Mr Johnson plans to visit the Palestinian city of Ramallah before his tour concludes.
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“Johnson’s comments on BDS revealed a fundamental failure to understand Israel’s occupation and the effect of its oppression on Palestinians”, Palestine Solidarity Campaign director Sarah Colborne told the Star. We know that the root cause of the violence is Israel’s occupation, dispossession, and violence against the Palestinian people and that America’s financial and political support is instrumental in allowing this to continue.
Despite his BDS remarks, Johnson will also visit Palestine, where one of his office officials has said he will “highlight a shared spirit of entrepreneurship between London and the Palestinian business community”.
But two of the groups due to host events insisted they refused to welcome Mr Johnson, with the Sharek Youth Form saying he had failed to acknowledge “our very existence as Palestinians”.
Johnson said on twitter that he was “sad” a few events in Ramallah had been cancelled, but enjoyed a few good discussions with Prime Minister Hamdallah on trade between London and Palestinians, the peace process and Syria.
Johnson told reporters: “I can not think of anything more foolish than to say you want to have any kind of divestment or sanctions or boycott against a country that, when all is said and done, is the only democracy in the region, is the only place that has, in my view, a pluralist open society”. While pleased to be back in the West Bank, he observed: “It seems as though there’s a few anxiety about a few meetings – they’re anxious about a few of the safety aspects”. “That’s been whipped up on social media so we had a message… that security was going to be perhaps at risk”.
The prime minister’s office informed the British Consulate of its decision not to receive Johnson’s accompanying media delegation, which arrived to cover the trip and meeting.
“Instead of whitewashing Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, Mr. Johnson should be using his trip to urge Israel to abide by global law”, the pro-boycott group said.
The real offenders are the cynical cabal of Left-wing academics, politicians, charities and others outside the region who do so much to encourage Palestinian grievance against Israel and to denigrate Israel’s people and government.
Other remarks made by Johnson during his visit combined his usual flippancy with hyperbolic enthusiasm for Israel and patronising comments about “Arabs”, not least in his inaugural Winston Churchill speech in Jerusalem.
A few 52% of respondents said they saw Israel as a British ally, above Saudi Arabia (40%), Turkey (39%), Qatar (29%) and certainly Iran (6%).
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During their visit, while helping Palestinian farmers with their olive harvest (always a good time to visit), the two Ariels “experienced major restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement … and numerous human rights abuses against Palestinians”.
