Oxford council passes Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions motion against Israel
London, March 27 (RHC)-- In news from the UK, the Oxford City Council has passed a motion supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, citing International Court of Justice (ICJ) rulings.
Independent councillors brought forward the motion, which calls for Oxford City Council to avoid trade and investment relations and cooperation with entities complicit in violations of human rights and international law.
In January last year, the ICJ delivered an interim ruling saying that it was plausible that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. The court called on Israel to refrain from impeding the delivery of aid into Gaza. It also ordered Israel to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide in the besieged enclave and to punish incitement to genocide, amongst other orders.
On Monday, Oxford councillor Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini said councillors had "unanimously passed a boycott and divestment motion citing the ICJ rulings on Palestine."
Councillor Barbara Coyne, who proposed the motion, said: “I hope this motion will be thoroughly implemented, and that its passage may pave the way for other councils to take decisive action."
The council currently banks with Barclays, which has been targeted by BDS campaigners over investment and loans to arms companies selling weapons and military technology to Israel. The BDS movement was founded in 2005 as a means of non-violently pressuring Israel to comply with its obligations under international law.
"This is a first step in divesting from settler colonial genocide, occupation and apartheid in pensions, investments and procurement inc in banking with Barclays," Djafari-Marbini wrote on X.
"We will keep building the movement for the divestment of institutional investments/pensions from companies complicit in war crimes. We will dismantle Israeli impunity."
Israel has renewed its assault on the Gaza Strip and last week launched a new ground incursion into the enclave. The health ministry in Gaza said on Tuesday that 792 people had been killed in the week since Israel resumed bombardments on the Palestinian territory, including 62 in the past 24 hours.
The ministry said in a statement that it recorded "792 martyrs and 1,663 injuries" since strikes resumed, bringing the total death toll since the war started on 7 October 2023 to 50,144. At least another 10,000 people are missing and presumed dead, according to Gaza civil defence officials.
Last Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Israeli forces committed war crimes against sick patients while occupying hospitals in the Gaza Strip.
Human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Israel's attacks on hospitals and medical staff as a breach of international humanitarian law. More than 1,000 medical staff have been killed by Israel in Gaza.
The Israeli military has justified its assaults on Gaza's medical facilities with claims that they are used by Palestinian armed groups as "military command centres", but has failed to provide any verifiable evidence to back the allegations.
Bill Van Esveld, HRW's associate children’s rights director, said: “The Israeli military’s occupation of Gaza’s hospitals has transformed sites for healing and recovery into centres of death and mistreatment.”
[ SOURCE: THE MIDDLE EAST EYE ]
