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UK Labour must cut all trading with Israel: Analyst

Monday, 23 November 2015 3:31 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 23 November 2015 3:31 PM ]

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (AFP photo)

Press TV has interviewed Gilad Atzmon, an author and political commentator in Lerwick, UK, about Britain's Labour Party voting to boycott the world's largest security firm G4S for its business ties with Israel.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Is it a shock that the British Labour Party is actually moving to boycott this very large security firm? How do you think that the rest of the UK is going to react to this?

Atzmon: This is an open question. It is not very surprising that the Labour in its current form is doing the right thing. They still have a long way to go. They still have to cut all the relationships with Israeli unions, with the Histadrut, and obviously to call for total sanction and embargo of all trading with Israel.

However, when it comes to G4S, the security company, I realized, I learned for an Israeli press that they already accepted that there is a problem there and a year ago they announced that they will cut their relationship with Israel once their terms are terminated, the contract is over. But it is definitely a very positive development on Labour’s part and this is exactly what we expect from Mr. Corbyn.

Press TV: What about inside the country though? Can it cause a political schism because obviously all Brits do not feel that way and especially looking at the current political system, do you think that they will really be able - I am talking about the Labour Party when they are saying that they are going to boycott and perhaps go for other measures - do you think that they will be able to be successful with these measures given the current political climate in the UK?

Atzmon: It is a very big question. One thing is very clear to me about Jeremy Corbyn. He is a radical person and this is exactly his product and this is what he is trying to deliver and this is exactly what they did in the last two days, calling to cut relations with this company.

Whether the Brits will follow him is a big question. I believe that we can see that quite a lot of young Brits are very excited by his politics or were at least at the time he was elected to lead the party. Whether it will turn into a political tidal wave, it is very difficult to predict.

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