Will banning boycotts be Boris’s dying act?
JVL Introduction
Johnson is on his way out but he leaves behind a slew of pernicious legislation and Bills going through Parliament. In this piece from Vashti Media Rivka Brown (in the introduction) and Ilyas Nagdee in the main article highlight the importance of boycott, its use in our history, the plans to ban it and touches on the other terrible Bills being proposed to curb our freedoms and the right to stand up for justice. None of these proposals will fall with Johnson’s long overdue departure.
This piece was sent to email subscribers to Vashti and is published with their kind permission. (It is not yet on the website, a link to which you can find below).
This article was originally published by Vashti Media on Thu 7 Jul 2022. Read the original here.
The Left's Best Weapon?
Introduction by Rivka Brown
If the past 24 hours have proven anything, it’s the effectiveness of boycotts. At the time of writing, 59 Conservative MPs have quit their ministerial posts in protest at Boris Johnson’s leadership, forcing the prime minister to resign. After their usual weapons – private pleas, public admonishment, criminal charges, trading top jobs for blowjobs, a vote of no confidence – failed to dent “Teflon Johnson”, MPs were left with no choice but to ditch him. It was the nuclear option, and it worked.
The present chaos within the Tory party might offer respite from its years-long assault on our freedoms. But it would be naive to think the prime minister has taken his eyes off the prize. As caretaker, Johnson will be keen to see through as much of his agenda as possible. Outstanding on his to-do list is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions bill. Johnson first briefed the press about the bill in the final weeks of campaigning for the 2019 election, just a few days after he headed to Golders Green to hand out bagels to Charedim – the philosemite’s victory lap.
Made law, the bill would be the crowning jewel in the Johnson premiership, and not just as proof that Johnson loved the Jews. No, having criminalised most street-level direct action, the BDS Act would render political resistance in almost any form – except maybe a strongly-worded petition – nigh on impossible. As Ilyas Nagdee writes in this week’s “Pickle”, the Tories aren’t targeting BDS out of any concern for Jewish people – who have, throughout our history, undertaken boycotts in defence of our rights – but because boycotts are among the most effective weapons in the left’s arsenal. Johnson isn’t gone yet – but when he does finally go, he isn’t taking our tactics with him.
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It’s the mutant offspring of Section 28! And equally unenforceable. ‘Dear Friends , it is illegal for me to encourage you to boycott Israeli apartheid produce and I could be thrown in jail if I do. So I’m asking you to NOT boycott Israeli goods and DO NOT ensure the moniker Made in Israel never enters your home.’ ‘Maybe out of the goodness of their hearts the ultra zionist, ethnic cleansing colonialists in Israel will grant the Palestinians equal rights, justice and protection from oppression.’