USA: Anti-BDS laws extended to serve the most reactionary causes

JVL Introduction

Sylvain Cypel reviews the film Boycott by Julia Bacha, released in March this year.

It looks at the various state anti-boycott laws passed recently in the United States.

A triumph of the pro-Israel lobby you might think? Not so simple! Many campaigner for these laws are merely using Israel as a beachhead for a much wider set of far-right, anti-boycott laws they have in mind.

At least 10 US States are discussing draft laws which replace “boycotting Israel” by “boycotting arms sales” for instance, or which hope to use such laws to deny freedom of speech to people who advocate boycotting health centres which refuse to accept women for abortions.

The Director of the film remains optimistic and believes the anti-boycotters are losing the argument. Her film reminds us of the 1970s and 1980s slogan: “Apartheid is a crime, protesting it is not.”

RK

This article was originally published by Orient XXI on Fri 14 Jul 2023. Read the original here.