Council faces legal action over boycott of produce from West Bank settlements

A campaign group has applied for permission to bring a judicial review challenge over a council’s decision to boycott produce originating from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

At a meeting on 13 November 2014 Leicester City Council resolved “insofar as legal considerations allow, to boycott any produce originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank until such time as it complies with international law and withdraws from Palestinian Occupied territories”.

Earlier this month Jewish Human Rights Watch said it had filed an application for judicial review of the motion.

The group claimed that the local authority had failed to take account of its obligations under the Local Government Act 1988.

It alleged in its grounds of challenge that Leicester City Council’s actions gave “encouragement to anti-Semitic sentiment and increase the likelihood of harassment of the Jewish community”.

Jonathan Neuman, Jewish Human Rights Watch’s director, said: “Leicester City Council has started a campaign against the Jewish Community that has to be stopped.  Our solicitors have tried to persuade the council at least to engage with us and they have refused. They have left us with no choice but to seek legal redress.”

A Leicester City Council spokesperson said: "The motion, from November 2014, has never been a boycott of Israel by Leicester. The motion relates specifically to the council’s procurement policy and produce originating from illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“We were contacted by solicitors for Jewish Human Rights Watch who outlined their case to us in May, to which we responded at the time.

“We’ve not been formally made aware of their current legal action and have received nothing more from them.”