Vicki Kirby, the vice chair of the Labour’s Woking branch who tweeted Jews have “big noses” and “slaughter the oppressed”, has been suspended from the party after MPs attacked the leadership’s lack of action.
Category: Britain
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has asked the UK government to remove hundreds of flyposters on London Underground trains put up by pro-Palestinian activists which claim that his country’s policies amount to apartheid.
The Minister for Universities has written to the vice chancellor of Oxford University demanding more investigation into claims of anti-semitism as MPs call for the Labour Party to dissociate itself with a group accused of intolerance towards Jews.
Local councils, public bodies and even some university student unions are to be banned by law from boycotting “unethical” companies, as part of a controversial crackdown being announced by the Government.
Under the plan all publicly funded institutions will lose the freedom to refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
A lightning strike is believed to have been the cause of a large fire at the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot this morning.
Ferry services to the Isle of Wight have been disrupted after a large fire at a boatyard on an industrial estate in Cowes.
French Ambassador Sylvie Bermann is taking Jon Hunt to the Court of Appeal for building a basement on his property which is next to her residence
The move by the Government is equally designed to prevent councils from boycotting Israeli companies or public institutions in response to calls by the pro-Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions [BDS] campaign.
But activists also fear that the ban could stop councils from divesting from companies operating in Israel’s West Bank settlements – despite the fact that the Foreign Office (FCO) currently advises private sector businesses against trading with or investing in such companies. Britain, like most other Western counties, regards the settlements as illegal under international law.