NY'S TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Lord Rogers leaves anti-Israel group after anger in US.
The architect of the new Welsh Assembly building is expected to issue a statement today breaking with the group, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, which he helped set up just last month. A draft obtained by The Times said: “My convictions on peace and justice have always been clear. But in view of the published aims of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, and particularly in view of the suggested boycott by some members, I am dissociating myself from the organisation.”

His about-face followed an angry reaction in New York, where he is designing the $1.7 billion (£975 million) taxpayer-funded expansion of the Jacob K. Javits convention centre on Manhattan’s Far West Side. Jewish groups and local politicians were enraged when they learned of the involvement of Lord Rogers in the group, which accuses Israel of an “apartheid system of environmental control”.

“His associating with this bigoted view would disqualify him from receiving our tax dollars,” said Malcolm Hoenlein, vice-chairman of the Conference of Major American Jewish Organisations. Lord Rogers hosted the inaugural meeting of some 60 British architects and planners, chaired by his friend Abe Hayeem, in his London office on February 2.

Possible action discussed by the group includes sanctions and “the exposure of those construction industry professionals who accept commissions from schemes that appropriate Palestinian land and resources”.

“We hold all design and construction professionals involved in projects that appropriate land and natural resources from Palestinian territory to be complicit in social, political and economic oppression, and to be in violation of their professional ethics,” the group said.