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Last week, Alabama Senator Katie Britt and Idaho Senator Jim Risch introduced the Countering Hate Against Israel by Federal Contractors Act.
According to a press release from Britt’s office, the legislation would “prohibit the federal government from contracting with entities who boycott the State of Israel.”
Inspired by protests against South African apartheid, the BDS movement (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) targeted by Britt’s new legislation is an attempt to get consumers and companies to avoid materially supporting Israel.
Since the “Nakba” in 1947, when more than half of all Palestinians were dispossessed and forcefully removed from their homeland, Israel has been frequently condemned for its treatment of Palestinian people. Most recently, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate international law.
The current Israeli government, and specifically Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have also been criticized for their prosecution of the ongoing war in Gaza and their close ties to anti-Palestinian extremists. The country’s current minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, kept a portrait of a man who slaughtered 29 Muslims in his living room until 2020.
The text of the bill introduced in the Senate does not seem to be available yet, but a bill with the same title introduced in the House last year would require contractors certify “at the time [a] contract is entered into that the company is not engaging in a boycott of Israel.”
In a statement, Britt argued that “not a dime of taxpayer money should support antisemitism.” The senator linked her support of the legislation to the slogan “never again,” a reminder to never repeat the horrors of the Holocaust.
“As Israel continues to fight for her people and her very existence, it is imperative we stand firm with our tremendous ally here at home,” Britt said.
While in the Senate, Britt has been a consistent champion of the state of Israel. She praised Netanyahu’s speech to Congress last week and attacked Vice President Kamala Harris for not attending it.
When an International Criminal Court prosecutor applied for an arrest warrant against Netanyahu on charges of war crimes, Britt said President Biden hadn’t been supporting Israel enough. In May, when pro-Palestine protests popped up at universities across the country, Britt supported legislation to punish protestors convicted of an offense at a protest.
Anti-BDS laws of the sort that Britt has now introduced are considered by many to be unconstitutional. Past Supreme Court rulings have found that boycotts are constitutionally protected speech and that the government cannot make private entities accept certain viewpoints by withholding funding.
The American Civil Liberties Union argues that anti-BDS laws are “designed to discriminate against disfavored political expression.” Proponents of the laws, however, dispute this and say anti-BDS laws are meant to prevent discrimination and antisemitism.
Thus far, the Supreme Court has refused to rule on the constitutionality of anti-BDS laws, even as some lower court judges have ruled against specific state laws.
The press release from Senator Britt’s office also boasts that the organization Christians United for Israel supports the legislation.
CUFI founder and chairman John Hagee said in a 1999 sermon that “God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land” (he later apologized). In 2008, then-presidential candidate John McCain actually rejected Hagee’s endorsement over this claim.
Hagee also called Hurricane Katrina “the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans,” citing a “homosexual parade.” And in 2015, he said America was the “new Sodom and Gomorrah” because same-sex marriage had been legalized.
Since it was founded in 2006, CUFI has become one of the largest organizations supporting Israel on the Christian right.
The organization believes BDS “is inherently antisemitic as it targets the world’s only Jewish state with lies and demonization and aims to deny the Jewish people their God-given right to self-determination.” As an example, it cites its success at getting Airbnb to walk back the company’s decision to not rent out “Israeli homes in Judea and Samaria”: the illegal settlements recently condemned by the ICJ.
The Alabama state legislature already passed an anti-BDS law very similar to Britt’s proposal back in 2016.
