Jewish Groups Sue Massachusetts City Over ‘BDS-Style Divestment Policy’
“Municipal governments do not have the authority to use taxpayer funds for ideological boycotts, against Jews or anyone else.”
Two Jewish advocacy groups are suing the city of Medford, Massachusetts, over its ideological investment ordinance, calling the measure a veiled “BDS-style divestment policy.”
The lawsuit filed in federal district court by The Gevura Fund and the National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) challenges the so-called “Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance,” which requires the city to divest public funds from companies that engage in human rights violations.
The ordinance was initially vetoed by Medford Mayor Breannna Lungo-Koehn, but the City Council voted 6-1 to override the veto in November of last year, according to the complaint filed by the Jewish groups on behalf of two city residents.
Although it does not refer to the Jewish State, the Medford ordinance was “primarily inspired by the ongoing events in Gaza between Israel and Palestine,” the Patch reported at the time of its passage.
There were other telltale signs of the motivation for the city’s measure. The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) applauded Medford’s decision to divest from “Israel’s ongoing Gaza genocide.”
And the local Medford For Palestine group celebrated the City Council resolution on Instagram:
Regardless of whether the Medford city ordinance is BDS-inspired, it is illegal, explains Rachel Sebbag, litigation counsel at NJAC and the Gevura Fund: “We know the movement to pass these legally defective divestment ordinances nationwide are motivated by anti-Jewish animus, but that’s not what this lawsuit is about. As a clear matter of constitutional law, these ordinances cannot stand.”
The City Council acted outside its lawful authority when it passed the ordinance last year, the lawsuit says, calling its non-financial, ideological criteria for divestment “vague and subjective.” The ordinance does not define what “severe violations of human rights” would trigger divestment.
Instead, the ordinance leaves it to international bodies obsessed with condemning one state and one state only—including the United Nations—to decide what counts as a “severe” violation of human rights and international humanitarian law. Last year, a UN Commission concluded Israel violated international law by committing “genocide” in Gaza following the 2023 Hamas massacre.
The lawsuit says the Medford ordinance is preempted by both federal and state law: “Its purpose and effect are to influence foreign conduct through economic coercion, thereby impermissibly intruding into an area reserved exclusively to the federal government.”
“No Massachusetts statute authorizes municipalities to mandate divestment based on political, moral, or ideological criteria.”
The groups ask the court to declare the ordinance unlawful and to block the city from enforcing it.
Municipalities in other states including Michigan, Maine, California, and Vermont, have reportedly passed divestment ordinances advancing BDS objectives.
They should probably lawyer up.
“The law is clear, said Tina Snider, president of the Gevura Fund. “Municipal governments do not have the authority to use taxpayer funds for ideological boycotts, against Jews or anyone else.”
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Comments
Amen. Good work. The way to fight back is to REJECT, REJECT, REJECT.
Those taxpayer dollars were promised to them 3000 years ago
Ha Ha Ha! if you want your money going to fund discrmination and hate then be prepared to be sued. My tax dollars should be fixing the roads not funding CAIR backed iniatives.
Bad idea by the municipality and IMO probably unconstitutional and for any ‘investment’ decisions impacting funds managed/directed on behalf of pensioners/employee retirement accounts almost certainly a fiduciary problem.
That said this doesn’t seem to me to be ‘antisemitism’ so much as anti Israel. Yes there is overlap but they are different things. If we say criticisms or divestment actions against Israel are = to or in fact are indistinguishable from antisemitism then we hand ammunition to the Cray Cray folks who use a similar formulation to try and make the case that every ‘Jew’ has inherent divided loyalties between Israel and whatever Nation they are a Citizen of. There’s plenty of very effective ways to counter argue against both antisemitism and anti Israeli rhetoric without relying on the creation of a false equivalence.
The vast majority of people that are anti-Israeli are also anti-Jew. Know how I know? They are virtually silent on Iran, South Africa, North Korea, China, Cuba, Nigeria and every where else where people are subject to real oppression on a daily basis just for existing.
I don’t disagree, I alluded to the overlap and would add a third category of anti Zionist. The anti Zionists, are loons. Israel does exist and once it became a reality on the ground v an abstract concept the debate over Zionism ended. Israel is just as legitimate a sovereign Nation as any other Nation and has been since May 15, 1948 and especially 9 months later at the end of the Israeli War of Independence.
IMO some (not a majority to be sure) of the anti Israeli rhetoric is really an association on West Civilization and uses Israel as a proxy for opposition to the USA. Many of the anti Israel usual suspects are also Marxist with a strong dash of anarchist and very anti USA with a particular dislike of traditionalist social norms.
This is true, and in fact I believe it accounts for a majority of the visible anti-zionism. The proof for that is that in 1948, when the USSR thought Israel might align itself with it, it was Israel’s greatest and almost only supporter. Only the USSR (via its proxy Czechoslovakia) was willing to sell arms to the Jews to defend themselves and prevent Holocaust Part II. The USA and the rest of the West imposed an arms embargo and sat back waiting for the Arabs to finish Hitler’s job.
That all changed only after the war, when Ben-Gurion decided that Israel would align itself with the West and not with the USSR. Suddenly the communists who had been pro-zionist turned into anti-zionists, just as in June 1941 they turned on a dime from fanatical pacifists to enthusiastic supporters of the War on Fascism (having a mere two years earlier turned from anti-fascists to pacifists).
No, they really aren’t. Antisemitism is almost the only reason anyone ever opposes zionism or Israel.
I can think of only three non-antisemitic reasons to oppose Israel’s existence or right to defend itself, and all three reasons are not only very uncommon in practice, but are also even stronger reasons to oppose the “Palestinian” cause. Support for the “Palestinian” cause is always motivated by antisemitism; opposition to the Israeli cause is only so motivated 99% of the time.
Every Jew has a duty of loyalty to the Jewish nation, not necessarily to the State of Israel. Not all Jews honor this duty, just as not all USAns honor their duty of loyalty to the USA. Every serious Jew cares about the State of Israel and its safety, and has an emotional stake in it, but not a duty of loyalty to it as a state.
It becomes a question of whether the State’s existence is in the interest of the Jewish nation. In current circumstances it certainly is, but that may change. Also in current circumstances, none of that poses any conflict whatsoever with loyalty to the USA.
Israel’s interests are mostly aligned both with those of the Jewish nation and of the USA. In matters such as economic policy Israel’s interests may well diverge from those of the USA, but they may equally diverge from those of the Jewish nation, in which case a non-Israeli Jew’s duty is to his nation, not to the State.
It’s complicated, but it’s the reality. We can’t just pretend that if we ignore it it’ll go away.
“Palestine” = ISIS
And, beyond ideology, going deeper, into etymology, “Palestine” = an ancient Roman province (Syria Palaestina) that was named 600 years before Islam’s founding. The words “Palestine” and “Palestinians” have no origin in, or relationship to, Islam, Arabs or Muslims. They’re words that were brazenly co-opted and appropriated by 20th-century Arab Muslims, descended from Arab Muslim invaders from Arabia, to grant themselves undeserved and pilfered historical legitimacy.
There is no phonetic “p” in Arabic is all you need to know. Palestinians can’t even pronounce their own name. That’s how fake the origin story is.
That’s interesting; I didn’t know that.
The origin story was concocted by the KGB and given to arafat, a KGB trained source. Arafat of course was an arab born prior to 1948 in Egypt so how he thought he was affiliated with the land of Israel is anyone’s guess. I suppose it doesn’t matter since he was able to grift at least 3B from gullible people in his lifetime.
Arafat was the ultimate grifter. He dies as a millioniare celebrity in France with a noble peace prize to his name. His daughter gets refugee benefits along with the likes of Bella Hadid. How are these billionaire class “palestinians” refugees? It’s amazing how you get to pass down your refugee status for eternity in palestinian land. Your gift to future generations is permament victim status and UNRWA benefits. That’s their identity.
United Nations = Hamas
wont matter
unless the blmplo elected ones are held personally responsible ,,its a worthy attack via the courts,, but it wont matter
the blmplo black matriarchy is way way way stronger than the courts
court decisions are being made so that the fearful judges ( pro maga) wont have to face the street thuggs
and with the kentaji court gaining powers all across the country ..fer git bout it
actual wars arent won in the courts
the courts come after the victories on how to divide up the “stolen land”
BDS == “Bush Derangement Syndrome”
BDS == “Blower Drive Systems”
BDS == “Behavior Development Solutions”
Might mean something else too, but the article does not mention it.
In this context, “BDS” stands for “Boycott, Divest and Sanctions” — the obnoxious agitprop campaign by evil Islamofascists/Muslims supremacists and their non-Muslim, leftist/Dhimmi-crat allies, to pressure companies and governments to cease investment in Israeli companies; to sell investments in Israeli companies; and to boycott products made by Israeli companies.
Leave it to these brainiacs to run a pump and dump scan BACKWARDS.