South Dakota GOP Gov Kristi Noem Signs Executive Order Banning Boycotts of Israel

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Jan. 17, 2020

Though Republicans won't lift a finger to protect the free speech rights of their own constituents on social media they're more than happy to violate their rights by outlawing boycotts of the foreign state of Israel.

From Middle East Monitor, "South Dakota governor signs anti-BDS executive order":
The Republican governor of South Dakota signed an executive order on Tuesday prohibiting state offices from conducting business with companies boycotting Israel.

The recent move made by Republican, Kristi Noem, has made South Dakota the 28th state to have adopted the anti-BDS law.

“Israel is one of our nation’s closest allies, and their success is critical to American national security,” Noem announced in a statement. “Today, we reaffirm that South Dakota stands with Israel and will only contract with businesses who agree to fairly compete. Our state will not stand for any discrimination based on race or religion.”

The executive order requires vendors seeking contracts with state agencies, authorities, commissions, departments or institutions of the State of South Dakota not to engage with companies that participate in boycotts of Israel.

It also applies to companies or contractors with more than five employees, and on contracts of $100,000 or more, according to the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.

Noem signed the order in the capitol in Pierre an hour before her State of the State address, which marked the beginning of the state legislature’s 2020 session.
Note, it was Noem's first order of business.

President Trump signed a similar executive order in December to make Jews on college campuses a "protected class" so the federal government could pull funding from colleges which aren't sufficiently pro-Israel.


Journalist Abby Martin revealed last week that she was blocked from delivering a keynote speech at Georgia Southern University for refusing to "sign a contractual pledge to not boycott Israel" to comply with Georgia's anti-Boycott, Divest and Sanctions law and suggested Trump's executive order may have played a part.


Politico reported in September 2019 that the US government concluded that Israel appears to have placed stingray cell phone spying devices near the White House and throughout Washington DC to spy on the president and congress.


"[T]here were no consequences for Israel's behavior," Politico said, citing a former White House official.

Though we hear the media and politicians talk constantly about how sacrosanct and important the assessments of our intelligence agencies are, that assessment was basically completely ignored.

I wonder why?

[Header image by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0]

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