DAVID CAMERON’S incoming ban on boycotts of Israel is no different from Thatcher’s support for apartheid, Palestinian campaigners blasted yesterday.

New guidelines to be published by the Tories later this week include a series of “severe penalties” for local authorities that boycott investment or trade with Israel over illegal occupation of Palestine.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s team was quick to brand the move “unethical” and undemocratic.

Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign spokeswoman Rafeef Ziadah warned that the move would encourage Israel’s violations of international law.

“Rather than working to hold Israel to account for its ongoing human rights violations, UK ministers continue the arms trade with Israel and attack local democracy in order to shield it from any criticism,” she said.

“By undermining local democracy in service of Israel, David Cameron is standing on the wrong side of history just as Margaret Thatcher did with her support for apartheid South Africa.

“This assault on basic free speech and local democracy comes in the context of major ideological public spending cuts and government attacks on the Muslim community, trade unions and the right to protest.”

According to the Cabinet Office, public bodies receiving funding from the government would be at risk of breaking a World Trade Organisation agreement when they sanction or embargo Israeli goods and services.

During his visit to Israel this week, Cabinet Office Minister Matthew Hancock branded town hall boycotts divisive, adding that “damaging and counterproductive local foreign policies” were “undermining our national security.”

Leicester City Council has boycotted goods produced in illegal Israeli settlements since November 2014.

Councils in Leicester, Bristol, Swansea and Tower Hamlets, in London, are among the local authorities that passed resolutions condemning Israeli and international companies working in Israeli prisons and illegal settlements in occupied Palestine.

“The government’s decision to ban councils and other public bodies from divesting from trade or investments they regard as unethical is an attack on local democracy,” said a spokesman for Mr Corbyn.

“People have the right to elect local representatives able to make decisions free of central government political control. That includes withdrawal of investments or procurement on ethical and human rights grounds.”