Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

California Democrats Vote to Oppose Federal Anti-BDS Bill

The California Democratic Party adopted a resolution at their annual convention on Sunday to oppose federal bills intended to thwart the movement to boycott Israel.

The party’s legislative committee also supported a proposed federal bill preventing the Israel Defense Forces from using U.S. tax dollars to detain Palestinian children, but did not make it into the platform.

The federal bills are the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which could impose fines of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison for boycotting Israel, and the Combatting BDS Act, which encourages states to pass their own laws against boycotting Israel.

The party’s legislative committee supported the Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act, which would prevent American defense aid from being used for military operations that detain Palestinian children. Four California Democrats are among the 21 co-sponsors of the bill.

However, efforts to insert language condemning President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem into the platform were not successful. Instead, the platform affirms Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and states that the embassy move there should not “remove it from final status negotiations.” The platform also states that the “Palestinian capital could exist in East Jerusalem if the Palestinians desire.”

The party also declined to endorse Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Senate’s longest-serving Jewish member, for a fifth term.

Contact Avichai Scher at [email protected] or on Twitter, @avi_scher

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

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. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.