Florida Moves To Pass Tougher Anti-BDS Laws

By Nathan Guttman January 24, 2018

Florida is one of 20 U.S. states that have already enacted measures to confront companies that boycott Israel.

Now, the Tallahassee Democrat is reporting that state legislatures are poised to toughen the already existing anti-BDS law, making it even harder for companies to do business with Florida if they chose to boycott Israel.

The new bill was presented by Rep. Randy Fine and endorsed by Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran. While existing laws allow punishing companies that conduct over $1 million of business in Florida, the new legislation removes this limit and enables the state to go after smaller companies adhering to boycotts against Israel.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday, Fine referred to New Zealand singer Lorde’s who recently canceled her planned concert in Tel-Aviv. Lorde is scheduled to perform in Florida in April and if the new bill passes, she could be forced to reschedule the tour to venues that do not receive state funding.

Contact Nathan Guttman at [email protected] or on Twitter @nathanguttman

Nathan Guttman, staff writer, was the Forward’s Washington bureau chief. He joined the staff in 2006 after serving for five years as Washington correspondent for the Israeli dailies Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post. In Israel, he was the features editor for Ha’aretz and chief editor of Channel 1 TV evening news. He was born in Canada and grew up in Israel. He is a graduate of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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