MP clarifies claim that Israel’s Labor leader backed boycott of settlement goods

Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle has issued a clarification after claiming in the House of Commons that the Israeli Labor Party had backed a boycott of goods and companies in the occupied territories.

The Brighton Kemptown MP had intervened during a speech by his party colleague Zarah Sultana on Tuesday during the debate around an amendment tabled by ex-minister Robert Jenrick on BDS.

Russell-Moyle said: “The Israeli Labor and Meretz parties, our sister parties in Israel, have both written to the leaders of the Labour party and to all of us to say that they want divestment from companies that invest in the occupied territories. Israeli Members of Parliament are asking us to do this. ”

Labour Friends of Israel were amongst the groups to react to Russell-Moyle’s claim, pointing out that his information was incorrect.

Now in a point of order, the MP has clarified his remarks saying: “I want to correct the record.

“Yesterday, I said that the Israeli Labor party and Meretz party—Labour’s two equal sister parties in Israel—had written to our current leadership in support of a boycott of goods and companies in the occupied territories.

“The letter, sent in July 2020, in fact came from the former Speaker of the Knesset, the former party chair, the former interim President of Israel, and other former and current MPs from the respective parties.

“Although that might be the view of the Meretz party—the larger of the two sister parties at the time—it has been expressed clearly to me that that was not the view of the Israeli Labor party, and it did not say that in the letter. I wish to correct that for the record clearly today.”