Anti-Boycott Legislation β Israel/Palestine
Data tables containing all legislation and executive orders targeting boycotts of Israel that have been introduced since 2014.
The launch of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement in 2005 catalyzed strong pushback from some defenders of Israel who claimed that the movement itself, and the tactics it supports, are anti-Israel and antisemitic. Starting in 2014, this pushback began to focus on state legislatures in the U.S., which saw the introduction of resolutions condemning and rejecting the BDS movement. In 2015, such efforts expanded to focus on promoting binding legislation imposing sanctions on people and companies that boycott Israel and/or Israeli settlements (in effect erasing the distinction between Israel and settlements). These laws focused on barring such persons/companies from state contracts and requiring divestment of state funds from such companies. Since then, these efforts have delivered significant results, with more than half of U.S. states passing laws targeting boycotts against Israel and settlements.
Much of this legislation has been challenged by free speech experts (including the ACLU) as unconstitutional, amounting to laws designed to suppress free speech and protest. Some of these laws have been challenged in U.S. courts, with varying results (see more on those court cases here).
Predictably, the legislation in these tables has, since 2021, been repurposed as a template to target political free speech/protest on other issues, including climate change, guns/ammunition, and the entire basket of issues defined by their opponents as "woke". For details see this FMEP research table.