On Monday, Ohio Governor and former Republican presidential candidate John Kasich signed an anti-Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) bill into law. Ohio Governor John Kasich (Source: www.johnkasich.com/meet-john/) The anti-BDS bill prohibits Ohio state agencies from contracting “with a company that is boycotting Israel or disinvesting from Israel.” LDB Senior Staff Attorney Jennie Gross testified in front of the Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee in support of the bill on December 6, and LDB President and General Counsel Kenneth L. Marcus testified in support of the bill in front of the Ohio Assembly earlier this year. Kasich is the seventeenth governor to sign an anti-BDS bill into law.
The anti-Semitic Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel suffered yet another loss this week. Yesterday, LDB Senior Staff Attorney Jennie Gross testified in front of the Ohio Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee in support of Ohio’s anti-BDS bill, H.B. No. 476, “to prohibit a state agency from contracting with a company that is boycotting Israel or disinvesting from Israel.” Today, the committee passed the bill with a wide margin of 9-2. First introduced by Ohio Assembly Representative Kirk Schuring, H.B. No. 476 passed the Ohio Assembly on November 29, by an overwhelming margin of 89 to 13. LDB President and General Counsel Kenneth L. Marcus had testified in support of the bill in front of the Ohio Assembly earlier this year. Following today’s victory, the bill now moves to the full Senate for a floor vote, and then it will go back to the House for a concurrence. If passed, Ohio will become the 16th state to join the legislative battle against BDS.
On Friday, the UC Irvine Office of Student Conduct announced that it had concluded a three-month investigation into an aggressive and disruptive incident on the UCI campus last May. The incident involved an anti-Israel mob that disrupted a small event held by a Jewish student group on campus. The angry mob of about 50 students blocked the entrances and exits while loudly chanting angry, anti-Israel, anti-police, and pro-Palestinian sentiments that promoted violence, anti-Semitism, and hate. One Jewish student, Eliana Kopley, attempted to get away, but was chased and hounded by members of the angry mob, forcing her to hide in a kitchen while a UCI staff member protected her. According to yesterday’s announcement, the student group Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) is responsible for violation of the UCI Code of Conduct’s provision prohibiting “Obstruction or disruption of teaching, research, administration, disciplinary procedures, or other University activities.” As for sanctions, SJP was issued a written warning, effective immediately and continuing until March 29, 2017. SJP must also host an educational program by November 18, 2016. LDB President and General Counsel Kenneth L. Marcus expressed his concerns about the university’s announcement, stating, “I am disappointed in the outcome, which fails to hold SJP accountable for the harassment and physical intimidation of Eliana Kopley – or to even acknowledge that anything happened to her that night.” Indeed, the statement yesterday makes no reference to any student being chased, followed, or needing to hide from attendees of SJP’s “protest” gone wrong. Marcus further stated, “I do believe that it is a step forward for UC Irvine to finally acknowledge that SJP’s disruptive behavior violates university polices. We are pleased that the university has implicitly rejected the spurious claims by the National Lawyers’ Guild and Palestine Legal that such disruptive behavior is protected by the First Amendment, when it clearly is a violation of the freedom of speech. We are also glad that the Office of Student Affairs has – at a minimum – issued SJP a warning, and we hope that administrators will closely monitor SJP’s activities over the coming year and respond quickly to any further crimes, infractions or violations that they commit.” However, Marcus described the weak sanctions as “a slap on the wrist for SJP, and a slap in the face to the Jewish community.” Ms. Kopley agreed, stating, “I feel like their punishment is not enough to keep the pro-Israel and Jewish students on campus safe. It isn’t guaranteeing our safety. What happened that night does not warrant just a ‘warning’. There should be a real, visible action by the school to ensure safety to all students on our campus.” (more…)
By Jennie Gross, LDB Senior Staff Attorney Wednesday’s announcement from the Regents of the University of California is particularly timely for the Davis campus, where a disruptive protest temporarily halted a lecture by Israeli diplomat George Deek earlier this month. LDB’s legal staff sent a letter to UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi on Monday, asking her to make a strong statement condemning the acts that disrupted the visiting diplomat’s lecture. Mr. Deek’s lecture, “The Art of Middle East Diplomacy,” might have had a positive influence on campus relations between groups with opposing views on Palestine. The announcement of the event described Mr. Deek as an Arab-Christian Israeli who has been involved in the promotion of mutual understanding and co-existence between Jews and Arabs in Israel since he was a young man. Arab-Israeli Diplomat for Israel, George Deek He was only about five minutes into the lecture when anti-Israel protesters marched to the front of room with a large banner, obstructing the audience’s view of the speaker and drowning out his voice with loud chants of “free, free Palestine,” “Allah ahkbar,” and “long live the intifada,” followed by increasingly incendiary invective, including “Israel is anti-black,” “when Palestine is occupied, resistance is justified,” and “Palestine will be free, fight white supremacy.” Mr. Deek could not be heard (and could barely be seen) until the raucous protesters chose to leave. He later told a faculty member that he had never experienced a disruption like this while speaking. The lecture on diplomacy might have had a positive influence on campus relations between groups with opposing views on Palestine, but the protesters that shouted him down proudly assert their refusal to engage in civil discourse. In a statement on the website Liberation, the protesters claim that they “did not participate within the established framework of the event because [they believe] discourses about ‘dialogue’ and ‘democracy’ function to silence anti-Zionist voices.” LDB’s legal staff note that willful disturbance of an assembly violates California Penal Code § 403. We believe that the protestors here violated §403, as well as the UC Davis’s “Principles of Community,” reaffirmed less that one year ago. You can read the LDB legal staff’s letter to Chancellor Katehi below. (more…)