Britain halts funding to anti-Israel charity

A major charity organization has its funding cut off by the British government after its sponsored an anti-Israel program.

Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) said the British government would no longer fund "War on Want" for inciting anti-Israeli sentiments.

London took the step after the charity partially sponsored the Israeli Apartheid Week, which was marked across the UK in February. The annual event was aimed at raising awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and demanding its boycott.

The charity, an advocate of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, frequently criticizes the Tel Aviv regime for war crimes, ethnic cleansing and apartheid.

Reacting to the developments, "War on Want" has blasted the British government’s move.

The charity says supporting the rights of Palestinians fits squarely with its work. It has also justified its anti-Israel campaign, saying that Tel Aviv has subjected Palestinians to systematic discrimination and abuse.

The British government has banned all public bodies from joining the boycott campaign against Israel.

The UK is reportedly planning to legally challenge any organization which supports a movement to boycott Israel.

The BDS movement is a global campaign which uses economic and political pressure on Israel to comply with the goals of the movement, which is the end of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land particularly through illegal settlement constructions in the occupied territories.

The movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations that were pushing for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.”

Thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS ever since to help promote the Palestinian cause.

Politicians, activists cry foul over UK anti-BDS proposal

Meanwhile, the British government’s plan to introduce legislation which would discourage participation in the BDS movement has come under fire from leftists and pro-Palestinian activists in Britain.

On February 17, a spokesman for Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn characterized the planned bill as an unethical attack on local democracy. “The government’s decision to ban councils and other public bodies from divesting from trade or investments they regard as unethical is an attack on local democracy."

Rodney Shakespeare, a UK-based political commentator, also told Press TV during an interview in February that the move is meant to strengthen Israel.  

“What is happening now is that the UK controlled by a Zionist clique is daring to overthrow the principle by which I and other people can manifest our disgust against the creeping genocide in Palestine and in Gaza,” said Shakespeare.

Shakespeare said the move by the government to ban boycotts on Israeli goods is part of a wider plan to support the Israelis.

“Our government is openly Zionist and vicious and aggressive and it is trying to force me to buy products which are illegally produced,” the analyst said, adding, “This is an outrage and we are not going to stand for it. It is totally Zionist and it is totally in cahoots with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States.”

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