Morning Star 24 March 2023
HUGE crowds of protesters met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit to London.
The summit between two “freedom-loving, innovative and thriving democracies,” as this week’s “roadmap” for relations described Britain and Israel, takes place as both engage in a systematic assault on democratic rights.
Protests have dogged Netanyahu for months over his legislative assault on the judiciary — the bargain the old crook having struck with his far-right coalition partners being immunity for himself in return for a weakening of the courts that will help accelerate the brutal colonisation of occupied Palestine.
Britain’s attacks on civil liberties are no less marked. Many of the huge strikes which have forced bosses to the table over the last year could not have taken place had the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill progressing through Parliament already come into force. The government is attacking the right to protest and the right to vote.
The Tory approach to securing a freedom-loving democracy is indeed innovative.
And that comes into the roadmap, which commits Britain to suppressing boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns “including through legislation” and dangerously elides anti-semitism with what it deems “a disproportionate focus on Israel in the UN” and “the singling out of Israel in the Human Rights Council.”