Britain’s High Court has ruled that the government acted unlawfully in barring local municipal pension funds from engaging in “ethical divestment” from companies that do business in Israel.

BDS activists are hailing the ruling as a victory for their cause, even though a judge said politics had nothing to do with the ruling.

Hugh Lanning, chair of the Palestine Solidarity Committee, said: “Today is a victory for Palestine, for local democracy, and for the rule of law.”

The judge, Sir Ross Cranston, ruled the government had no right to micromanage how local pension schemes choose to invest. He emphasized that the ruling had nothing to do with the merits of the BDS cause.

“The political merits of the respective arguments have no relevance,” he said.

David Berens, a London-based lawyer who represents the Jewish National Fund on the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told the Algemeiner that the ruling was “disappointing.”

“BDS is clearly antisemitic within the meaning of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism which the Government has adopted,” he said.

Contact Jesse Bernstein at bernstein@forward.com or on Twitter @__jbernstein