Arkansas publisher holds out against own state as US Senate advances anti-BDS bill
Amira Howeidy, Tuesday 29 Jan 2019
A US federal court in Arkansas has ruled in favour of criminalising the boycott of Israel while the Senate is voting to advance a federal anti-BDS bill


Throughout 2018 the desk of Alan Leveritt, publisher of the US weekly ‎newspaper the Arkansas Times, was piling up with letters from the state of Arkansas with ‎an unusual demand: either sign a pledge not to boycott Israel or forfeit all state ‎advertising.‎

It was the outcome of a state law (act 710 of 2017) passed in 2017 by Arkansas’s ‎Republican-dominated legislature that requires government contractors to pledge in ‎writing not to boycott Israel or see their fees reduced by at least 20 per cent. ‎

The paper and its state agency clients simply ignored the letters. But when one of ‎their clients, the University of Arkansas, informed the Arkansas Times that it had to sign ‎the anti-boycott pledge in order to continue running its advertisements, things got more ‎difficult as there was a price to pay.‎

Either succumb to compulsion by the state of Arkansas to take a political position ‎or endure financial losses by refusing to do so and reduce advertisement rates by 20 per ‎cent. The paper opted for the latter option, and with the help of the American Civil ‎Liberties Union (ACLU) also sued the state of Arkansas in December 2018 in a bid to ‎overturn the law on free-speech grounds.‎

Two federal courts had already blocked similar laws in Arizona and Kansas citing ‎First Amendment violations under the US Constitution and free-speech rights. The US ‎Supreme Court has long held that political boycotts are protected by the First ‎Amendment.‎

The decision on 23 January by US district judge Brian Miller to throw out the ‎lawsuit was thus unexpected. In his 17-page opinion, Miller wrote that the paper “has not ‎demonstrated that a boycott of Israel, as defined by Act 710, is protected by the First ‎Amendment.” ‎

Leveritt told the Weekly in an email that his ‎paper was going to appeal with the hope of getting the decision overturned. The court’s ‎decision puts “a lot of pressure on our publication because if we do not sign, it could have ‎a devastating effect on our financial situation,” he explained.‎

‎“We are a small, local publication in a relatively poor state and government ‎advertising, mostly related to higher education and health, has always been a significant ‎category.”‎

The Arkansas Times, a local publication focused on Arkansas affairs, has never ‎engaged in the boycott of Israel and says it does not intend to do so.

‎“Our position is that under the First Amendment, no government can compel us to ‎take a political position one way or another,” Leveritt told the Weekly. If the law had ‎required his paper to promise not to boycott Palestinian products and businesses, he ‎would still have fought it, he said.‎

PEN America, the prestigious 92-year-old organisation that defends free ‎expression in the US, described the Arkansas law as “deeply troubling.”‎

‎“The ruling from the Arkansas district court failed to consider other important ‎federal court rulings around the country that have protected this kind of speech as a core ‎First Amendment right,” said Nora Benavidez, director of US Free Expression ‎Programmes at PEN America. ‎

‎“Constitutional protections cannot be applied selectively based on one’s ‎viewpoint, and this decision sets an alarming precedent for Americans’ right to freely ‎exercise their political beliefs in ways clearly protected by the First Amendment,” she ‎added.‎

The federal court decision is a blow to the ACLU and the boycott, divestment ‎and sanctions of Israel (BDS) movement. Already, 26 states have enacted similar anti-‎BDS laws or executive orders. While the state of South Carolina was the first to pass ‎such a law in June 2015, the trend picked up following the election of president Donald ‎Trump who took office in 2017.‎



The BDS movement is inspired by and modeled on the anti-apartheid movement ‎against South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.‎

Efforts to pass a federal anti-BDS bill failed in the previous Congress, but this is ‎now changing. Attempts to pass a modified version of the bill in the newly elected ‎Congress since early January were obstructed because of the partial federal government ‎shutdown that ended last week.‎

On Monday, the Senate overwhelmingly voted by 74 to 19 to advance the anti-‎BDS bill, called the Strengthening America’s Security in the Middle East Act of 2019. ‎

The bill, which includes wording that encourages US states to adopt anti-BDS ‎laws, is expected to pass. Currently, 13 states are considering similar anti-Israel boycott ‎laws.‎

It could make court battles against America’s pro-Israel laws more challenging. ‎

‎“If this law stands, then the government has the power to threaten the press with ‎all kinds of financial pressures to make us toe a party line,” said Leveritt of the Arkansas ‎Times. “We don't do that in America, at least not so far.”‎

‎“We expect this kind of religious, right-wing, poorly thought out legislation from ‎our local legislators,” he added. “I am shocked that is even being given a serious hearing ‎in Congress.”‎

*This story was first published inAl-Ahram Weekly

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/322647.aspx