The Indiana General Assembly has become the second-ever state legislature to pass a bill that formally opposes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, JNS.org reports.
Tennessee lawmakers approved a similar measure on April 21, the report noted.
Adopted in a voice vote, the Indiana Senate approved Resolution 74, which “expresses opposition to the anti-Jewish and anti-Israel” BDS movement.
The Senate’s move came after the Indiana House of Representatives unanimously, by a 93-0 vote, passed the anti-BDS House Resolution 59 on April 22. The measure now goes to Indiana Governor Mike Pence for his signature.
The Indiana bill contends that the global spread of anti-Jewish speech and violence “represents an attack, not only on Jews, but on the fundamental principles of the United States,” according to JNS.org.
The resolution goes on to thank the presidents of Indiana University and Purdue University for “strongly” condemning the boycott of Israeli academic institutions after some faculty members and other staffers at those schools voiced support for the BDS movement.
Indiana’s move came a week after the Senate Finance Committee adopted new amendments to the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) aimed at countering BDS.
The amendments would require U.S. trade negotiators to make rejection of BDS a principal trade objective in Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations with the European Union. They were authored by Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and approved by the Finance Committee with a 20-6 vote.
BDS has been an issue not just in Europe but also in the United States, particularly on campuses where student unions have passed motions supporting a boycott of Israel.
Another worrying trend has become the singling out of students for being Jewish. In February, the student board at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) interrogated a Jewish student running for the campus judicial committee, asking if her identity would influence her decision-making.
Two weeks ago, a student coalition at Stanford University in California allegedly asked a Jewish candidate in the student government election whether her Jewish identity would impact her vote on divesting from Israel.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)