Anti-boycott laws do not only punish companies, they are the most dangerous assault on free speech in the United States since the McCarthy era.

by Juan Cole Reposted from Informed Comment

Israeli caretaker prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted for corruption and is facing an election soon, just boasted that his ministry of strategic affairs has managed to undermine first amendment protections for free speech in the United States by lobbying state legislatures to pass laws forbidding the boycott of Israel.

Anti-boycott laws of the Old South were used against Martin Luther King, Jr. and other activists in the Civil Rights movement to keep African-Americans subordinate and segregated. The right to boycott establishments over civil rights was upheld by the Supreme Court in 1982 in NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware. …

Some 28 US states have passed laws prohibiting the boycott of Israel and attempting to punish this action by denying such individuals state contracts.

Gilad Erdan is the head of the ministry of strategic affairs, which has spearheaded the attempt to undermine the US constitution and make criticizing Israeli policy illegal in the United States. This effort is allegedly being aided by Mossad, Israeli intelligence. Mossad intensively spies on Washington, D.C., and may have compromising information on US politicians.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC is the main instrument of such Israeli policy pushes in the United States, and has never been forced to register as the agent of a foreign state, as US law requires. …

Journalist Abby Martin has just launched a lawsuit against the University of Georgia for cancelling her speaking appearance when she declined to sign a pledge she would not boycott Israel.

Article