Earlier this week, the New York state Senate passed three separate bills intended to suppress support for the boycott, divestment, and sanctions, or BDS, movement, a protest campaign that aims to pressure Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. Two of the bills would strip public funding from students and university groups who participate in "hate speech" related to Israel, and from those who take part in boycotts of "Israel and American allied nations." The third would prohibit the state from investing in or contracting with pro-BDS businesses, a restriction that was already in effect through an executive order signed by Governor Cuomo in June.

Since its inception in 2005, the BDS movement has become one of the most visible and controversial Palestinian-rights advocacy efforts. The movement's stated goals are the end of Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestinian land, equality of Palestinian citizens of Israel, and acknowledgement of the right of Palestinians outside Israel to return to the country.

"Entities facilitating an economic war against Israel and student groups that are harassing, intimidating and abusing Jewish students should not receive one penny of state support," Sen. Elaine Phillips (R-Great Neck), who sponsored the two bills dealing with universities, said in a statement.

The two university-focused bills are also intended to send a message to a specific campus group. In the same statement, Senator Phillips warned of "repeated incidents of anti-Semitism on CUNY campuses reportedly perpetrated by the student organization Students for Justice in Palestine, a staunch supporter of the BDS movement." The senator could not be reached for comment.

The measures come amid a wave of anti-Semitic incidents reported across the country. In New York, several Jewish community facilities have received bomb threats in recent weeks, including one that was called in on Thursday to the Jewish Children's Museum in Crown Heights.

"I think this is a classic attempt to delegitimize Palestine organizing on the basis of fear and hate," Nerdeen Kiswani, a BDS advocate and the former vice president of Students for Justice in Palestine at Hunter College, told Gothamist. "The same people who make these allegations don't do anything when there's actually anti-Semitism happening, whether it's on college campuses or a broader context."

Prior to her graduation last June, Kiswani was one of several SJP organizers investigated by the university following accusations made by the Zionist Organization of America that the group was engaged in anti-Semitic activity. The independent investigation, conducted by a former federal prosecutor and former federal judge, found little evidence linking the organization to alleged instances of anti-Semitism, and concluded that there was a "tendency to blame SJP for any act of anti-Semitism on any CUNY campus" and that proponents of BDS "should not be tarred as anti-Semitic."

Despite the findings, Senator Phillips's position has bipartisan support within the New York legislature. The Independent Democratic Conference in the Senate recently introduced a package of bills known as the Religious Freedom Act, which includes another provision to "prohibit funding to college groups participating in boycotts of Israel." In the state Assembly, an equivalent bill with five Democratic co-sponsors is currently in committee.

Governor Cuomo signed the country’s first executive order divesting public funds from any businesses supporting BDS this summer, saying at the time, “If you boycott Israel, New York state will boycott you.” The move was widely condemned by civil liberties groups, and the resulting blacklist contained 11 companies that do not do business with New York, several of which said they either are not boycotting Israel, or actually do business with Israel.

The anti-BDS backlash also advanced this week on the international level. On Monday, the Israeli government adopted a bill banning entry to foreigners who advocate for boycotts of the Jewish state or its settlements. That bill has been widely criticized by establishment Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee. On Wednesday, the ADL, a longtime opponent of the BDS movement, tweeted that the blanket ban on boycotters went against the country's values of pluralism and openness.

Israel’s democracy, pluralism, open society serve as best defense against #BDS. New law harms rather than helps: https://t.co/fEWWhmQbAB 2/2 — ADL (@ADL_National) March 8, 2017

The pro-boycott advocacy organization Palestine Legal offered a similar message, noting that New York's anti-BDS laws were a threat to free expression and the constitutionally protected right to boycott.

"At their core, the three anti-BDS bills are anti-protest bills," Rahul Saksena, a staff attorney at Palestine Legal, told Gothamist. "All New Yorkers who are concerned about their rights being whittled away in the Trump era should be outraged that our state Senators are limiting—instead of protecting—our right to dissent."

Correction: An initial version of the story stated that the report "found no evidence" to support the ZOA's accusation that SJP was engaged in anti-Semitic activity. Though the report concluded that it was a "mistake" to "blame SJP for any act of anti-Semitism on any CUNY campus,” investigators did speak with students who said they felt harassed by the organization, including one instance of an SJP member sending threatening text messages to a Jewish student.

