Nureddin Sabir, Editor, Redress Information & Analysis, writes:

The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has strongly condemned the British government’s ban on publicly-funded bodies from boycotting companies involved in the Jewish squatter colonies in the occupied Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem.

In a statement released on 17 February, Hanan Ashrawi and Saeb Erekat, members of the PLO’s Executive Committee, accused the British government of undermining British democracy and its own people’s democratic rights in order to accommodate the Israeli occupation.

Those who claim to seek the two-state solution should hold Israel accountable for deliberately destroying the prospects of peace and should work on ending the Israeli occupation rather than rewarding it.

The statement was issued after meetings with Tobias Ellwood, British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, whose responsibilities include the Middle East.

It reminded the British government of the UK’s primary responsibility for the historical injustice committed against the Palestinian people, starting with the Balfour Declaration, whose 100th anniversary is next year.

It said that instead of beginning the process of rectification and redemption, the British government “insist on perpetuating the injustice” and empowering the Israeli occupation.

Below is the full text of the statement, which was distributed by the Palestinian Mission in the UK: