill, said boycotts of organisations and business linked to Israel has led to “appalling antisemitic rhetoric and abuse”. 

The legislation would also enable ministers to conduct investigations into suspected breaches of the ban and impose significant fines on public bodies that break the new rules.  

The bill accompanies the introduction of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BSD) bill, which aims to ensure that decisions made by public bodies are in accordance with foreign policy. 

However, a group of 68 civil society organisations have urged MPs to reject the proposed bill.  

In a joint statement, national trade unions and human rights groups claimed the bill was a violation to freedom of speech and threat to basic democratic rights. 

The groups warned that if the bill is passed, it will stifle a wide range of campaigns concerned with climate justice, human rights, international law, and the arms trade.  

Ben Jamal, director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said: “If passed, this law will have a chilling effect on all campaigns for social and political change, by trying to remove a key tool for peaceful activism, while protecting the profit-making interests of corporations at any social and environmental cost.” 

The group also claimed the bill replicates similar anti-boycott legislations passed in the US that targets climate change, gun control, and abortion rights movements.  

Kansas was one of the many states to introduce anti-boycott legislation as it proposed a bill that would require the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System to divest from financial companies that engage in ideological boycotts.