Sheffield Council is not joining the Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid

A report published ahead of next week’s (February 21) Strategy and Resources Policy Committee meeting said that the council would not join the group as its aims are ones the council “may not lawfully implement”.

In November last year, the council passed a resolution to call for a humanitarian ceasefire while calling the committee to consider whether Sheffield City Council should join the Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.

The Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid is an umbrella group, consisting of several organisations, including the Sheffield Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Sheffield Trades Council, Kairos Sheffield, and Sheffield Labour Friends of Palestine.

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The aim of the group at a local level, the document added, is for Sheffield City Council (SCC) to declare Sheffield to be an “apartheid-free zone”. This would mean, as a minimum, declaring Israel to be an apartheid state, and making a formal statement of action, similar to the one produced by the council in 1981 in response to the apartheid policies of South Africa.

This, among others, would include the cease of purchasing goods that originated in Israel.

However, although the council technically could join the coalition, officers said Section 17 of the Local Government Act 1988 places restrictions on the considerations that local authorities may take into account when procuring goods or services.

These so-called non-commercial matters include “the country or territory of origin of supplies to, or the location in any country or territory of the business activities or interests of, contractors”.

The report said although joining the coalition would not, in itself, formally establish its aims and objectives as SCC policy, “it is very likely that a reasonable expectation would be formed that those aims and objectives would guide the way in which the council might subsequently act”.

The report concluded: “The provisions of the Local Government Act 1988 are very likely to mean that the council would be at risk of acting unlawfully were it to join the coalition because a reasonable expectation would be established that the council may seek to disallow or disadvantage companies that originated in, invested in or did business in Israel from competing for SCC contracts.”

In September 2019, Sheffield Council passed a resolution formally recognising Palestine as a full state and calling upon the UK Government to do the same while noting the importance of a genuine two-state solution to the resolution of the Israel-Palestine conflict, and that recognition of Palestine as a full state under international law was a necessary step towards this.

When it meets next week, the committee will also be asked to note the concern of many people in Sheffield over the loss of civilian life in Israel and Palestine, as well as note the actions of people in the city who have campaigned against the ongoing violence, particularly in Gaza, and those who have fundraised to support the victims of the conflict.