California State Assembly Unanimously Passes Bill Against Israel Boycotts

California’s State Assembly passed legislation to crack down on discriminatory boycotts of Israel by a unanimous 60-0 vote on Tuesday, the Jewish Journal reported. The legislation now heads to Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign it into law in the coming weeks.

When the bill was originally introduced in April, it specified that the state could not enter into contracts worth more than $100,000 with companies that boycott Israel. The bill that passed stipulates that companies doing business with the state must instead certify that they don’t violate California’s civil rights laws, which prohibit discrimination based on national origin, while targeting a sovereign nation recognized by the United States. Israel is the only such country mentioned by name in the legislation.

“The bottom line is that the state should not subsidize discrimination in any form,” Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica), who first put forth the bill, told colleagues while on the Assembly floor on Tuesday.

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Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, outlined at a congressional hearing in April how members of a network that used to fund Hamas have become the driving force behind the BDS campaign in the United States through the group American Muslims for Palestine.

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