Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Texas Teacher Sues After Being Fired For Not Signing Anti-BDS Agreement

(JTA) — A speech pathologist in Austin, Texas, is suing the local public school district after she was let go for refusing to sign an agreement that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel.

The lawsuit filed on Monday morning in federal court in Texas calls the demand a violation of her First Amendment right to free speech, the Intercept reported.

Born in Austria, Bahia Amawi is a U.S. citizen who has lived in the country for 30 years. She has worked since 2009 on a contract basis with the Pflugerville Independent School District. When her contract was renewed in August it contained the no-Israel-boycott clause.

In May, Texas became the 20th U.S. state to pass a law or executive order banning state business with companies that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. Now there are 26 states with such legislation and another 13 pending, according to Palestine Legal. The American Civil Liberties Union has raised objections to many of the laws, saying they inhibit free speech.

Amawi did not sign the contract because she and her family do not purchase goods produced by Israeli companies in support of the boycott against Israel over the occupation of the West Bank.

She is the only certified Arabic-speaking child’s speech pathologist in the district, which has a growing Arab population.

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.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

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.