House Pulls Vote On Bill Banning U.S. Citizens From Boycotting Israel

By blueapples – Zerohedge

Since October 7th, 2023, Israel’s war in Gaza and increasingly unquenchable thirst for war with Iran has seen the Middle Eastern country strengthen its iron-fisted grip over the U.S. political establishment. From proposed laws criminalizing antisemitism under the guise of hate speech to the expansion of the U.S.’ involvement in the Middle Eastern theater of war culminating in a direct military conflict with the Houthis in Yemen, the exponential influence of Israel on determining U.S. foreign and domestic policy alike has led to growing opposition over that imbalanced power dynamic. The extent of the blowback from the heightened visibility of the Zionist agenda steering the course of U.S. policymaking has reached new heights as the House Of Representatives decided to suspend a vote on proposed legislation that embodies Israel’s pervasive influence on the U.S. government.

The House was scheduled to vote on H.R. 867: The IGO Anti-Boycott Act on Monday under suspension of the Rules Of The House Of Representatives. Voting in that fashion would have required a two-thirds vote for the bill to pass but also would have limited debate on the issues it presented, a microcosm of the subversion of democracy by the interests promoting the legislation. The proposed legislation was introduced by Republican Representative Mike Lawler on January 31st to the House Foreign Affairs Committee and sought to expand existing federal law that makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to participate in boycotts against the State Of Israel. Despite the bipartisan support that H.R. 867 had from its 24 co-sponsors, the outcry against the proposed legislation ahead of the vote it was scheduled for on Monday proved to make bringing it to the floor a bridge too far, even for the most zealous supporters of Israel in the House Of Representatives.

Last Monday, Representative Lawler, the man behind The IGO Anti-Boycott Act, joined 3 other members of the House Of Representatives when he decided to meet with Israeli Minister Of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir. Although Ben-Gvir was visiting Washington DC for the first time in his official capacity as Minister Of National Security, no senior Trump Administration officials scheduled meetings with him. Despite desperately lobbying to meet with Department Of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem by ostensibly submitting a false report to an Israeli newspaper with connections to his wife that he and Noem had a meeting scheduled, Ben-Gvir’s request was unrequited. While House Majority Whip Tom Emmer decided to meet with Ben-Gvir, they met with him during a private reception held for the foreign minister at Trump’s private residence of Mar-A-Lago in lieu of a more public-facing meeting at the U.S. Capitol.

The otherwise cold reception Ben-Gvir received was very much an instance of the minister’s reputation preceding him. Since first being elected to the Knesset in 2021, Ben-Gvir has distinguished himself as one of the most fanatical members of Israel’s legislature and Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. His radical views on Jewish supremacy and unabashed support for the genocide of Palestinians have made him a pariah, even for the most ardent supporters of Israel like those in the highest echelons of the Trump administration. While senior Trump administration officials were reticent to be embroiled in the inherent controversy that would accompany any meeting with Ben-Gvir, Representatives Brian Mast, Jim Jordan, and Claudia Tenney joined Lawler broke rank in welcoming Ben-Gvir to the Capitol.

The decision of Lawler, et al. signified the unequivocal support for Israel of the select representatives who met with Ben-Gvir. Representative Brian Mast has previously served as a perfect illustration of the extent to which members of the House are willing be exalt the interest of Israel. Following the attacks of October 7th, 2023, Mast has worn his own IDF uniform to Congress, having served with Israel’s military as a civilian volunteer before being named Chair Of The House Foreign Affairs Committee. Like Mast, Representative Lawler signaled how far he was willing to debase himself to serve Israel’s interests when he introduced H.R. 867: The IGO Anti-Boycott Act to the Mast-led House Foreign Affairs Committee on January 31st. The proposed legislation sought to further prohibit U.S. citizens and companies from engaging in boycotts of Israel by increasingly the scope of the framework to do so created by The Anti-Boycott Act passed in 2018. While the details of the meeting between Lawler and Ben-Gvir have remained shrouded in secrecy, The IGO Anti-Boycott Act symbolizes the willingness of Lawler to act under Israel’s directives, lending some basis to infer what the two discussed during their time together.

The Anti-Boycott Act was first enacted in 2018 as part of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act which took effect at the start of Fiscal Fear 2019. It was passed in response to the Arab League boycott of Israel organized to strengthen opposition to the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The Anti-Boycott Act restricts U.S. companies and citizens from joining in any initiatives to boycott, divest, or sanction (“BDS”) Israel led by foreign nations. U.S. companies’ and citizens’ right to join in the BDS movement remained intact under the law so long as that no foreign nation was behind organizing the boycott. However, the expansion of the law via The IGO Anti-Boycott Act introduced by Representative Lawler would have extended the parameters of The Anti-Boycott Act beyond BDS action organized by foreign governments so that it would apply to international governmental organizations (“IGOs”) like the United Nations, European Union, and others. If passed, The IGO Anti-Boycott Act would have drastically expanded the ban on efforts to boycott Israel that US citizens could engage in.

Under The IGO Anti-Boycott Act, US citizens would have faced extraordinary criminal and civil penalties for boycotting Israel. Citizens found to be in violation of the law would have faced criminal fines of up to $1 million per violation and up to 20 years in prison. Additional civil penalties include fines of up to $300,000 or twice the value of any transaction refused by the boycotting entity, whichever is greater. Businesses found to have been engaged in boycotts against Israel would have also been at risk of having their export licenses revoked. Given the severity of those penalties, several U.S. Representatives have come out against the proposed legislation ahead of its May 5th vote.

While H.R. 867 would not have made it illegal for American citizens to organize their own BDS initiatives, the ban on joining boycotts against Israel led by IGOs would have severely diminished their reach. The Palestinian BDS National Committee has served as the central force in organizing boycotts against Israel around the world since its founding in 2005. The committee operates as an IGO supporting boycotts against Israel by establishing partnerships with hundreds of organizations involved in the BDS movement. Among their partners is the U.S. Campaign For Palestinian Rights, which describes itself as “a national organization of more than 300 groups working to end all U.S. support for Israeli occupation and apartheid policies toward Palestinians.” Given the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights being a direct partner of the Palestinian BDS National Committee, its operations would have fallen under the scope of The IGO Anti-Boycott Act and thus have been deemed illegal. The now-withdrawn legislation’s prohibition on U.S. organizations from joining the network organized by the linchpin of the BDS movement that is the Palestinian BDS National Committee highlights the infringements on citizens rights to free speech and assembly which proved to be too much for House Republican leadership to ignore the outcry against.

The previously scheduled vote on The IGO Anti-Boycott Act was set just one week after Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded to a resolution brought by the City Council Of San Marcos aimed at compelling the U.S. federal government to enact an arms export embargo on Israel. In response to the City Council Of San Marcos scheduling a vote on the resolution for its next meeting on May 6th, just one day after the House would have voted on H.R. 867, Abbott threatened to withhold any state funding from the city should the measure pass. Like Abbott’s response to the city of San Marcos, the decision to advance The IGO Anti-Boycott Act introduced by Representative Mike Lawler and his cohorts highlights how Americans have become second class citizens in a country that is decidedly more concerned with serving the interests of Israel than with upholding the rights of its own people bestowed upon them by the U.S. Constitution. That irreconcilable disconnect between the U.S. government and its citizens demonstrates how Israel’s occupation isn’t just limited to the Gaza Strip and West Bank. It has extended all the way to Washington DC.

Although H.R. 867 is no longer set to be voted on under suspension of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the decision of the Zionist-led interests behind the proposed legislation to pull its vote is far from a capitulation. In light of the vocal opposition to the bill, H.r. 867 achieving the high threshold of a two-thirds vote to pass the House seems like it would have been a virtual impossibility. As such, withdrawing it is more likely part of a calculation from the bill’s supporters to recalibrate and resubmit the legislation for a conventional vote that will only require a simple majority and thus have a greater likelihood of passing. Although the rising tide of opposition to Israel’s influence on U.S. policymaking was enough to delay a vote on H.R. 867 for now, the true test of its mettle still lies ahead as bringing forward legislation that subjugates the rights of U.S. citizens in favor of advancing the interests of Israel has become a cornerstone of Congress that it will not easily abdicate.