From a mail I got, more on the lunatic bill outlawing boycotting Israel. I was not sure exactly what was in the bill, and this mail explains things a bit better.
Both versions of the bill also include clauses making it illegal for companies or individuals to boycott illegal Israeli settlements based on calls made by bodies at the United Nations, European Union, or other international institutions.
Crazy. Ok, I want to boycott illegal Israeli settlements, like the whole damn place for instance. It’s all an illegal settlement to me. I say I am going to boycott them (I am not even sure how to go about doing that). Now I get arrested and get 20 years in prison?! What the Hell?
I keep telling you Jews are a totalitarian people. Jews don’t do democracy. They believe in authoritarianism and censorship. In recent years, US Jews have been one of the most censorious groups in the US. Further, US Jews have been behind most of the efforts to fire professors at universities or not grant them tenure based on their positions on Israel. No other group or lobby in the US has censored free speech and in particular waged war on academic freedom like the Jews. It’s because Jews, as a totalitarian people, simply do not believe in free speech or academic freedom. It’s against their principles. Once you put a totalitarian people in charge of your democracy like we have done, nothing good can possibly come of that other than gradual deterioration of democracy and creeping authoritarianism.
Letter:
Congress is seeking to criminalize people who support the Palestinian-initiated Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, and we need your help to stop them.
Draft bills in the Senate and the House (S. 720 and H.R. 1697) known as the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” are gaining traction. The bills – sponsored by 45 senators and 237 representatives respectively – would make supporting some boycott actions targeting Israel or Israeli settlements a felony punishable by up to a $1 million fine and 20 years in prison.
Both versions of the bill also include clauses making it illegal for companies or individuals to boycott illegal Israeli settlements based on calls made by bodies at the United Nations, European Union, or other international institutions.
The Israel Anti-Boycott Act is part of a growing effort to outlaw BDS. Since 2014 dozens of anti-BDS measures have been introduced in states across the U.S., and 19 states have enacted anti-BDS laws.
Despite millions of dollars of investment to counter BDS campaigns, the BDS movement has been succeeding. In just the last month the United Church of Christ voted in support of targeted sanctions in the form of cuts in military aid to Israel, and the Mennonite Church took steps to support institutional divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s occupation and human rights violations. Because they have been unable to stop this grassroots momentum, those opposed to BDS are moving to change the laws to make BDS illegal.
But their efforts run counter to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co., which concluded that boycotts constitute a political form of expression that “occupies the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values.”
Should the “Israel Anti-Boycott Act” become law, it would chill and deter constitutionally protected speech by intimidating people from engaging in political actions for fear of being criminally sanctioned.
This law and others like it would be dangerous and likely unconstitutional. No legislation should restrict people’s rights to engage in efforts to end human rights abuses. That’s why such a diverse coalition of organizations have come together in opposition, including groups strongly opposed to BDS, such as J-Street; neutral advocates of civil rights such as the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights; and Palestine activist networks.
We are counting on you to defend free speech and reject this new version of McCarthyism.
I will only make a couple of comments about this latest outrage.
- This shows you just how far Israel has their fist up our ass.
- America is Israel’s bitch.
