“BDS doesn’t seek social justice. It seeks a world in which the state of Israel does not exist,” Rep. Ted Deutch said Tuesday. | Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo congress House condemns Israel boycott over liberal objections

The House passed a resolution Tuesday condemning a global boycott movement against Israel, with the lopsided vote coming over the objections of some progressives who claim the measure violates their First Amendment rights.

The controversial resolution — which passed the House via a 398-17 vote with five lawmakers voting “present” — comes after a behind-the-scenes battle between moderate and liberal Democrats over the push to publicly condemn the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, or BDS.


The vote had the potential to expose an ideological divide within the caucus, pitting progressives against moderates even after Democrats united against President Donald Trump’s racist tweets against four minority congresswomen.

“BDS doesn’t seek social justice. It seeks a world in which the state of Israel does not exist,” Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) said on the floor Tuesday.

“There is a chance for Congress to stand up and to point out that supporting a movement that doesn’t envision a two-state solution and that seeks to delegitimize the state of Israel is nothing that will advance peace and should be called out for what it is,” Deutch said in an interview later.

Moderates had been promised the resolution would receive a House floor vote before the August recess. And some, like Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Stephanie Murphy of Florida privately threatened to rebel and sign a discharge petition to force action on a more binding version if Democratic leaders didn’t follow through.

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But some liberal lawmakers — including high-profile progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) — have fervently objected to the resolution, saying the House is voting to condemn a nonviolent movement.

“We should condemn in the strongest terms violence that perpetuates the occupation, whether it is perpetuated by Israel, Hamas or individuals. But if we are going to condemn violent means of resisting the occupation, we cannot also condemn nonviolent means,” Omar said at a hearing on the resolution last week.

Omar — who was rebuked by her colleagues this spring for comments that were criticized as anti-Semitic — was immediately confronted by combative GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, who accused her of “blaming Israel for all of the violence that is happening.”

The Minnesota Democrat introduced her own legislation in response “affirming that all Americans have the right to participate in boycotts in pursuit of civil and human rights.” Omar’s resolution, which counts civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) as a co-sponsor, does not specifically mention the BDS movement but is a clear counter to the measure that passed the House on Tuesday night.

Privately, some senior Democrats had worried the anti-BDS resolution would reignite a messy spat between moderates and progressives that played out publicly over the past several weeks.

Leaders of the various interest groups in the caucus released a rare joint statement acknowledging the dispute and vowing to move forward. But privately lawmakers fretted that the anti-BDS resolution would ignite a powder keg over U.S. policy toward Israel that has been festering within the caucus for months.

With that in mind, some lawmakers urged House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to bring the resolution to the floor after the August break, when tensions between the caucus’ two ideological wings hopefully will have cooled.

Progressive leaders took it a step further, actively pushing Democrats to scrap a planned vote on the resolution. But Democratic leaders resisted, instead seeking a compromise that could satisfy both wings of the caucus.

Progressives had demanded that the anti-BDS bill be paired with a far less contentious proposal that reaffirms that any U.S. plan for peace in the Middle East must “include and center on a two-state solution.”

Democrats are in talks to bring the two-state resolution — from Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) — to the floor later this week, offering House Democrats a chance to easily unite behind a policy on Israel that would not split their own caucus.

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.

