10, June 2016 BDS
Buckling
under pressure from local Jewish organizations, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
issued a first-ever, executive order forcing state agencies to divest from any
organizations aligned with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Cuomo seems to have done an end run around the New York legislative body which
normally decides on such matters and his ruling is therefore unconstitutional.
Cuomo’s order would very likely have a severe impact on European companies that
support the BDS movement and trade with New York.
Predictably,
his ruling has caused outrage among civil libertarians and human rights
activists who accused Cuomo of 21st century McCarthyism. The BDS goals are very
simple - apply pressure on Israel to conform to international law by ending the
occupation and according full rights to the Palestinians. Currently,
Palestinians lives are a living hell, suffering daily humiliations and
indignities. Israeli's leading human rights group,
B'Tselem, reports that Israel has violated 29 of the
30 Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in its treatment of
Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Over 1000 American religious
organizations have urged our government to tie its massive foreign aid to
adherence to human rights treaties and international law. Americans have a responsibility to support the BDS
movement because of our unprecedented military and economic support to Israel.
Criticisms of BDS as anti-Semitic are a common strategy used to silence critics
of Israeli policies and should be rejected.
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