Criminal penalties for boycotting Israel would be extended to companies complying with the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel — including the boycott of West Bank settlements — under a bipartisan bill introduced in the House of Representatives.
Republican Congressman Peter Roskam of Illinois and Democrat Juan Vargas of California introduced the bill on Nov. 14. The measure is a companion to the “Protecting Israel Against Discrimination Act” introduced in the Senate in September.
The House bill amends language in bills passed in the 1970s to combat the Arab League boycott of Israel to encompass the modern BDS movement, and to include efforts that would boycott settlement goods.
Whereas the original anti-boycott laws targeted companies cooperating with boycotts that were launched before Israel’s establishment as a means of squeezing its Jews, and then as a means of isolating the new Jewish state, the new bill appears to extend the definition to those who would use boycotts to pressure Israel into giving up territory.
The measure defines the “boycott of, divestment from and sanctions against Israel” that would merit penalties as including those “that are politically motivated and are intended to penalize or otherwise limit commercial relations specifically with Israel or persons doing business in Israel or in Israeli-controlled territories.”
“Israeli-controlled territories” encompasses settlement boycotts.
The bill could face First Amendment challenges for seeking to link criminal penalties attached to export violations to “politically motivated” actions that include aims as minimal as getting Israel to rejoin peace talks with the Palestinians.
Furthermore, some liberal pro-Israel groups, including J Street and Americans for Peace Now, sanction the boycott of settlement goods. — jta