In America, Self-declared Nazis Can Get State Aid. Israel Boycotters Increasingly Can't
In Dickinson, Texas, a Hurricane Harvey-struck Houston suburb, residents were asked to sign a form stating that they will not engage in boycotts of Israel in order to receive state aid to rebuild their homes.
In
May, the state of Texas passed a law banning state entities from
contracting with companies that boycott Israel or West Bank settlements.
21 similar laws have passed around the United States in the last few
years, with more initiatives on the way. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, introduced in the House and Senate, mired in controversy, are a top lobbying agenda for AIPAC as well as for Christians United for Israel.
Such measures have been strongly condemned by the ACLU,
who argue that such legislation are an infringement on First Amendment
rights. The ACLU also recently filed a lawsuit challenging a similar law
in Kansas, after a math teacher was asked to sign a similar statement
in order to participate in a state program.
When pressed by Haaretz, Texas state representative Phil King said that perhaps there had been a "misunderstanding" about how to implement the bill that he had authored, which was, he insisted, intended to target companies and not individuals.
Supporters
of the legislation also recognized the terrible optics of conditioning a
human being’s ability to rebuild their home based on an irrelevant
political opinion. However, from Israel’s consul general in Houston, to
the ADL and Boston JCRC, they maintain that what happened in Dickinson
is a mistake, or to use King's phrasing, a "misunderstanding", but not a
sign of the injustice of the legislation itself.
Misunderstanding
or not, this development in Texas should make up us sit up and pay
attention. What is so alarming is its consequences for freedom of speech
and protest in America, and no less concerning, because of the broader
implications of where the anti-BDS movement is taking us, both in the
U.S. and in Israel.
First
of all, what this tells us - once again - is that to its defenders,
Israel and West Bank settlements are one and the same enterprise. Far
from posing a threat to the project of Jewish statehood, the settlements
are a core expression of their Zionism.
By
targeting those who are inclined to a partial – settlements-only –
boycott, with Israel-as-a-whole boycotters – all differences and borders
are erased. While defenders of Israel often decry those who conflate
Israel and the occupation, perhaps they should take a look in the
mirror; no one is doing that more effectively than they are.
But that is not news to those paying attention. Just last month the Israeli government hosted an official celebration of 50 years of settlement and Netanyahu promised he will never evacuate settlements.
The
anti-BDS movement is trying to make the U.S. a place where those who
dare to protest Israel are treated the same way Israel treats its
dissidents - as traitors.
In
recent years, the Netanyahu government has escalated its crackdown on
opponents of the occupation. From non-violent protests in the West Bank,
to diplomatic initiatives in the UN and non-violent called for
boycotts, any form of Palestinian resistance is branded as violent
terrorism, anti-Semitic, and a threat to the very existence of the
state.
And
the crackdown on Israelis is severe as well. From branding dissidents
as traitors, to banning even a call for boycotting settlement products,
Israel is doing all it can to formally outlaw, and publicly malign, all resistance to the occupation. Just this week, there are reports that a bill is in the works to officially outlaw
Breaking the Silence - former IDF soldiers who share testimonies from
the territories, weilding the most deadly weapon of all: their truths.
Israel
likes to boast about its freedom of speech. But the truth is that, in
Israel, speech is only free if it does not challenge the domination of
the state.
Never
mind all of the internal problems in Israeli society, the corruption
allegations against Netanyahu, the millions of Palestinians living
unable to move freely in the West Bank or without drinking water and
electricity in Gaza. How could Israeli Jews possibly be able to even
consider give rights or dignity to any other people living amongst them
when evil enemies, some of whom are even Jewish themselves, are trying
to destroy them from abroad?
And
the branding has worked. The Israeli government pushes the anti-BDS
campaign, the Jewish establishment proudly amplifies it, and their
Christian Zionist allies are all too happy to fulfill God’s will, the
Bible's word and support the Jews.
Though
supporters of anti-BDS legislation claim they seek to do so without
impinging on First Amendment rights, that is exactly what they are
doing. And they are doing the very thing they claim to oppose,
"singling out" critics of Israel for punishment above all else.
Last
I checked, the Jewish Federations and AIPAC weren’t pushing legislation
to curtail the rights of Nazis to receive public services and benefits.
The
Dickinson story - bizarrely rating an individual's right to a home
according to their opinion on Israeli government policy - is surely
twisted and horrifying. But it is the inevitable result of a concerted
campaign by Israel's government and its American Jewish propagandists to
equate supporting Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism at all costs,
to portray BDS supporters as worse than literal Nazis.
For
decades, we have averted our gaze from Israel’s denial of rights from
millions of people, and from what that indifference has done to Israeli
society. Now, we have lost the ability to even tell that the same
injustice has poisoned ours.
Our
community’s obsession with stopping the BDS boogeyman has gone off the
rails, and this is a taste of what's to come, if people of conscience
don't stand up to this madness.
If it was not clear before, this moment should be a wakeup call. We need to choose sides.
In
one camp are people who believe in human rights for all. Some believe
in boycotting the state of Israel or companies that profit off the
occupation. Some believe in transforming Jewish community institutions
to support more responsible policies. Some believe in investing in
Israeli progressive civil society, in co-resistance and shared-society
initiatives with Palestinians.
And
on the other side you have defenders of the status quo. They believe
that Israeli citizens should not have the right to call for boycotts
inside their own society. They believe that critics of the Israeli state
and the occupation should not have the right to visit the country. And
they believe that citizens of the United States of America should also
be criminalized if they dare to vocalize dissent.
If
you don’t believe in BDS, then don’t participate in it. That is your
right. Pursue another strategy. But contributing in any way to the
demonization of non-violent protesters is supporting an environment in
which non-violent boycotters can be criminalized. To their credit, J
Street, the Reform Movement, and T’ruah have all condemned these
anti-BDS bills. But this moment demands more.
It
demands we stand up to organizations like AIPAC, the ADL, the Jewish
Federations and Christians United for Israel who are pushing these
dangerous laws across America and threatening our freedoms.
Perhaps
these laws are so absurd they won't stand up to more intensive legal
and constitutional scrutiny. Perhaps, years from now, we will remember
this as the inflection point when defenders of the occupation ran out of
strategies to justify and protect the unjust and immoral oppression and
dispossession of the Palestinian people.
But
if the political disasters of the last year has taught me anything, it
is that we should not take our freedoms for granted. We can’t count on
responsible adults in government to stand up for our rights. We have to
protect and assert them with all we have.
If you're worried about the future of American democracy, don't make an exception for Israel.
Simone
Zimmerman is an organizer and activist from Los Angeles and a founding
leader of IfNotNow, a movement to end the American Jewish community’s
support for the occupation. Twitter: @simonerzim
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