Senators Try to Sneak Anti-BDS Measure Into Last-Minute Spending Bill

[pecosbob]

Two senators are trying to sneak legislation that would impose criminal penalties on American companies and groups that support a boycott of Israel into a spending package that would avert a government shutdown by Friday.

Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, and Sen. Rob Portman, an Ohio Republican, are pushing a proposal that would create criminal and civil penalties for American entities that back boycotts supporting Palestinian rights, The New York Times reported. The move seeks to weaken the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, known as BDS, that seeks to economically pressure Israel to give equal rights to Palestinians, similar to the South African anti-apartheid movement.

Cardin and Portman have pushed for the legislation for months and are now trying to attach it to a package of spending bills that Congress must pass to avoid a shutdown.

They said the bill is in response to a 2016 resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council that sought to create a database with companies doing business in territories occupied by Israel in violation of international law.

While the original proposal called for jail time for violators, a revised proposal would use fines as penalties. The legislation was also amended to “explicitly state that none of the provisions shall infringe upon any First Amendment right.”

But the ACLU says the wording is non-binding and “leaves intact key provisions which would impose civil and criminal penalties on companies, small business owners, nonprofits and even people acting on their behalf who engage in or otherwise support certain political boycotts.”

Even the Anti-Defamation League, which has lobbied for the legislation, admitted in a leaked internal memo that anti-BDS laws are “ineffective, unworkable, unconstitutional and bad for the Jewish community,” The Forward reported.

Cardin’s fellow Democrats have voiced opposition to the legislation as well. Rep. Betsy McCollum, D-Minn., slammed lawmakers secretly working to “to slip language into a must-pass spending bill that criminalizes politically motivated boycotts against Israel.”

“The Israel Anti-Boycott Act violates our right to free speech,” she tweeted.

But even if this legislation is delayed or fails entirely, most Americans already live in a state where anyone doing business with the state is barred from supporting the BDS movement.

26 states, including New York, California and Texas, have legislation in place barring state contractors from supporting a boycott of Israel, while 13 other states have similar bills pending.

read more at https://truthout.org/articles/senators-try-to-sneak-anti-bds-measure-into-last-minute-spending-bill/

[HopeAgain]

1. How could it be even remotely constitutional?