Residents of a Texas Town Must Declare Support for Israel Before Receiving Harvey Relief Funds

Mic.com quotes USCPR Executive Director Yousef Munayyer on state-level efforts to quash support for the movement for Palestinian rights through anti-boycott, divestment, and sanction (BDS) laws. The city of Dickinson, TX, qualified receiving relief grants for Hurricane Harvey on certifying that the applicant will not boycott the state of Israel.

“If these funds are administered by a state agency, then these funds have to be dispersed in a way that follows the laws of the state of Texas,” said Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “And that includes this anti-BDS legislation, which says that they’re not going work with anybody who boycotts Israel…”

There are a lot of states that have either passed some of these bills or are considering them. Munayyer said. “And some of them actually have teeth attached to them and are, like the bills in Kansas and Texas and New York or elsewhere, where it says the state will actually deny services to people who are engaged in BDS efforts.”

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