US judge blocks anti-BDS law in Texas

By Umar Farooq

WASHINGTON (AA) - A U.S. federal judge blocked the enforcement of an anti-Israel boycott law in the state of Texas, dealing a legal blow to similar laws placed in other states.

District Judge Robert Pitman said boycotts are a form of free speech protected by the Constitution in a 56-page opinion filed Thursday.

“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” Pitman wrote in his opinion.

The ruling came after two lawsuits were filed, one by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the other by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

CAIR filed a suit in December on behalf of Bahia Amawi, a speech pathologist in Texas who was denied an extension of her work contract because she would not sign the contract with its “No Boycott of Israel” clause.

With the judge’s ruling, Amawi, an Austrian-born American citizen of Palestinian origin, can now return to work in the Pflugerville Independent School District, outside of Austin.

The anti-boycott legislation was first enacted by U.S. President Donald Trump through an executive order in 2017.

Now 26 states, including Texas, enacted anti-boycott laws that bar the state governments from doing business with entities or individuals that participate in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The decision places doubt over the constitutionality of the laws placed in other states, and may set a precedent for other legal cases against those anti-boycott laws.

The BDS movement was formed in 2005 by 170 Palestinian civil society and rights groups and calls for a boycott of Israeli companies involved in violating Palestinian human rights and for institutions to withdraw investments in those companies as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel.

It also calls for sanctions campaigns to end international support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians and pressure Israel to comply with international law, as well as pressure governments to fulfill their legal obligation to hold Israel to account.

The BDS movement in the U.S. has been a heated political topic regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, coming into light by the left wing of the Democratic Party making a stand and demanding the right to criticize the Israeli government, especially under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, the first two Muslim women to be elected to U.S. Congress, were also the first two to publicly support the BDS movement.