UK’s Conservatives pledge to ban local councils from boycotting Israel

The Conservative Party in Britain, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, will ban local councils from boycotting products from foreign countries, including Israel.

The pledge was made in the party’s election policy manifesto in the run-up to the December 12 general elections.

“We will ban public bodies from imposing their own direct or indirect boycotts, disinvestment or sanctions campaigns against foreign countries. These undermine community cohesion,” the document released Sunday says.

Introducing a law against such boycotts would prevent Labour-majority local councils from imposing boycotts against Israel, according to the Jewish Chronicle weekly newspaper.

In its election policy manifesto published Thursday, the Labour Party said that if voted into power it will “immediately recognize the state of Palestine” and would stop selling weapons to Israel.

British voters will choose a new Parliament in the wake of the Brexit controversy. Parliamentarians backed Johnson’s call for a vote in late October.