LONDON, Thursday, April 30, 2020 (WAFA) – The London-based Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has won a landmark legal victory against the British government, with the Supreme Court ruling that local pension schemes could divest from companies complicit in Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

Since 2017, PSC has been fighting the UK Government in the courts, protecting the right to undertake BDS campaigns in the UK.
"We won in the High Court, then lost in the Court of Appeal, but today the final verdict from the Supreme Court is in – and we have won," said PSC in a press release.

The campaign added, "With support via submissions from the Quakers, Campaign Against Arms Trade and War on Want and with a huge body of small donations from thousands of members and supports to fund the legal challenge, we have managed to defeat regulations that would have stopped Local Government Pension Schemes from divesting from companies complicit in Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people, and additionally from divesting from the UK defense industry."

"The Supreme Court has ruled in our favour and the regulations the Government introduced in 2016 are now finally and definitively declared illegal and thrown out."

"The UK Government’s attempts to introduce these regulations must be understood within that context. The Government announced in the Queen’s Speech its intention to bring in further anti-BDS legislation. Our victory in the Supreme Court today should act as a shot across their bows," PSC continued.

PSC said it was "building a campaign alongside a broad range of allies who are concerned about attempts to bring in laws that seek to prohibit public bodies from making their own decisions about not investing in companies that are complicit in violations of international law – whether in relation to Palestine or elsewhere."

"Today is a great victory from which we will draw strength for the battles ahead."

For years, Israel and its allies have been working to delegitimize activism for Palestinian rights and criminalize action in support of the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

M.N