New Hampshire Bans State Contracts With Businesses Involved in the BDS Movement
New Hampshire is the 37th state to say no to those who boycott Israel.
New Hampshire has become the 37th state to ban the state from doing business with those boycotting Israel, known as the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement (BDS).
Gov. Chris Sununu (R) signed the executive order because the House “tabled, or removed from consideration, legislation that would have prohibited state investments in companies involved in the economic action” three months ago.
From The Keene Sentinel:
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, participated in the ceremony. Chatting with the Republican governor before the event, Erdan mentioned that New Hampshire is the 37th state to adopt such a policy.
“Most have been able to do it with legislation,” Sununu said. “If I can’t do it with legislation, I’ll put my thumb on the scale.”
Sununu said in a speech before the signing that New Hampshire and Israel have been partners in commerce, culture, tourism and trade, including $1 billion in exports since 1996.
“Today’s executive order will help strengthen and reaffirm this critical partnership with Israel,” he said.
The state has long had a policy against contracting with businesses that unlawfully discriminate, Sununu added.
“Boycotts of entities and individuals of specific countries often amount to ethnic, religious and national discrimination, which directly contradicts New Hampshire’s values,” Sununu said.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations claimed the ban violates their First Amendment: “The government cannot tell Americans how to spend their money or who to financially support. Boycotts have been a part of American political life since the founding of our nation, and no state order attempting to ban or limit our right to boycott can be legitimate.”
Today I joined Israel Ambassador to the @UN @giladerdan1 and Consul General of Israel to New England @AmbMeronReuben to sign an Executive Order prohibiting the Executive Branch in NH of doing business with any company that supports discriminatory BDS laws. ⁰⁰Read the EO: pic.twitter.com/gf70WN6FlU
— Chris Sununu (@GovChrisSununu) July 6, 2023
New Hampshire joins 36 other states: Tennessee, South Carolina, Illinois (yes, Illinois!), Alabama, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, Virginia, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, New York, Rhode Island, New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Arkansas, Texas, Minnesota, Nevada, Kansas, North Carolina, Maryland, Wisconsin, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Missouri, Utah, Idaho, West Virginia, and North Dakota.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), along with Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN), Rick Scott (R-FL), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), and Steve Daines (R-MT), has tried to pass the Combating BDS Act of 2023.
“The legislation would help state and local governments stand up to the anti-Israel BDS movement, which seeks to delegitimize the Jewish state of Israel by inflicting economic damage and starve it of commerce,” Rubio’s office said in a press release. “The bill would increase protections for state and local governments in the U.S. that divest from, prohibit investment in, or otherwise restrict contracting with firms that knowingly engage in commerce-related or investment-related BDS activity attacking Israel, as well as persons doing business in Israel or Israeli-controlled territories.”
Rubio and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) have been trying to pass legislation since 2017 and again in 2021.
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Comments
“The government cannot tell Americans how to spend their money or who to financially support,” prattled CAIR, remaining ignorant, as is their wont, of Obamacare.
Or of taxation in general. Every paycheck a hideous percentage is withheld which the government will use to spend as it seems fit and will tell us to shut up about how it’s spent.
37 out of 50 states getting on board with this anti-“BDS” initiative — and, by extension, anti-Jew-hate and anti-Muslim supremacist/terrorist — is a pretty good accomplishment.
Of course we’ll hear the usual whining from the vile Dhimmi-crats and their Jew-hating, Israel-slandering Muslim supremacist/terrorist allies about this result.
I, too, was shocked to see IL on this list.
And I live there.
Of course the boycotting of anything by Democrats is sacred and completely justified but should conservatives even think of boycotting something then the Left’s hair goes on fire and the MSM has a complete meltdown. Oh the horror!.
CAIR was founded by IAP members: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Association_of_Palestine
Their MO has been to use sleazy tactics to censor reporters who expose Palestinian wrong doing. So CAIR is just another front for the same sleaze bags as IAP. who was collecting money in America for Hamas.
Senator Fetterman has decried this action. As a person of medical ailment suffering he doesn’t feel businesses suffering from this chronic condition appertaining to their movements should be discriminated against. He is gathering the necessary papers to clean up this mess.
It sounds unconstitutional to me. Refuting BDS is the way you get rid of it.
This is what using government power looks like.
We need to end our comedically stupid “MUH BIG G OVERNMENT” rhetoric and continue as New Hampshire just did to use the government.
We aren’t anarchists and it is time to stop larping as anarchists and start using the legitimate reigns of power the people give us when they give it to us.
So CAIR is also against minority set asides in government contracts because that is the same thing