An important measure of a nation’s character is its willingness to stand with friends and allies who are beset by enemies. Few American allies are as beset as Israel, from rocket assaults to terrorist attacks to anti-Semitic propaganda.
One of the newest weapons in the anti-Israel arsenal is the Boycott, Disinvest and Sanction Movement (BDS) — a sophisticated international campaign to bully companies and financial institutions into cutting off all economic, cultural, academic and institutional ties with Israel, the only open and democratic society in the Middle East.
BDS poses as a peaceful movement interested in “social justice” for Palestinians. The reality is more sinister: The BDS movement seeks to delegitimize Israel’s very identity and existence and ultimately bring about its destruction and replacement with a Palestinian state, which would be dominated by the terrorist group Hamas. In a Middle East dominated by dictators, extremist theocracies and brutal terrorist regimes, targeting the only nation founded on Western democratic values that accords equal rights and participation to all its citizens mutilates the idea of justice beyond recognition.
This isn’t surprising given the militancy of BDS advocates. Last year, a 13-year old Israeli girl emailed a Cambridge University professor seeking information for a school project. The academic — a pro-BDS activist — refused to help her “until there is peace and justice for Palestinians in Palestine.” The same professor has also declared “the Jews have become the Nazis.”
BDS proponents equate their efforts to the international South Africa divestment campaign in the 1980s to end that country’s racial apartheid regime. South Africans who lived under and struggled against apartheid scoff at that the comparison.
“Those who know what real apartheid is, as I know, know that there is nothing in Israel that looks like apartheid,” says Kenneth Rasalabe Joseph Meshoe, a leading black member of the South African Parliament. He criticized BDS as an anti-democratic movement of “hate” and “intimidation.” Indeed, it is Israel’s Jewishness that makes it a target of the BDS movement.
Is BDS an existential threat to Israel? Not yet. However, a leading Israeli columnist called it an “illusion” to think Israel’s economy will not be impacted by the “consistent, protracted, and dangerous erosion of support for Israel” the BDS movement has fomented in academia, the media and research centers.
Standing with Israel against the BDS movement is not only a national security and moral imperative but an economic one, as well. In 2014, California exported more than $2.4 billion in goods to Israel, making it the state’s 18th largest export destination. Seventy percent of those exports are manufactured commodities — a critically important sector of California’s economy that we need to protect.
For all these reasons, I have introduced AB 1552, bipartisan legislation that prohibits government entities from doing business with companies that officially join the BDS movement – keeping in mind that the state does billions of dollars of business with companies annually. If enacted, this bill will make companies think twice before boycotting Israel in order to appease illiberal anti-Israel agitators.
AB 1551 would forbid state government entities from investing in companies engaged in political actions to damage or limit commerce with Israel and Israeli companies. Our two largest pension funds, CALPERS and CALSTERS, have combined investment portfolios of nearly $500 billion. If enacted, these bills will make companies think twice before boycotting Israel in order to appease illiberal anti-Israel agitators.
Our friendship with Israel goes back to its birth. We were the first nation to recognize the new Jewish state, forging an enduring bond based on shared values and unwavering commitment to freedom and democracy. California and Israel are bound together by deep commercial and cultural ties. In a world increasingly hostile to American values and interests, it is particularly important for the United States to stand by its friends and allies.
It’s my conviction that any company that is intentionally inflicting economic harm on the state of Israel is not economically aligned with the values of California’s residents and is undeserving of California’s financial investments.
Assemblyman Travis Allen represents Orange County’s 72nd District in the California Assembly. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
