US Lawmakers Seek to Criminalize Boycotts of Israel

I am a Polish / German American and I promote this Bill, you can do a lot of things in your life but to try to get rid of isreal..will never happen and America will defend her to death.


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They turn around and buy are military equipment..a win/ win for both countries.


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I am surprised it has this many co-sponsors. A couple of sections are clearly unconstitutional. I have emboldened the language that troubles me. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/720/all-info
"This bill declares that Congress: (1) opposes the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution of March 24, 2016, which urges countries to pressure companies to divest from, or break contracts with, Israel; and (2) encourages full implementation of the United States-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2014 through enhanced, governmentwide, coordinated U.S.-Israel scientific and technological cooperation in civilian areas.

The bill amends the Export Administration Act of 1979 to declare that it shall be U.S. policy to oppose:

• requests by foreign countries to impose restrictive practices or boycotts against other countries friendly to the United States or against U.S. persons; and
• restrictive trade practices or boycotts fostered or imposed by an international governmental organization, or requests to impose such practices or boycotts, against Israel.

The bill prohibits U.S. persons engaged in interstate or foreign commerce from:

• requesting the imposition of any boycott by a foreign country against a country which is friendly to the United States; or
• supporting any boycott fostered or imposed by an international organization, or requesting imposition of any such boycott, against Israel.

The bill amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to include as a reason for the Export-Import Bank to deny credit applications for the export of goods and services between the United States and foreign countries, opposition to policies and actions that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize or otherwise limit commercial relations specifically with citizens or residents of Israel, entities organized under the laws of Israel, or the Government of Israel.

 

I don't believe in BDS - they only hurt the little folk in the end. That the boycott is successful or not depends on their reaction toward their elites.

That being said, what the zionist lobbies are doing right now is about on par to what a Third Reich would impose if they had won the second World War - a oppressive, totalitarian, orwellian society except that the one imposing it would be lawyers and bankers instead of soldiers and conquerors.

 

No, I didn't see where the throwaway line was. I genuinely didn't. Can you explain what you meant. "is this the same as the "gay cake" thing... because then I can see why they want to make it illegal". I see Bowerbird has given you a thanks so it must be some poignant throwaway line.

The cake issue was whether it was discriminatory not to bake a gay cake and the ruling was that yes it was. Hence illegal not to. Hence trying to put an analogy on what you were saying in reference to the thread I thought you were implying that BDS was being discriminatory (antisemitic) towards Israel and hence it was correct that it was illegal to do so - basically giving Israel's argument. It's quite an important issue to give a throwaway line on and an extremely important issue in the UK which has been massively impacting our politics. Again Bowerbird thanked you so he obviously saw something poignant in what you said which I missed. I would be grateful if you could explain it.

 

sorry you’re upset Bowerbird thanked my 1 sentence post opposed to yours vigorously researched and considerably outlined. (well done.. pat on the back)

Ok what I meant was exactly that… discrimination however in the meantime I took 1 minute and read through the OP and noticed

clearly not a discrimination based boycott but in protest to the occupation… answer: different to gay cake issue.

 

You know full well that that Israel would not be putting the money into fighting BDS if it was not having an effect. How would you feel being occupied for 50 years with the occupier bit by bit taking over your land. Left to what is happening now you are moving to what Bennett told the Saban forum 2 years ago - that is annexing 62% of the West Bank and instead of a Palestinian State leaving the rest in isolated bantustans with no rights for ever. Indeed I read a few months ago that this is already accepted in the US as what is happening .

BDS is working. There is no longer any hope of a Palestinian State. It is in reality already part of Israel as your people are forever saying. Israel is an apartheid State. The Palestinians simply have no rights. Ronstar supports Israel. He simply does not support an apartheid Israel. Give the Palestinians full rights as part of Israel or withdraw to 67 lines and the problem is solved.

 

So you have already lowered yourself to the level of personal attack. My belief was that givin he thanked you, you were not giving a throwaway line. That has not been my experience of him. As far as your 'vigorously researched' which clearly is something you disapprove of - well no, just following politics in my country - clearly something which you do not do. Why people who are not interested in politics join politic debate sites is beyond me.

So I take it you are now saying you have made a mistake.

 

Oh yes, BDS is working. Just ask 500 Palestinians and their families.

The first part of your post lambasts Israel for planning to annex West Bank, while the second lambasts Israel for not annexing West Bank...Can you make up your mind?

In order to steal land from somebody, that somebody has to own the land in the first place. Kindly point to a period in history when the West Bank belonged to an Arab Palestinian people.

The worn out "but there were Arabs in Palestine for centuries" argument will inevitably lead us to "but there were Jews in Europe for two millennia, give us Switzerland" or "Jews lived in the territory of today's Iraq for 2500 years, long before Arabs, give us Iraq" or "there were Berbers in North Africa long before the Arab conquest, give them the Maghreb"* type of arguments.

Private land is protected by law. Settlements illegally built on private land are dismantled, even by this right wing government.

*There are also Jewish Berbers in North Africa. For centuries. How about a Little Israel in North Africa?

 

Alexa honestly you are over reacting, I'm very impressed with your post and to prove it I'm going to like it right after I post this. Unfortunately I worked till 8pm Friday night and was up at 7am Sat am to finish a report... your post was not a priority no matter how good it was. On top of that I had to sit through a two hour meeting on Tuesday where one of the guys were waffling on and on until I had erotic fantasies of strangling him... at least the food was good... my point being I have little patience for over-explaining.

Personally I also have little care for likes and I'll let you in on a secret. Bowerbird doesn't read my posts, if she did I'm sure she would never push that like button she's just being supportive of a fellow Australian which btw means much more to me

For the record I agree wholeheartedly with everyone in this thread (I think since I again haven't actually read it) that the lawmakers are idiots.

ps. I'm not interested in every thread... and this one only mildly interest me... not sure why that is such a problem for you, are you just having a bad day?

 

If you love those Palestinians so much then get the hell off their land. In any case from what I can remember a fair number of that 500 believe in BDS. You do not care for Palestinians.

Oh nippy Pisa is being dishonest. I was saying the situation as it is. Bennet laid out the plan to annex as I said 62% of the West Bank, that is area C and to leave the rest of the West Bank as little bantustans without rights for ever. That including without the right for self determination for ever was what he said at the Saban Forum. Even when questioned whether that was what he really meant, whether he thought people would accept the Palestinian people being the only people in the world to live without the right for self determination for ever , he said yes. It just required a little psychological work to get people to accept it. . That is what I said. Here I will even give you it again.

I later said "Give the Palestinians full rights as part of Israel or withdraw to 67 lines and the problem is solved." Hope it is not still too difficult for you to understand.

 

OK I decided to a do a check on this 500 Palestinian milarkey. Seems there is some controversy about the new Soda Stream site although they did offer the Palestinians jobs in it!!

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/...estinian-bedouins-plight-150910100606371.html

So what we have is the Soda Stream being willing to transfer its business and take all its workers with them. In this instance there was no need for anyone to lose their job. Of course due to all the standing waiting at checkpoints, being frisked and so on it was going to take them forever to get there but still a job was available. However Israel will only say they will allow 130 and of those they could initially only find 37 who passed their criteria.


They did eventually get 74 Palestinians working for them and although up above it says that they wanted to take all their workers below they are talking about 350...and come 2016 Israel decides to take away the work permits of the 74.

http://www.npr.org/sections/paralle...s-lose-their-jobs-at-sodastream-whos-to-blame

That article also goes into the BDS issue and the reasons why it is difficult for Palestinians to get well paid jobs in the West Bank. However as we see now even those Palestinians who as far as Soda Stream are saying are the most they could get Israel to allow them to take are to lose their jobs. Why?

https://www.thenational.ae/world/is...an-workers-to-discredit-bds-campaign-1.164288

and it appears he was as good as his word because in May of this year

http://www.fight-bds.com/Page/sodas...employees-following-renewed-work-permits.html

So depending on the date of writing Soda Stream was willing to take 350 or all its workers when it moved out of the West Bank. In the end Israel only allowed 74 of them to keep their jobs and even tried taking away their work permits. Next time you hear of BDS taking away 500 workers right to work, look to Israel. In addition the thinking should be on why it is so difficult for anyone to make a decent living in the Occupied West Bank that it was believed people would not be able to find work of a similar stature.

 

In 2016 in Amsterdam a nice young lady gave me this at Dam Square

I kept it as a souvenir.
(She was attractive).

 

As ever, send the bill to Germany.

Nazi Germany made the requirement of a Jewish settlement.

Germany set back mankind with WWII.

China's now communist because of WWII and Palestine's now being settled.
SEND THE BILL TO GERMANY for all of this.

 

Again - what is their land? Kindly point to a period in history when the West Bank belonged to an Arab Palestinian people. It's extremely difficult to talk about something as vague as "Palestinian land", especially when there are so many opinions about it.

Please don't tell me what, why, when and how am I thinking and feeling. You don't know anything about me.

What do you mean, without rights for ever? Don't they have their own democratically elected leaders* in those little bantustans**? Don't they receive very generous amounts of financial and other help from all over the world? Don't they enjoy support at the UN? What rights are you talking about?

*Of course they only had one chance to democratically elect their leaders...for many, many, many years to come...

**It's the so-called pro-Palestinians that are creating bantustans by insisting that Jews get out - isn't that a demand for complete segregation based on religion, race and ethnicity?

Here it is again, the ugly hypocrisy of BDS supporters. You boycott Israel at every possible level, including dance performances abroad, claim that Palestinians would be so much happier and merrier without any Israeli presence on their undefined land, but still expect Israel to somehow take care of Palestinian Arabs who lost their jobs as a result of BDS activity. Israel will not pay for your blunders, sorry. We can't afford more security risks than we already have.

You want Israeli businesses out of West Bank? Provide alternative jobs.

 

Israel is in contravention of the Geneva convention in moving her people into the land she is occupying. This land was part of what was to have been the Palestinian state when the UN decided on partition. You already have an extra 28% part of the what was to have been the Palestinian State. They agreed at Oslo to accept only 22% of their historic homeland. You have failed to give them even that and have been taking more and more of their land and resources.

Suggesting it is anything other than Palestinian land simply brings to the fore that Israel is an apartheid State.

Trust me it is obvious you have no care about anything Palestinian. You cannot for one moment put yourself in their shoes. All you were doing when you were talking about Soda Stream was trying a bit of propaganda.

No right to have a State, to have self determination. This was easily seen by the American Jews at the Saban Forum so you are fooling no one. If you do not give them their state which God forbid all the British Friends of Israel continue to say that is what they are going for then you are, as you in reality are an apartheid State.

Your imagination or attempt to say things over and over in the hope that people will believe you just becomes more and more extreme. You have no right to have civilian settlements in the West Bank. The whole world apart from you agrees with that. If Trump does not then he is the first US President. Obviously it is you illegally settling on more and more of the Palestinian homeland which is carving them up into bantustans.

That would depend on what it was about. Mainly your Settlement enterprises.

The number of times I have heard of Israel managing to get Palestinian activities banned abroad and achieving this is far more than I have occasionally heard of people managing to do same for Israel. Far, far more.

No one likes to live in a prison all their life and that is the situation with the Palestinians. From cradle to grave with you and your guns and your settlers bulling them, attacking them. stealing their resources and taking away their sources of livelihood. Who exactly do you think would like to live like that. Put you in such a situation for 5 months and you would go mad. They have had to suffer this 50 years - along with you mowing the lawn of them too of course.

and here your disingenuous really comes out. Expecting Israel to have a duty of care towards the Palestinians is her duty as the Occupying Power. Your problem Pisa is that you have no respect for law. That is all people are asking of you.

 

First rational post by this poster, ever. Must be the sunspots.

 

A good article on this by 972. It goes further than Israel's own anti boycott laws. In Israel boycotting is not criminal and Israel does not directly ban the right to call for boycotts whereas the US one even has it an offence to ask for information about them!! So in Israel calling for boycotts, talking about them is still protected free speech. That of course would be gone in the US which is why the American Civil Liberties Union has already written to US Senators saying it is a direct violation of the first amendment.

https://972mag.com/americas-bds-law-is-an-attack-on-far-more-than-free-speech/128805/

They then make the very pertinent point that this is the only non violent way in which the Palestinians can try to work for justice and for their right to self determination.

I have to imagine this will get nowhere in the US because of its violation of your first amendment. However the fact that your Politicians are trying to take away your rights to your own political views has to be extremely concerning. For a people who pride themselves so much on free speech as I know you all do from being on this forum, the fact that even asking for information about boycotts of Israel could find you in jail is quite extraordinary.

As I said earlier our courts did not accept that our Government had the right to say who councils and I think Universities had the right to boycott. It looks like most countries are probably going to find some racket like this going on and I suspect where beaten at first another will come on the back of. You already have many states enacting anti BDS leglislation some of which have already been effectively countered.

 

I'd say, the sponcers of this bill should have known how unconstitutional this bill is, but then again when did D's, and R's ever care about the constitution.

 

Hilarious, I don't know which is more laughable - quoting a crap site like 972, or the ACLU, the alleged constitution-protector, until of course, we're discussing the second amendment. That part of americans' civil rights and the constitution the ACLU doesn't like to defend so much.

Frauds and hypocrites like the rest of the garbage.

 

If boycots don't work, than Israel might as well lift their boycott.

Yes... how about you just go defend your own hyperite ways

 

This is a good video to watch to help put everything in perspective.

The Zionist Story.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+zionist+story


I posted this on this other thread before I'd seen this one.
http://www.politicalforum.com/index...ng-america-over.439054/page-2#post-1067779215

 

people have Freedom of Association.

that includes to refuse to buy products from certain nations.

and encourage others to do the same.

I dont agree with BDS but I support their right to boycott

 

It's like Andrew Napolitano said, the biggest lie our government tells us is that it upholds the Constitution.

This bill stands a snowball's chance in Hell in court...

 

this bill violates the principles of Freedom of Speech and Association.

you cannot force me to buy someone's products