William Petroski

bpetrosk@dmreg.com

The Iowa Senate voted 38-9 Wednesday to approve a bill that prohibits state funds from being directly invested in companies that boycott Israel.

House File 2331, which passed the House earlier this session, applies to the state treasurer, Iowa Board of Regents, Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System and certain other state pension funds. The bill, which was sent to Gov. Terry Branstad, also prohibits a public entity from entering into a contract of $1,000 or more with a company that boycotts Israel.

The legislation is intended to counter efforts of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. A host of Palestinian political groups, unions and others began in 2005 to encourage companies and government entities to boycott goods produced in Israel and divest from financial holdings there.

The Senate also approved a separate resolution on a voice vote on Wednesday in support of the Jewish State of Israel and a negotiated settlement resulting in a Palestinian state.

Sen. Jeff Danielson, D-Cedar Falls, the bill's floor manager, is a U.S. Navy veteran who was deployed multiple times to the Middle East. He said American foreign policy has always placed a priority on helping its friends, and there is no question Israel is a friend of the United States. He described the legislation as a "proactive approach” to ensure an economically stable Israel and to prevent Iowans' money from becoming intertwined with the boycott movement.

Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, opposed the anti-boycott bill after supporting the resolution. He said the legislation will require Iowa's universities to conduct exhaustive research on thousand of companies at a considerable cost and a great investment of time.

"It would do nothing to advance the cause of peace and result in significant bureaucratic obstacles," Quirmbach said.

Iowa is the eighth state to pass such legislation, according to the Israel Project, a nonprofit pro-Israel group.

“The people of Iowa have a lot to be proud of today,” said the Israel Project Chief Executive Officer Josh Block, in a prepared statement. “By resoundingly declaring that BDS discrimination has no place in the Hawkeye state, the state legislature took an affirmative stand to ensure no taxpayer money is used to espouse anti-Semitism."

In 2012, Iowa exported more than $48 million in goods to Israel, according to the Israel Project. Since 1996, Israel has imported nearly half a billion dollars of goods made in Iowa ($482.6 million), making the country Iowa’s 34th largest trading partner, the organization said.

Kathleen McQuillen, Iowa program coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee in Des Moines, opposed the Iowa anti-boycott legislation, suggesting it violates First Amendment protections of political speech. She added she is "deeply disappointed" that Iowa lawmakers passed a bill about which they know very little. She said several Iowa lawmakers told her the issue belongs with the U.S. Congress, not the Iowa Legislature.

"It is important to know that the BDS movement came out of the heart of the Palestinian non-violence movement because the governments of the world failed to hold the government of Israel to account for its human rights abuses. So again the government of Iowa attempts to crush the Palestinian non-violence movement," McQuillen said.

Repeated references to a two-state solution are problematic, McQuillen said, because there is very little land left for Palestine to have for a state. Other models under consideration include some type of confederation and one state where all people have equal rights, she added.