Illinois Passes Anti-BDS Measure
Illinois lawmakers unanimously passed a bill that bars state pension funds from including companies that participate in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
The bill passed the state’s House of Representatives on Monday by a vote of 102-0. The state Senate had passed the measure unanimously as well, 49-0.
With the expected signature of Gov. Bruce Rauner, Illinois would be the first state to legislate against BDS. In a tweet Monday shortly after the bill passed the House, Rauner wrote, “Looking forward to signing #SB1761 making IL first in the nation to fight BDS against Israel.”
The bill requires the state’s pension system to remove companies that boycott Israel from their portfolios. The measure is an amendment to existing legislation now enforced by the Illinois Investment Policy Board mandating that state pension funds be divested from foreign firms doing business in Iran, Sudan or other countries with known human rights violations.
“At the core of the BDS movement is a quest to delegitimize Israel as a sovereign, democratic and Jewish state,” said Chicago Jewish United Fund President Steven Nasatir. “This bipartisan legislation sends a strong message that Illinois will not tolerate such efforts. We anticipate that this legislation will become a model for similar action in many other states.”
The Indiana and Tennessee state Legislatures have both passed nonbinding resolutions opposing boycotts of Israel.
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!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 3
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
- 4
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion The ADL reversed its support for Trump’s student deportations. You should too
-
Fast Forward Senate rejects Bernie Sanders’ proposal to block some weapons sales to Israel
-
Fast Forward Sotheby’s to auction earliest known kiddush cup
-
Opinion Trump’s new tariffs on Israel are a BDS dream come true
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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.