Republicans and Democrats are both pushing to criminalize commercial boycotts of Israel. The law, if passed, will open up violators to million dollar fines and twenty years in prison.U.S. Lawmakers Seek to Criminally Outlaw Support for Boycott Campaign Against Israel
Glenn Greenwald, Ryan Grim | July 19 2017, 11:30 a.m.
THE CRIMINALIZATION OF political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West. In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. In the U.S., governors compete with one another over who can implement the most extreme regulations to bar businesses from participating in any boycotts aimed even at Israeli settlements, which the world regards as illegal. On U.S. campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of Israel is so commonplace that the Center for Constitutional Rights refers to it as “the Palestine Exception” to free speech.
But now, a group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country’s decades-old occupation of Palestine. The two primary sponsors of the bill are Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland and Republican Rob Portman of Ohio. Perhaps the most shocking aspect is the punishment: Anyone guilty of violating the prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.
The proposed measure, called the Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S. 720), was introduced by Cardin on March 23. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the bill “was drafted with the assistance of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.” Indeed, AIPAC, in its 2017 lobbying agenda, identified passage of this bill as one of its top lobbying priorities for the year:
The bill’s co-sponsors include the senior Democrat in Washington, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand, and several of the Senate’s more liberal members, such as Ron Wyden of Oregon, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, and Maria Cantwell of Washington. Illustrating the bipartisanship that AIPAC typically summons, it also includes several of the most right-wing senators such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, and Marco Rubio of Florida.
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In other words, if you use your own property (your business) in furtherance of your free speech rights, the US government, on behalf of their Israeli masters in AIPAC, will RUIN you.
When asked about their position on the bill, several Senators and Representatives did not seem to know what was in it. Apparently, they will support anything the Israeli lobby shoves in their face.
And the most ironic and perverse part about this? Many of the co-sponsors for this bill are Democrats who have been obsessing over "Russian meddling" in American democracy. Yet, here they are, actively conspiring against the RIGHTS of Americans with a foreign power.
That this bill even has ONE sponsor, let alone dozens of them, is disgusting.
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Originally Posted by Standing Wolf
