COSATU, the South African national trade union centre, has hailed the government’s decision to boycott an upcoming OECD tourism conference in Israel.  The conference is set to focus on “Industry and Policy Approaches to Foster Green Growth in Tourism”.

In its statement, COSATU says that Britain will be boycotting the conference, but the British Embassy in Israel issued the following statement:

The U.K. won’t be attending this conference, but it is entirely false to suggest that this is due to a boycott of for political reasons.

The U.K.’s opposition to boycotts against Israel is well known.

The UK will actually be chairing a session at the OECD’s international data protection and privacy commission later this month in Jerusalem.

The only reason there’s no U.K. representation at the tourism seminar is because that night delegates simply weren’t available.

According to a recent report in Ha’aretz, among the countries attending the event are Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, and Switzerland.  Israel has been a member of the OECD since May this year.

The Arab League has called on all OECD members to boycott the meeting.