Activism

Georgia lawmaker says Israeli government ‘asked me’ for anti-boycott law she introduced

A Georgia state legislator who has pushed the state law opposing boycotts of Israel testified at a hearing that the Israeli consulate “asked me” to introduce an amendment to the law, and she did. The lawmaker appeared at the hearing in March with an Israeli consular officer seated at her side, and introduced him to the House committee.

State Rep. Deborah Silcox made her comments a month after Benjamin Netanyahu bragged that Israel was promoting these laws. Netanyahu tweeted on February 12:

Whoever boycotts us will be boycotted… In recent years, we have promoted laws in most US states, which determine that strong action is to be taken against whoever tries to boycott Israel.

The Israeli government’s intervention was first reported by the Council on American-Islamic Relations in a March press release. I learned about it from an interview with a lawyer who is suing the state of Georgia, which was posted on Empire Files by journalist Abby Martin last Friday.

Here is the back-story.

Thirty-two states, including Georgia in 2016, have adopted laws denying state funds to those who advocate boycotting Israel. The U.S. Senate has passed a bill urging other states to do so (The “Combatting BDS Act of 2019”). Last summer the Forward reported that an organization that has helped draft these laws received a grant from the Israeli government.

In February 2020, Abby Martin was “disinvited… from delivering a keynote speech at an academic conference” at Georgia State University, losing out on a $1000 honorarium, because she refused to sign what she calls an “Israel loyalty oath,” affirming that she would not engage in boycotts against Israel.

Backed by several groups including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Martin then sued Georgia State in federal court, saying that it had violated her First Amendment rights by applying the law.

A month after that suit was filed, Rep. Deborah Silcox testified before the Georgia House’s Governmental Affairs committee in favor of a bill she had introduced to raise the floor on the contracts governed by the law — from $1000 to $100,000.

GA State Rep. Deborah Silcox seated alongside Israeli consular officer Harold Hershberg (center l and center r) before hearing at Governmental Affairs Committee, March 11, 2020. Screenshot.
Silcox turns to introduce Hershberg to Governmental Affairs committee. March 11, 2020. Screenshot.

Martin’s attorney, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, says raising the floor for contracts is an attempt to get Martin’s suit thrown out as moot. And when $100,000 is at stake, contractors are far less likely to challenge the law.

The law’s supporters are afraid of legal challenges, because higher courts are sure to strike down the law as unconstitutional, Verheyden-Hilliard says.

At the hearing on March 11, Silcox can be seen sitting and chatting with a man in the front row before she testifies, then introducing him to the committee.

“Thank you Mr Chairman…. I do want to introduce briefly Harold Hershberg, who’s here with me with the Israeli consulate… I appreciate him coming down this morning to join us.”

Silcox goes on to say that Israel asked her to raise the monetary limit.

“We have had some issues on a small scale with this and so the Israeli consulate and a number of people have asked me to raise the limits.”

Harold Hershberg is listed as the director of government and political affairs for the Israeli consulate in Atlanta.

Mara Verheyven-Hilliard of Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. Nov. 13, 2020, from Abby Martin interview on youtube. Screenshot.

In her video interview last week, Abby Martin cited Netanyahu’s tweets as a “veiled threat” to make Israel’s critics suffer financially; and then noted that Georgia state officials are responding to this Israeli government pressure.

Abby Martin of Empire Files. From Nov. 13, 2020 video. Screenshot.

Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund deplored the collaboration.

It’s remarkable and fundamentally distressing that you have elected officials in the United States who actually are willing to sacrifice Americans’ cherished First Amendment rights at the request of a foreign country. And it’s demanding basically that you and anyone else sign a loyalty oath to a foreign country, in order to be able to sign a contract with the state of Georgia.

The situation is so extreme that in fact, one of the state legislators, Deborah Silcox, when they were seeking to amend the law and raise that limit to $100,000, to try and to moot your case actually said in a committee meeting, at the state legislature, that she had been asked to take that step by the Israeli consulate and apparently even brought a member of the Israeli consulate to speak in that meeting.

This is the United States. This is where we’re told over and over again, that it’s American rights, that we have the First Amendment, that we have the constitution, that we have the bill of rights, that this stands for American freedom, and then they can just quickly turn around and say ‘Well another country directed that we take these actions, and So we’re going to do that’.

Verheyden-Hilliard went on to say that Israel’s intervention is testimony to the power of the boycott movement.

The fact that Netanyahu is responding to this litigation and to the challenges— the effort that is coming from the highest official in Israel to a movement in the United States and worldwide– says something about the impact of that movement. The history of boycotts, in the United States and global boycotts, is one of struggle, one of unity, one where people come together in nonviolent collective action to fight for justice. And when you think obviously of the boycott of apartheid South Africa, when you think about the Montgomery bus boycott in the United States or Cesar Chavez and the grape boycott, these are crucial moments in which people are able to find a way to act together in collective action and have an impact when they need to have an impact. And Israel and Netanyahu are very afraid of this movement and are trying to do everything they can to stop a movement for justice that they oppose.

That view is echoed by Murtaza Khwaja, legal and policy director at CAIR-Georgia. “It’s troubling to hear that an outside power, especially one with as many human rights violations as Israel, is affecting our politics in Georgia,” he said. Legislators should take “their cues from the people of Georgia.”

Last month two liberal Zionist organizations joined the case on Martin’s behalf. J Street and T’ruah filed an amicus brief in federal court, saying they oppose BDS but that the laws punish open debate.

J Street believes that censorship of those who question American or Israeli policy puts the intellectual integrity and future of the Jewish community at risk and threatens to further calcify opinions about the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, making more remote the realization of a just and secure future for both Israelis and Palestinians.

Earlier this month, Silcox lost a reelection bid to a Democratic challenger in her north Atlanta district.

Thanks to Terry Weber.

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In Massachusetts the Speaker of the House in our legislature (here called “The General Court”) also reported that he was pressured repeatedly by the local Israeli Consul General that he “must pass” anti-BDS legislation. The Speaker was not pleased and his refusal to support such legislation was one of the reasons — along with our state’s strong commitment to civil liberties and free speech — for the defeat of a state anti-BDS bill in 2019.

The heavy hand of Israel’s thought police strikes again. Israel clearly does NOT share America’s bedrock values (freedom of speech, separation of church and state), but is trying to torpedo them. In Europe, debating some Israeli narratives has actually been made illegal, and people are in JAIL for that right now. Clearly that’s also their totalitarian plan for America.

Zionists interfering in our country again, ordering our spineless politicians, whose loyalty AIPAC keeps buying through generous donations, eager and falling over themselves, to do anything, even ignore human rights abuses, and so called “democracy” that we always preach about to other nations, all to shame themselves and do Israel’s bidding. What hope do we have for this country, when politicians put Israel over their own nation? I am sick of our spineless politicians who keeps kissing up to, and willing to serve, their zionist masters. It is all about the Benjamins and power.

Why? From the Amazon description of “Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance” by Amy Kaplan:
Our American Israel tells the story of how a Jewish state in the Middle East came to resonate profoundly with a broad range of Americans in the twentieth century. Beginning with debates about Zionism after World War II, Israel’s identity has been entangled with America’s belief in its own exceptional nature. Now, in the twenty-first century, Amy Kaplan challenges the associations underlying this special alliance….Through popular narratives expressed in news media, fiction, and film, a shared sense of identity emerged from the two nations’ histories as settler societies. Americans projected their own origin myths onto Israel: the biblical promised land, the open frontier, the refuge for immigrants, the revolt against colonialism. Israel assumed a mantle of moral authority, based on its image as an “invincible victim,” a nation of intrepid warriors and concentration camp survivors.

My god! They aren’t even attempting to pretend anymore!

It’s one thing when registered lobbyists (like AIPAC), American organizations (like the ADL), or private citizens (like Sheldon Adelson) are leaning on our elected officials to affect policy and laws in favor of foreign policy toward Israel, but this is something else entirely!

This is quite literally government officials of a foreign nation carrying out their official government duties, physically sitting in a US legislative body and MAKING policy and legislation in favor of THEIR country and their country alone. Policy and law that literally and directly violates the Constitutional rights of American citizens!

Fucking insane does it even come close to describing how fucked up this is. Their complete and utter lack of shame is just the cherry on the cake.