ILLINOIS PASSES
ANTI-BDS BILL
Illinois lawmakers unanimously approved a Bill
last month to boycott companies that boycott
Israel. The measure prevents Illinois pension
funds from investing in foreign firms that participate in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaign against Israel; it’s the first such
legislation at state level. Illinois governor Bruce
Rauner tweeted soon after the measure was
passed that he looks forward to signing the Bill
and “making IL first in the nation to fight BDS
against Israel”.
“At the core of the BDS movement is a quest
to delegitimise Israel as a sovereign, democratic, and Jewish state,” Chicago Jewish
United Fund president Steven Nasatir said in
a statement. “This bipartisan legislation sends
a strong message that Illinois will not tolerate
such efforts.”
Legislators in several other states hope to
pass their own anti-BDS laws in light of Illinois’
success. The measure does not distinguish
between Israel and the Palestinian territories,
which the Bill’s critics say affirms Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. Companies that
boycott Israeli settlements in the Palestinian
territories would be subject to divestment under the Bill. The Illinois Bill follows similar efforts
by Congress to penalise companies that boycott Israel. Last month, Indiana and Tennessee
passed non-binding resolutions condemning
BDS. Tennessee’s resolution calls the BDS movement “one of the main vehicles for spreading
anti-Semitism and advocating the elimination
of the Jewish state”.
But some advocates have protested anti-BDS
legislation, which they say wrongly conflates
criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Jewish
Voice for Peace has condemned the amendments, saying they would “institutionalise support for the Israeli occupation and attempt to
criminalise non-violent boycotts of Israel”.
ISRAEL COULD LOSE US SUPPORT AT UN, WARNS OBAMA
Barack Obama has warned that America’s veto in support of Israel at the UN is becoming increasingly “difficult” because of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wavering
stance on a Palestinian state.
Obama said the lack of progress in peace efforts, and Netanyahu’s apparent aboutturn on support for a two-state solution before and after the recent Israel elections,
mean Israel is in danger of losing “credibility”.
“Up until this point, we have pushed away against European efforts, for example, or
other efforts because we’ve said, the only way this gets resolved is if the two parties
work together,” said Obama in a recent interview with Israel’s channel 2.
“If, in fact, there’s no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there’s a
peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned
about settlement construction, those who are concerned about the current situation.”
In response to a question about Netanyahu’s comments regarding the establishment
of a Palestinian state before and after March elections, Obama said: “The danger here
is that Israel as a whole loses credibility. Already, the international community does
not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution.”
Netanyahu sparked international concern when he ruled out the establishment of a
Palestinian state while campaigning for the 17 March general election, but later backtracked on the comments.
Netanyahu later said he was committed to the establishment of a Palestinian state,
calling on the Palestinian leadership to return to negotiations unconditionally.
Obama, however, said Netanyahu’s statements on the subject after the election have
had “so many caveats, so many conditions, that it is not realistic to think that those
conditions would be met any time in the near future. And I think that it is difficult to
simply accept at face value the statement made after an election that would appear to
look as if this is simply an effort to return to the previous status quo in which we talk
about peace in the abstract, but it’s always tomorrow, it’s always later,” Obama said.
ANTI-SEMITISM SKYROCKETS IN CANADA
Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada skyrocketed over the last year and have now hit the
highest levels “ever recorded” by human rights groups tracking the number of antiJewish episodes, according to a new study.
Canadians across the country reported experiencing more anti-Semitism than in the
past four years, with anti-Semitic incidents having risen a total of 28% from 2013 to
2014, according to the global Jewish advocacy group, B’nai B’rith International (BBI).
This made 2014 the “worst year” for anti-Semitism since advocacy groups began tracking incidents in 1982.
The majority of those who reported an instance of anti-Semitism faced harassment,
while others faced forms of violence and vandalism as a result of being Jewish, according to the report. The rise coincides with a global surge in anti-Semitism, including a
rash of terrorist attacks against Jewish communities in countries such as France.
In Canada alone, there were 1 627 anti-Jewish incidents in 2014, a nearly 30% rise since
the previous year. Such cases “can vary from slurs, name calling, and graffiti, to assault,
arson, and bomb threats”, the report states.
“The year 2014 saw the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ever recorded by
B’nai B’rith and the League for Human Rights,”