Health care may be stalled, but Congress is still weighing plenty of terrible legislation. As The Intercept reports, bills in both houses would make it a literal felony for any American to support a boycott of Israel, a 12-year-old international protest of the occupation of Palestinian territories. Both bills currently have wide bipartisan support, with 29 Republican and 14 Democratic sponsors in the Senate, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

And the penalties under the Senate bill are staggering. According to the ACLU, supporting the Israel boycott would involve “a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.” In a letter sent to every senator asking them to oppose the bill, the ACLU explained that "a person whose lack of business ties to Israel is politically motivated would be subject to fines and imprisonment.” That's up to 20 years in prison and $1 million in fines for your political beliefs.

While that seems like a pretty open attempt to spit on the First Amendment, The Intercept points out that criminalizing anti-Israeli sentiment and support for an Israel boycott is becoming common in the West:

In France, activists have been arrested and prosecuted for wearing T-shirts advocating a boycott of Israel. The U.K. has enacted a series of measures designed to outlaw such activism. In the U.S., governors compete with one another over who can implement the most extreme regulations to bar businesses from participating in any boycotts aimed even at Israeli settlements, which the world regards as illegal. On U.S. campuses, punishment of pro-Palestinian students for expressing criticisms of Israel is so commonplace that the Center for Constitutional Rights refers to it as “the Palestine Exception” to free speech.

This is the latest in a widespread effort to crack down on the right to protest in the U.S. Nearly 20 states have introduced or passed legislation that makes it harder to protest, even as Americans are finding more and more worth protesting.

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