The New Arab hosted a live screening of its latest short documentary, Favour to Apartheid: How the UK anti-boycott bill is tailor-made for Israel, at the Frontline Club in London. The screening was followed by a panel discussion and a Q&A around the bill and its wider implications.

The event, co-organized with Palestine Deep Dive, brought together esteemed experts such as Makan's Director Aimee Shalan; former African National Congress MP Andrew Feinstein; Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign Ben Jamal and TNA Managing Editor Karim Traboulsi.

The documentary, produced by The New Arab’s senior multimedia journalist, Reem Khabbazy, talks of the UK government's bill that will prevent public bodies from standing in solidarity with Palestinians from taking direct action to do so. The bill, officially named the “Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill”, and commonly known as the “Anti-boycott Bill”, is now being discussed in the House of Lords at a time when 37 US states have already passed bills designed to penalize boycotts of Israel and European governments are coming under increasing pressure to introduce anti-boycott legislation.

The New Arab’s short documentary Favour to Apartheid, through an overview of the debates surrounding the bill and interviews with key figures in the Right to Boycott coalition, activists, as well as legal experts, examines the legality of the bill, the coherence of the grounds it is predicated upon, and its dire implications for freedoms in the UK that could put the country on the wrong side of history once again when it comes to the moral arc in Palestine. Interviewees include BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti; Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign UK Ben Jamal; Jewish activist and writer Emily Hilton; and Amnesty UK’s Programme Director for Economic Affairs Peter Frankental.