Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl has urged Sir Keir Starmer to reject a proposal from his shadow foreign secretary calling for the UK to ban the import of goods from illegal settlements in the West Bank if the Israeli government presses ahead with annexation plans.
Labour’s Lisa Nandy had announced the plan, which is being backed the Labour leader, on Sunday arguing Britain cannot be “a silent witness” to Israel’s planned extension of sovereignty to some 30 percent of the West Bank.
But in a statement responding to the proposal Mrs van der Zyl said she would ‘’urge Sir Keir and the Labour Party not to go down this route.’’
She said:’’ The tactic of BDS is divisive and seeks to strike at the very legitimacy of the State of Israel, the Middle East’s only democracy and the world’s only Jewish State.”
