Proposed legislation in Congress would make it
even though that is their constitutionally protected right.
For years, Congress has tried to pass laws that would
a top priority for the pro-Israel lobby and major donors to both Democrats and Republicans.
These laws would make it
on political grounds
They portray the
or BDS, as a
There's only one word for it.
Well, I'm not aware of instances in history where there has been an effort
through federal legislation to attempt to
which are of course
BDS is a movement calling on supporters to
to demand Palestinian rights.
In early 2019, the previously introduced Combatting BDS Act failed to advance in Congress.
This bill would have given state and local governments the power to boycott any businesses that boycott Israel.
It's also being pushed forward by the
pro-Israel lobby, and would work to legally strengthen already existing anti-BDS laws at the state level.
This comes after Congress failed to pass the Israel Anti-Boycott Act
as part of a spending bill before the end of its term in 2018.
There's some powerful forces who just want to throw it into the bill
and that force it through without fuller reflection from the body.
Faiz Shaker, of the American Civil Liberties Union, says the proposed legislation violates Americans
constitutionally protected freedom of speech.
He believes many members of Congress are unaware of the constitutional implications of this legislation
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act
specifically calling out boycotts against Israel.
For the ACLU, that's a huge issue.
merely because somebody has a viewpoint that they don't like.
And once you go down that road, of course,
Yousef Munayyer, of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, says these laws are
specifically directed at groups like his. "The basic point of this act and the supporters of the legislation
are on record saying this,
which has adopted, of course, boycott, divestment and sanctions tactics."
BDS has already scored some notable successes.
Celebrities like Danny Glover and Naomi Klein have publicly called for boycott of Israel.
I support BDS and I've supported BDS since 2009.
The question is what do you do when a
when a people under illegal occupation
come together and chart out a way for the rest of the world to express their solidarity and support them.
Even church groups like Presbyterian Church USA,
the United Church of Christ and others have announced divestment from Israel.
Israel's supporters are seeking to shut down the movement as support grows for citizen action like BDS.
Today, 26 states have passed anti-BDS laws, with 13 additional states considering similar measures as well.
But in two separate court cases, federal judges in Kansas and Arizona ruled that state laws
punishing individuals or companies for partaking in BDS
and violated free speech rights.
Meanwhile, the
would force the U.S. Department of Education to treat criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic harassment.
In other words, a violation of the Civil Rights Act.
The problem of legislating on it is you're casting too wide a net, and
that really isn't anti-Semitism.
It's merely a difference of a point of view on a policy area.
This would effectively stifle the speech of Palestinian rights
advocacy groups like Munayyer's organization
and ironically would use anti-Semitism as grounds to silence even Jewish critics of Israel,
like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.
Here's Jewish academic Judith Butler of Jewish Voice for Peace, on BDS.
that it is a support for
But I think because, you know, the state of Israel
has also gone to great lengths
to conflate Judaism and Zionism,
there is an understanding in our discourse that somehow these things are more tied than they are in reality.
The First Amendment prevents Congress from making laws that limit free speech.
And the ACLU has publicly
criticized these pieces of legislation for undermining constitutional values.
The legal fight is, of course, over whether you can impose a criminal fine or a civil fine
merely because somebody has a viewpoint that you don't like, and the answer
on that is, obviously, you cannot.
So what happens if these pieces of legislation are passed and become law?
Let's start with the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.
This law is actually an amendment of the 1979 Export Administration Act,
which prohibited U.S. citizens and companies from boycotting friendly nations.
U.S. citizens would also be unable to request any information about companies
that conduct business relations with Israel and
wouldn't even be allowed to notify the UN if it's unknowingly doing business with Israel.
So, the legal consequences are broad. It could be really anything. The things that I fear here
is that a federal government passes Anti-Israel Boycott Act,
and what may happen is that
federal prosecutors throughout America now have
Under this proposed law, both individuals and companies could face financial
penalties for supporting EU or UN backed boycotts of Israel,
Israeli companies and specifically those in the occupied West Bank.
The point here is to intimidate rights activists for engaging in constitutionally protected activity
Violations of the law could see U.S. citizens
Willful violations of the law could see citizens
And then there's the
which the ACLU and other activist organizations have issued statements opposing.
This is legislation that would actually call on the Department of Education to adopt a particular
definition of anti-Semitism, or a particular understanding of anti-Semitism, which it should take into consideration
as it looks at civil rights discrimination complaints.
This bill would work to silence critics and criticism of Israel in
And institutions of learning would also work to ensure that their campuses are spaces where criticism of Israel
violating their free speech rights to avoid investigations by the Department of Education.
So a student protester who's on a listserv
having a debate about Palestinian issues could easily be castigated
for having engaged in anti-Semitism and then fear the wrath of a federal agency.
This could result in numerous lawsuits and court cases in which activists and educational institutions
sue the government for violations of their free speech and civil rights.
And so, what gets unleashed here is potentially
prosecutors who use this power in very unfortunate ways,
but the other ramification, as you well know, is that culturally it suggests something
to all Americans about what will not be tolerated.
And that is of course this chilling of speech that we worry gravely about.
But despite the possibility of these pieces of legislation becoming law,
two U.S. congresswomen have stated their support for BDS.
Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan have come out in support of BDS.
Talib is saying she'll lead a congressional delegation to the occupied West Bank in 2019.
And that would be a first.
Munayyer says this is
When you look at public opinion seeing a shift on this issue as well, and
primarily the Republican base of white
Evangelicals being hyper-supportive of Israel,
and the base of the Democratic Party, in particular,
millennials and people of color being much, much more critical of
Israeli policy and supportive of the rights of Palestinians.
But Munayyer is still concerned about the legislation potentially being passed
and what that will mean for free speech and organizing around Palestine.
including people who are working on
they have even more reason to be concerned about
very much,