Background:
In 2017 Minnesota was one of several states acting on legislation limiting our free speech rights to speak out against Israel’s policies and human rights abuses affecting Palestinians. Attempts to impose Federal legislation to restrict BDS activity had failed, and what followed was a very well-funded strategic campaign to achieve at the State level what could not at that time be achieved at the Federal level. Today 30 States have approved Anti-boycott legislation; and 24 states have approved legislation that impose boycott restrictions to be eligible for state contracts, including Minnesota.
Back in 2017 many diverse groups of individuals and organizations worked to stop the legislation from being enacted. Many people met with our legislators, wrote letters, held rallies, and spoke at legislative hearings to voice objections to this initiative, addressing both free speech and human rights concerns. The legislation still passed in Minnesota, but we raised the profile of the issues among Legislators and out in the community; we established partnerships in our community. The final language of the law was watered down from its initial wording, but make no mistake, it still restricts your freedom of speech!
Recently:
On February 12, 2021 the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a similar anti-BDS law in Arkansas was unconstitutional. This on top of other First Amendment wins in Texas, Kansas and Arizona is more reason than ever to repeal Minnesota’s unconstitutional law!
We have organized with many other groups again to repeal Minnesota’s law and we have had some stunning successes! HF 1246 and SF 1039 have been introduced in the House and Senate, respectively, to do just that. They each have a number of co-authors, led by Rep. Steve Sandell and Sen. Mary Kunesh. Although we have found great support among the legislators to whom we have spoken, there is much more that needs to be done to actually get the bills to committees to be heard and then to the floors to be voted on.
TAKE ACTION TODAY!
We have an opportunity to repeal the legislation in Minnesota, and to add power to a national initiative to combat all such laws around the country.
There is an aggressive campaign taking place now to equate BDS activity with antisemitism.
We expect that there will be a strong backlash against repeal of the Minnesota legislation, and it is important for us to work together in collaboration if this is to be successful.
People working on this project have been meeting with their legislators to bring attention to this.
We are asking those in our community to raise your voices in support of repealing the Minnesota Anti-BDS law. Contact your legislators to let them know that you support repeal and urge them to attend a (virtual) information session about these bills on March 5, 2021 at 8:30 am. (Details will be here shortly. Please check back.)
Please let us know about your activities by sending an email to mn@breakthebonds.org so we can keep track of which legislators have been contacted, and so we can more effectively organize our actions.
This is an important time for us to act on this initiative. We need to be in touch with our Legislators so they hear from us before a backlash has a chance to take hold and affect opinions against repeal.
Download this flyer to communicate with others about the repeal initiative.
Let’s act now and Repeal the Minnesota Anti-BDS Law!
Thanks to Ruben Slomianski for the text of this post.
