Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have reintroduced legislation that would provide states with more tools to attack the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The Combating BDS Act of 2021 would effectively allow state and local governments to implement laws targeting firms that boycott Israel. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate and House and lawmakers attempted to push this bill after congress returned from the government shutdown in 2019.
“The bipartisan Combating BDS Act is a step towards ensuring individual states have the right to pass laws that prevent business transactions with the anti-Israeli BDS movement,” said Manchin in a statement. “I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join this bipartisan legislation to support individual states and our valued ally, Israel.”
“The boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement is the single most destructive campaign of economic warfare facing the Jewish state of Israel today,” said Rubio. “Amid a rising tide of anti-Semitism, it’s critical that we stand shoulder to shoulder with our closest democratic ally in the Middle East. This bipartisan bill, which previously passed the Senate, would mark an important step toward bringing an end to the BDS movement’s discriminatory efforts.”
Thirty-three state governments have passed laws targeting BDS in recent years. According to Palestine Legal, there were twenty-one legislative measures attacking Palestinian rights advocacy just last year alone. A 2018 article from Foundation for Middle East Peace president Lara Friedman explains how such legislation could easily be expanded beyond Israel and used as a cudgel to crack down on free speech more widely.
“In states that have adopted conservative definitions regarding when life begins or rights of a fetus, minimal tweaks could transform an Israel gag law into one requiring that, as a condition for state contracts, individuals and companies certify they do not support Planned Parenthood,” wrote Friedman. “Other tweaks could produce legislation prohibiting contracts with supporters of movements engaging in civil disobedience — as a possible means of targeting Black Lives Matter or Dakota Pipeline protesters, for example.”
The bill is currently backed by just Manchin and Rubio, but during the 115th Congress (2017-2018) it netted 48 cosponsors. 33 Republicans and 15 Democrats.
Two zionist lackeys who bow their heads for the Benjamins.
Two political whores willing to support war crimes and Apartheid.
Two bought and paid for zionist yes men.
If there is a final reckoning on the final day , these two will be heading south to join all the other sinners who just didn,t listen.
The terrible twins–Little Marky Rubio and his sidekick –little joey manchin.Lifers with no parole.Was Israel worth it boys.
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US Journalists Demand the Media Tell the Truth about Palestine – – IMEMC News
IMEMCI NEWS, June 17/21
“US Journalists Demand the Media Tell the Truth about Palestine”
“American journalists have signed and are circulating an open letter calling on their peers and colleagues in the media community to start using consistent truth telling speech, rather than language that obscures the realities of war crimes, human rights abuses and an apartheid system perpetrated against Palestinians by the State of Israel.
“The letter, published on Medium is called Journalists’ Open Letter on U.S Media Coverage, and as of the time of this article, 514 verified signatures have been added by journalists. So far, the signatures on the letter include writers for Los Angeles Times, ProPublica, Jewish Currents, ABC News and The Washington Post, Chicago Sun-TImes among many others. The letter calls for journalists and members of the media community to sign in solidarity.
“’For the sake of our readers and viewers — and the truth — we have a duty to change course immediately and end this decades-long journalistic malpractice. The evidence of Israel’s systematic oppression of Palestinians is overwhelming and must no longer be sanitized’ , a quote from the Journalists’ open letter.
“The letter cites the 213 page report by Human Rights Watch, which is documentation of ‘crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution’ committed by Israeli authorities, and a publication by Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem entitled A Jewish Supremacy From The Jordan River To The Mediterranean Sea: This is Apartheid, which outlines Palestinians lack of freedom of movement, lack of immigration rights, denial of the right of political participation for those living under Israeli occupation, and state mandated settler colonialism and forcible theft of land and water access.
“The open letter takes issue with specific words that are commonly used to obfuscate the truth such as ‘eviction’, when referring to forcible removal, and violence perpetrated against Palestinians and demolition of Palestinian property, which is ‘illegal under international law and potentially a war crime.’ (cont’d)
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“’This term misleadingly implies a real estate ‘dispute’ between tenant and landlord, an inaccurate depiction of the state of affairs. The United Nations considers East Jerusalem occupied Palestinian territory, meaning Israel’s territorial claims there are not recognized. More importantly, using the term ignores the well-documented aim of the Israeli government to establish and maintain ethnic dominance over Palestinians.”
“More ill-used words cited in the open letter are ‘clash’ when referring to Israeli police and military brutality used on Pro Palestinian demonstrators, and ‘conflict’, which blatantly muddles the reality.
“’When Israel attacked Gaza, media outlets framed it as a ‘conflict’ between two equal entities, ignoring the total asymmetry in power. Under the guise of objectivity, rockets fired at Israel — which caused significantly less damage than Israeli airstrikes — were covered just as much as Israel attacking medical facilities and leveling entire residential buildings, clouding the nearly one-sided scale of violence and destruction.”
“The letter calls on journalists to promote Palestinian narratives and the truth of Palestinian life starting from ‘the dinner table all the way to Capital Hill’.
“The journalists’ call for truth closes with this quote: ‘We are calling on journalists to tell the full, contextualized truth without fear or favor, to recognize that obfuscating Israel’s oppression of Palestinians fails this industry’s own objectivity standards.’
‘”We have an obligation — a sacred one — to get the story right. Every time we fail to report the truth, we fail our audiences, our purpose and, ultimately, the Palestinian people.'”
When the Israeli lobbies say “jump” they keep asking “how high”. Here we see two pariahs in Congress, doing the bidding of the lobbies, so that they can get re-elected and stay in power.
We just saw pictures of babies being pulled out of the rubble in Gaza, and it seems it must have impressed these two zionist servants. Have ANY of these disgraceful congresspeople ever shown regret or sympathy for those 68 babies who were killed? After all they are parents/grandparents themselves and should have some shred of humanity. Sadly there never is any shown. They are more eager to send more weapons to kill more civilians than try to prevent the loss of lives.
They also show that they are more concerned for Jewish lives than Arab lives.
Unfortunately, this albatross of the Democratic Party has another 3 years to go in his term. However, he is 74, so there’s chance he won’t be able to serve out his term.
Let’s hope!