PALESTINE campaigners have made a last-ditch appeal to supporters to press their MPs to oppose anti-boycott legislation which gets its second reading in the House of Commons today.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) said that if such legislation had been in place during the apartheid era in South Africa it would have shackled anti-apartheid activists whose worldwide boycott and divestment campaigns helped bring down the racist state, leading to the election of Nelson Mandela.

PSC said it is working with an alliance of nearly 70 civil society organisations including Liberty, Human Rights Watch, Friends of the Earth, Unite the Union, Amnesty International and War on Want “to fight this dangerous Bill” — but that MPs said “there needs to be more pressure coming from constituents.”