Activists rallied to defeat a bill in the Massachusetts House of Representatives that would have adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism for the state.

More than 300 Palestinians and their allies gathered on Tuesday, May 15 in Boston to mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophic Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and to protest Israel’s massacre of Gazans participating in the Great March of Return.

A new initiative to stifle Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) in the Massachusetts legislature is a bill to “Prohibit Discrimination in State Contracts”, arguing that targeting Israel is a form of discrimination aimed at people’s religion and national origin. Opponents showed that this is a facade to hide the anti-free-speech intent of the legislation.