The West's March Toward Fascism Continues

Local councils, public bodies and even some university student unions are to be banned by law from boycotting “unethical” companies, as part of a controversial crackdown being announced by the [British] Government.

Under the plan all publicly funded institutions will lose the freedom to refuse to buy goods and services from companies involved in the arms trade, fossil fuels, tobacco products or Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Any public bodies that continue to pursue boycotts will face “severe penalties”, ministers said.

  UK Independent

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

There is a very coordinated and well-financed campaign led by Israel and its supporters literally to criminalize political activism against Israeli occupation, based on the particular fear that the worldwide campaign of Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) – modeled after the 1980s campaign that brought down the Israel-allied apartheid regime in South Africa – is succeeding.

[...]

This trend to outlaw activism against the decades-long Israeli occupation – particularly though not only through boycotts against Israel – has permeated multiple western nations and countless institutions within them. In October, we reported on the criminal convictions in France of 12 activists “for the ‘crime’ of advocating sanctions and a boycott against Israel as a means of ending the decades-long military occupation of Palestine,” convictions upheld by France’s highest court. They were literally arrested and prosecuted for “wearing shirts emblazoned with the words ‘Long live Palestine, boycott Israel'” and because “they also handed out fliers that said that ‘buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza.”

[...]

In Canada last year, officials threatened criminal prosecution against anyone supporting boycotts against Israel. In the U.S., unbeknownst to many, there are similar legislative proscriptions on such activism, and a pending bill would strengthen the outlawing of BDS. As the Washington Post reported last June, “a wave of anti-BDS legislation is sweeping the U.S.”

[...]

[As Eyal Press in a New York Times Op-Ed] notes, under existing law – which is almost never discussed – “Washington already forbids American companies to cooperate with state-led boycotts of Israel.”

[...]

As we reported in September, the University of California – the largest academic system in the country – has been debating proposals to literally outlaw BDS activism by formally equating it with “anti-semitism."

[...]

As part of the controversy at the University of California, the mega-rich Richard Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, threatened the university that his wife would take adverse action against the university if it did not adopt the harsh anti-BDS measures he was demanding.

[...]

The New York State legislature actually passed “a bill that would suspend funding to educational institutions which fund groups that boycott Israel.”

Florida became the fifth state in the US to introduce a resolution to confront the anti-Israel BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement when it passed a law on December 21, similar to the first anti-BDS legislation introduced in Tennessee last April.

By doing so, Florida has joined Tennessee, New York, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Another 35 states are reportedly considering similar legislation.

  Glenn Greenwald