Anti-BDS Measure In Arizona Now on Governor’s Desk
The Arizona state House of Representatives approved legislation that would bar state and local governments from doing business with companies that boycott Israel and its settlements.
On Monday, the bill passed the House by a vote of 42-16. The Arizona Senate passed the bill last week.
The House bill’s sponsor, Speaker David Gowan, told the Arizona Capital Times that the legislation is about standing with “our dear friend in the Middle East.” Gowan, a Republican, is a congressional candidate.
Arizona becomes one of over 20 states in which bills targeting the BDS movement are under consideration or have passed. It is also among nine states where anti-BDS bills include language extending anti-boycott protection to settlements, a provision that has stirred controversy in the pro-Israel community, with some liberal groups favoring anti-BDS measures that extend protections strictly to Israel within its 1967 borders. A Florida bill passed last week also extends protections to settlements.
The legislation “exercises the state’s own right to choose the companies in which it will invest and with whom it will contract. Exercising such discretion with taxpayer funds is an important part of reinforcing economic interests, public policy and the basic ethical standards of government.
Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, must sign the bill for it to become law.
StandWithUs, a pro-Israel organization, praised the legislation, saying in a statement it “does not raise any 1st Amendment concerns because it does not in any way regulate, penalize, or infringe on anyone’s private speech or conduct. Private parties who wish to boycott Israel can continue to do so freely.”
Colorado passed similar legislation earlier this month.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO