Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

California Anti-BDS Measure Is Signed Into Law

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that requires companies doing business with the state to certify that they do not boycott or discriminate against any sovereign state, including Israel.

Brown signed Assembly Bill 2844 on Saturday afternoon. The State Senate approved the bill by a vote of 34 to 1 on August 24, and the State Assembly passed it by 69 to 1 on August 30.

An earlier version of the legislation banned the state from making contracts worth over $100,000 with companies boycotting Israel. The bill was modified after critics said such a ban could breach speech freedom rights.

The passed version does not prohibit companies working with the state from boycotting Israel. Rather, companies have to certify that they do not violate California civil rights laws in boycotting a foreign country – including Israel, the only country mentioned by name – according to The Jewish Journal.

“We commend Governor Brown for signing this bill,” said Janna Weinstein Smith, American Jewish Committee’s Los Angeles Regional Director, in a statement. “The bill sends the clear and unmistakable message that the state of California wants no part of the goals and tactics of the BDS movement. Thanks to this legislation, those who wish to target Jews and Israelis for discrimination will not be doing business with the state of California.”

The Israeli-American Coalition for Action in a statement also praised the legislation and the leadership of Assembly member Richard Bloom, who introduced the original bill; the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, and Assembly member Travis Allen, in passing the bill.

Critics said the bill remained vague and could be misconstrued or subject to abuse.

“In a backhanded way, the bill legitimizes BDS,” Americans for Peace Now said in an op-ed in the Los Angeles-based Journal. “It states, in effect, that it is perfectly fine to support BDS, so long as you don’t discriminate in the process.”

The group, which opposes BDS but backs targeted boycotts of settlement goods, also said the bill’s prohibitions could inhibit the narrower option of focusing on settlements.

“Does the ‘the nation and people of Israel’” in the bill “include settlements that the United States government has long declared illegitimate and that are clearly illegal under international law?”

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

2X match on all Passover gifts!

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.