PEACE campaigners in Wales have welcomed Plaid Cymru’s decision to support the Israel boycott campaign and its call for the Israeli ambassador to be expelled.

Stop the War Cymru (STW Cymru) hailed the decision as the start of Britain ending supplying arms to the apartheid state.

A STW Cymru spokesman said: “We welcome Plaid Cymru’s weekend decision to support a boycott of Israel and its call for the UK government to both expel the Israeli ambassador and to ban arms sales to Israel.”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) Cymru also welcomed the Plaid Cymru motion.

PSC Cymru spokesman Andrew Draper said: “It is hugely significant and refers to what the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) and the ICJ (International Court of Justice) have asked third party states to do in terms of complying with international law.

“This motion adds to the pressure on those in power to live up to their responsibilities not to be complicit.”

The Welsh nationalist party agreed the wide-ranging motion at its weekend autumn conference in Cardiff and declared Israel an “apartheid regime” guilty of “genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.”

Proposing the motion, Ceredigion Preseli MP Ben Lake said the war urgently needed a political settlement, including recognition of a Palestinian state.

“If we want to see a safer world, then international law needs to be respected,” Mr Lake said.

The motion echoed Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth’s speech calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, for hostages to be freed and an end to the occupation of Palestine.

The motion also called for all members of Plaid Cymru, as well as Welsh national sporting and cultural bodies, to support an “economic and cultural boycott” of Israel.

Ahead of a vote on the motion, the conference heard from Palestinian ambassador Husam Zomlot who told delegates Israel must be “compelled” to meet its international obligations.

He said: “These obligations are clear, there must be an immediate ceasefire that should lead to an end to Israel’s presence in occupied territory in one year.

“If Israel continues to reject the international will, and it will reject, as it has been rejecting, Israel must be compelled to comply.”

Mr Zomlot’s call for an arms embargo was met with applause from Plaid members.