UK councils face court challenge over Israel boycotts

LONDON – A Jewish group has launched a lawsuit against British local authorities that called for boycotts of goods from Israeli settlements, claiming the actions are anti-Semitic.

Jewish Human Rights Watch is asking the High Court to rule against three councils: Leicester in England and Swansea and Gwynedd in Wales. It claims the authorities have failed to consider “the impact of their actions on the Jewish community.”

Leicester and Swansea councils say their resolutions calling for sanctions are nonbinding, apply only to illegal settlements and are not attacks on the state of Israel.

Gwynedd says it backed a trade embargo with Israel in 2014 to condemn “attacks by the Israeli state on the territory of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.”

A two-day court hearing in the case began Wednesday.