Massachusetts is the Next State Trying to Outlaw Palestinian-Led BDS Movement

posted on: Feb 1, 2017

BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer

Two bills being considered by Massachusetts state legislators this week has Palestinian and progressive groups alarmed.

The bill, entitled An Act Prohibiting Discrimination in State Contracts, was filed by Representatives Paul McMurtry and Steve Howitt and the Massachusetts House (HD.779), and Senators Cynthia Creem and Bruce Tarr (SD.922) in the Senate. It was drafted with the help of pro-Israel lobbying groups, including the Jewish Community Relations Council, and explicitly targets supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement.

The bill is “misleadingly framed as an anti-discrimination act,” but is in fact a “veiled attack on the Palestinian-led” BDS movement. It is intended to silence anyone who participates in the peaceful movement to end Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinians.

BDS does not discriminate against any person, but rather, companies and government entities that partake in Israel’s violation of international laws. Therefore, it is incorrect for Massachusetts’s lawmakers to assert that BDS discriminates based on national origin. Nevertheless, the state is joining a dozen others that have passed anti-BDS legislation in their unethical appeals to pro-Israel lobbyists.

Like the anti-BDS bills before them, these bills are an unconstitutional attempt to criminalize anyone who disagrees with Israeli policies, emphasizing the ease with which state legislators blindly disavow American values for Israeli ones.

What’s worse is that if passed, the bill will actually be a cost burden to Massachusetts’s taxpayers because it “requires contractors to certify that they are not engaging in discrimination under penalty of perjury.”

Fighting against the bill are over 100 organizations across Massachusetts, who argue that it takes away American rights to protest, boycott, and free speech. Together, the organizations make up the Massachusetts Freedom to Boycott Coalition, which is using social media and advocacy to make sure that the bills fail. Arab Americans, Muslims, LGBTQ, labor unions, professors, students, lawyers, and advocates for criminal justice reform, human rights, fair housing, and other causes have joined the coalition. It is compiled of Massachusetts’ most diverse voices that have traditionally kept the state a progressive symbol throughout the U.S.