This is a cross post from the Jewish Chronicle by Sandy Rashty

Trade between Britain and Israel rose by 21.9 per cent year-on-year between the first quarter of 2012 and 2013.

And despite the vociferous boycott campaign, imports from Israel rose by 55.6 per cent in the same period.

The figures released by the Central Bureau of Statistics in Israel show a  £170 million overall increase in bilateral trade.

Most of the British imports come from Israel’s renowned high-tech sector. But  food produce is also a key contributor to the buoyant trade figures, despite being one of the boycott campaign’s main areas of attack.

The UK is Israel’s second largest export market. The US is the largest.

Noah Shani, minister for Trade and Economic Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in London, said: “Business between Israel and the UK is booming and the latest bilateral trade figures are once again testament to the strength and vibrancy of this trade relationship.”

Hugo Bieber, chief executive of UK Israel Business, a leading organisation promoting trade relations between the two countries, added: “We have seen significant interest from Israeli firms exporting to the UK and also from UK firms looking to purchase best-in-class products and services from Israel.

“Given Israel’s status as the ‘start-up nation’, consistently developing new technologies across sectors, we expect to see trade between the UK and Israel continue to increase.

“When business is put ahead of politics, significant economic benefits can be seen for both the UK and Israel.”

Since the beginning of the year, the UK Israel Tech Hub at the British embassy has helped organise five tech-related business delegations between the two nations.

This week, Middle East Minister Alistair Burt joined a delegation of 20 British pharmaceutical and biomedical companies to Tel Aviv — including NHS representatives .

The two-day trip is part of a number of government-backed delegations promoting co-operative economic relations between the two counties.

Rohan Silva, a senior policy adviser to David Cameron, led a delegation of British supermarket chains and luxury brands to Israel last month.

Meanwhile, at the UK Israel Business Awards on Wednesday, Sir Mervyn King, the retiring Bank of England Governor, praised Israel’s economic performance. “It is one of the very few advanced economies whose output grew every year throughout the economic crisis”, he said. He also revealed that he had advised Israel’s central bank on a new law regulating the functions of the Bank of Israel.

From Iran to the Middle East peace process and the battle against boycotts to faith schools. These are just some of the issues likely to feature when the Shadow Foreign Secretary takes the hot seat for the latest in the Jewish News’ series of Q and A sessions with senior politicians.

Speaking ahead of the session – organised by the Jewish News in partnership with the London Jewish Cultural Centre and with the support of the Jewish Leadership Council – Alexander said: “I am looking forward to engaging with members of the Jewish community in such a wonderful setting. I hope the evening will prove to be an interesting exchange of ideas and opinions.”

To be in the audience to quiz one of the Labour Party’s most senior figures, click on www.ljcc.org.uk or call 020 8457 5000.

This is a cross post from We Believe in Israel by Luke Akehurst

You may remember that at the start of December we encouraged people to write to Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the Unite trade union, about the very one-sided statement he issued about Operation Pillar of Defence.

Mr McCluskey replied by email on 2 January to everyone who had contacted him. We seem to have generated a large number amount of correspondence as he complains “I have received a number of e-mails, some remarkably similar in content, from members of the public (few, if any, appear to be members of Unite) taking me to task”.

Whilst the bulk of his response consists of further criticism of Israel, almost all of it unrelated to the situation in Gaza, he does at least attempt to distance himself from Hamas, stating: “No political or other support has been offered by Unite to Hamas and we remain wary of it, not least because of the banishment of the PGFTU from Gaza when Hamas assumed the government there.” (PGFTU is the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions).

I have replied in a personal capacity as I happen to be a Unite member, addressing a number of the points he makes. If you want to read Mr McCluskey’s email and my response, they are online here:

http://webelieveinisrael.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4f205ffabc02c1048c024eebe&id=4345310482&e=061ad0f42f

If you want to send your own response to Mr McCluskey’s email he can be contacted at Len.McCluskey@unitetheunion.org

It is important that we have written in sufficient numbers that Mr McCluskey finds it necessary to respond and is held in some way accountable when he makes one-sided anti-Israel interventions.

Posted by Luke Akehurst 09:47 BST

The campaign to boycott waste management company Veolia because of its involvement in a tram project in Jerusalem has come off the rails again after the North London Waste Authority confirmed that the campaigners’ claims were irrelevant and would not be considered in the tender process.

Anti-Israel campaigners have been trying to block Veolia from participating in a competitive procurement process for new waste management contracts worth £4.8 billion over 30 years from the North London Waste Authority (NLWA). The NLWA covers the London Boroughs of Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Hackney, Haringey, Islington and Waltham Forest.

Local residents – who want to see a level playing-field for Veolia and object to attempts to boycott Israel and companies connected with it as divisive and unfair – wrote to the NLWA asking it to ignore the boycott campaigners.

Responding to these letters from the public, NLWA Managing Director David Beadle has written:

“The Authority is clear that it cannot take the actions of another member of the Veolia Group into account either as a matter of principle or in the evaluation of competitive bids.

The Authority must also take account of section 17(1) of the Local Government Act 1988 which requires that when considering whether to exclude persons from being invited to tender for contracts, local authorities should exercise their functions without reference to matters which are non commercial matters. Under section 17(5) (e), non commercial matters include “the location in any country or territory of the business activities or interests of, contractors”.

Given this very clear advice, the Authority has not and will not take these matters into account as part of its assessment of the bidders. It is arguable that if it did or if it can be credibly alleged that it may have taken this into account, then the process could be challenged at significant expense to the taxpayer and any decision overturned by the Courts.”

A spokesman for the anti-boycotts Fair Play Campaign Group, said:

“This is yet another in a long run of failures for the campaign to boycott Israel. We are very pleased that the NLWA will pick a contractor based on whether they can provide the best service at the best price for local residents. They have not been swayed by a small but vocal minority of extremists who want North London’s town halls to become a battlefield in the Middle East conflict and who are prejudiced against and try to demonise anything connected to Israel.”

The NLWA letter is the second recent rebuff for the boycott campaign, following Hackney Council’s vote in November not to allow boycott campaigners to speak at a full council meeting.

They just can’t help themselves can they?

This evening the Twitter account of the London BDS group (@londonbds) tweeted this link to an article by Press TV. Ostensibly the article is about sanctions against Israel but almost instantly, and with a remarkable level of vitriol, descends into an antisemitic diatribe covering such diverse topics as the Talmud, the Holocaust and the ‘Jewish lobby’.

In fact, the piece is so prejudiced and so full of antisemitism that it’s difficult to even pull out a few quotes. However, of particular concern are the accusations that:

Netanyahu played his role as expected. Straight out of the Talmud, his coalition does not accept demands from the non-Jewish sub-humans. He will bet the farm on the Jewish Lobbies in the main Western countries, that they can bully their host country legislatures to do their bidding. They have a long track record.

And:

Real historians like David Irving were attacked for printing the forbidden truth and made examples of to cower the rest of the sheep. And yes, Jewish lobbies had their fingerprints all over the dirty deed. 

Note that at one point the author uses quotation marks around the words ‘Holocaust’ and ‘survivors’.

It is a truly staggering article, so full of antisemitic accusation and rhetoric that it would have been simply impossible for anyone to have not have noticed the content before tweeting it.

Which begs the question, why did London BDS tweet the article? And will other groups who share their views on Israel publicly condemn this latest disgraceful episode.

Once again serious questions must be asked about the motivations of many of those behind the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Legitimate debate about the Middle East is one thing. Pure antisemitism, promoted by Israel’s critics in the UK, is something else entirely. We can not let it pass in silence.