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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