{"id":181730,"date":"2019-01-07T10:33:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-07T10:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=181730"},"modified":"2019-01-09T05:10:37","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T05:10:37","slug":"u-s-senates-first-bill-in-midst-of-shutdown-is-a-bipartisan-defense-of-the-israeli-government-from-boycotts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=181730","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Senate\u2019s First Bill, in Midst of Shutdown, is a Bipartisan Defense of the Israeli Government from Boycotts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Grim, Glenn Greenwald \u2013 The Intercept Jan 5, 2019<\/h1>\n
\"Chuck<\/a>

Chuck Schumer speaking ar the AIPAC conference in Washington, DC on March 5, 2018. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

When each new Congress<\/u> is gaveled into session, the chambers attach symbolic importance to the first piece of legislation to be considered. For that reason, it bears the lofty designation of H.R.1 in the House, and S.1 in the Senate.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the newly controlled Democratic House, H.R.1 \u2013 meant to signal the new majority\u2019s priorities \u2013 is an anti-corruption bill<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that combines election and campaign finance reform, strengthening of voting rights, and matching public funds for small-dollar candidates. In the new 2017 Senate, the GOP-controlled S.1<\/a><\/strong><\/span> was a bill, called the \u201cTax Cuts and Jobs Act,\u201d that, among other provisions, cut various forms of corporate taxes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But in the 2019 GOP-controlled Senate, the first bill to be considered \u2013 S.1 \u2013\u00a0is not designed to protect American workers, bolster U.S. companies, or address the various debates over border security and immigration. It\u2019s not a bill to open the government. Instead,\u00a0according to multiple sources involved in the legislative process, S.1\u00a0will be a compendium containing a handful of foreign-policy related measures,\u00a0a\u00a0main\u00a0one of which is a provision,\u00a0with Florida\u2019s GOP\u00a0Sen. Marco Rubio as a lead sponsor,\u00a0to defend the Israeli government. The bill is a top legislative priority for AIPAC<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the previous Congress, that measure was known as S.170<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, and it gives state and local governments explicit legal authority to boycott any U.S. companies which themselves are participating in a boycott against Israel. As the Intercept reported last month<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, 26 states now have enacted some version of a law to punish or otherwise sanction entities which participate in or support the boycott of Israel, while similar laws are pending in at least 13 additional states. Rubio\u2019s bill is designed to strengthen the legal basis to defend those Israel-protecting laws from constitutional challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Punishment aimed at companies which choose to boycott Israel can also\u00a0sweep up individual American citizens in its punitive net, because individual contractors often work for state or local governments under the auspices of a sole proprietorship or some other business entity. That was the case with Texas elementary\u00a0school speech pathologist Bahia Amawi<\/strong><\/span>,<\/a> who lost her job working with autistic and speech-impaired children in Austin because she refused to promise not to boycott goods produced in Israel and\/or illegal Israeli settlements.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thus far, the two federal courts that have ruled on such bills have declared them to be unconstitutional violations of the First Amendment speech rights of American citizens. \u201cA restriction of one\u2019s ability to participate in collective calls to oppose Israel unquestionably burdens the protected expression of companies wishing to engage in such a boycott,\u201d U.S. District Court Judge Diane J. Humetewa of Arizona wrote in\u00a0her decision<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0issuing a preliminary injunction against the law in a case brought last September by the ACLU on behalf of \u201can attorney who has contracted with the state for the last 12 years to provide legal services on behalf of incarcerated individuals\u201d but who lost his contract to do so after he refused to sign an oath pledging not to boycott Israel.<\/span><\/p>\n

A similar ruling was issued<\/a><\/strong><\/span> in January of last year by a Kansas federal judge, who ruled that state\u2019s Israel oath law unconstitutional on the ground that \u201cthe Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment protects the right to participate in a boycott like the one punished by the Kansas law.\u201d In that case, a Mennonite who was a long-time public school teacher lost her independent contract as a school curriculum developer after she followed her church\u2019s decision to boycott goods from Israeli companies in the occupied West Bank and thus refused to sign the oath required by Kansas law.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the Israel-defending, free-speech-punishing laws which Rubio\u2019s bill is designed to strengthen. Although Rubio is the chief sponsor, his bill attracted broad bipartisan support, as is true of most bills designed to protect Israel and which are supported by AIPAC.\u00a0Rubio\u2019s bill last Congress was cosponsored by a\u00a0several\u00a0Democrats who are still in the Senate: Bob Menendez, N.J.; Joe Manchin, W.Va.; Ben Cardin, Md.; Ron Wyden, Ore.; Gary Peters, Mich.; and Debbie Stabenow, Mich.<\/span><\/p>\n

The support among Democrats for bills that would punish supporters of the Boycott Israel movement is now particularly awkward given that two of the most prominent newly elected Democratic members \u2013 Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, the first two Muslim women in Congress \u2013 are both<\/a> supporters of that Israel boycott<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, Sen. Cardin introduced a bill that would have criminalized<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0participation in international boycotts of Israel, and it was on the verge of passing with significant bipartisan support until the ACLU sounded the alarm on how gravely unconstitutional<\/a><\/strong><\/span> that bill was. Once the Intercept reported on the mechanics of the bill and the covert effort to enact it with little attention, numerous Democratic Senators announced they were reconsidering their support, stalling\u00a0the bill\u2019s enactment. Though Cardin attempted to pass a watered-down version in the lame-duck session, it is now Rubio\u2019s Israel-defending bill that has taken center stage even as the U.S. government is in the midst of a shutdown for American citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n

That the newly elected United States Congress would choose to prioritize protection of this foreign nation \u2014 at the expense of the Constitutional rights of American citizens and over countless bills that would help Americans \u2014 was only one of the stinging criticisms voiced to the Intercept by ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Kathleen Ruane:<\/span><\/p>\n

In the midst of a partial government shutdown, Democratic and Republican\u00a0senators have decided that one of their first orders of business next week should be to sneak through a\u00a0bill that would weaken Americans\u2019\u00a0First Amendment protections.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0bill, Combatting BDS Act, encourages states to adopt the very same anti-boycott laws that two federal courts blocked on First Amendment grounds. The\u00a0legislation, like the unconstitutional\u00a0state anti-boycott laws it condones,\u00a0sends a message to Americans that they will be penalized if they dare to disagree with their government. We therefore urge senators to vote no on the Combatting BDS Act next week.<\/span><\/p>\n

With the\u00a0seven Democratic co-sponsors,\u00a0the bill\u00a0would have the 60 votes it needs to overcome a filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.\u00a0\u2013 who supported Sen. Cardin\u2019s far more draconian bill of last year and is one of the Senate\u2019s most reliable AIPAC loyalists \u2013 also plans to support the Rubio bill, rather than whip votes against it, sources working on the bill said. Schumer\u2019s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the bill does pass the Senate, the major question will be whether the Democratic House \u2013 now led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a long-time Israel advocate<\/a><\/strong><\/span> but also as a supporter of the First Amendment \u2013 takes it up and passes it into law<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reaffirming that the U.S. Congress serves Israel, not the American people <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181730"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181734,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181730\/revisions\/181734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}