Resisting anti-BDS Legislation

State legislatures across the country continue to introduce legislation opposing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. The point of these bills is to punish and suppress activism for Palestinian human rights. FOSNA is responding at the national and local level.

To learn about legislation in your state, check out this map kept current by Palestine Legal.

Sign FOSNA’s Christian statement denouncing anti-BDS legislation here.

FOSNA local groups are responding to these threats to our constitutional rights in creative and powerful ways.

  • Sabeel–Colorado prepared two FAQs you can read here and here.

  • In Maryland, Sabeel DC joined a coalition called Freedom2Boycott that organized Lobby Night to respond to the legislation.

  • In California, NorCal Friends of Sabeel is part of a coalition that gathered an impressive list of endorsements on a statement given to all legislators.

If you would like to get involved in your state to stop anti-BDS legislation from passing, please e-mail friends@fosna.org and we can connect you with local organizers.

Talking Points on Anti-BDS Legislation

  • Attempts to use legislation as a means to suppress the BDS movement are both anti-democratic and unconstitutional. U.S. politicians are attempting to use legal means to suppress Americans who support Palestinian freedom and self-determination, in support of a racist and oppressive foreign government.

  • The United States and other members of the international community calling for nonviolence should support, not obstruct, efforts to attain freedom and justice through BDS and at international forums like the UN and International Criminal Court (ICC).

  • If members of Congress and the international community held Israel accountable for its illegal policies instead of supporting and enabling them, there might not be a need for BDS.

  • Members of Congress and other U.S. politicians who support measures such as these are out of step with U.S. public opinion. A 2016 poll by the Brookings Institute found that 46% of Americans think that the U.S. government should impose sanctions on Israel over the construction of settlements on occupied Palestinian land.

  • Increasingly, Americans recognize the need to end Israeli impunity and to hold Israeli officials to account for their actions if there is ever to be peace in Palestine and Israel. BDS is an important tool in this effort.

  • It has never been more clear that the U.S.-sponsored “peace process” is dead. It’s time for the international community to finally take concrete action against Israel and to apply BDS, arms embargoes, and other measures until Israel grants Palestinians their freedom and rights.

  • Many of the same members of Congress who are rushing to enact legislation to protect Israel from BDS—even at the expense of the rights of Americans—support boycotts and sanctions against any number of other countries. This hypocrisy is revealing the double standard applied to Israel, which gives Israeli leaders impunity to abuse Palestinian rights and defy international law.