Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Arkansas Lawmakers Vote 69-3 To Bar Deals With Companies That Boycott Israel

(JTA) — The Arkansas state legislature has passed a law that prohibits state agencies from contracting with or investing in companies that boycott Israel.

The law was sent to Arkansas State Gov. William Hutchinson on Friday for his signature.

The bill passed the state House of Representatives on its third reading on Wednesday by a vote of 69 to 3. It had passed the Senate earlier in the month by a vote of 29-0 with one abstention.

The bipartisan legislation to counter the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions or BDS movement against Israel was sponsored by state Rep. Jim Dotson and state Sen. Bart Hester.

“Israel and Arkansas are great friends, and I thank the people of Arkansas for supporting this essential relationship, which is based on shared values,” said Josh Block, president and CEO of The Israel Project, in a statement. “By passing this bill today, Arkansans are standing strong against discrimination, and are solidly on the right side of history.”

More than a dozen U.S. states have passed similar legislation.

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.