URGENT: CA’s Anti-BDS Bill is Being Voted on Tomorrow!

Help Keep the CA Anti-BDS Bill from Being Voted On in the Senate!

Tomorrow, August 11th, California’s Senate Appropriations Committee could vote to send AB 2844, California’s anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) bill, to a vote in the full Senate.

Thanks to the tireless and effective work of the Stop AB 2844 Coalition in California, an ad hoc coalition including many member groups of the US Campaign, and efforts from people like you, we have succeeded in significantly watering down this anti-BDS bill!

But, AB 2844 is still an incredibly problematic bill. As it now stands, the bill would require both for-profit companies, and educational, religious, labor and community non-profits that bid for state contracts or grants to certify under penalty of felony perjury that they do not have policies against a sovereign nation “including but not limited to, the nation and people of Israel.”

This bill is still not only in violation of our Supreme Court-protected right to boycott, but it would also incur a massive expense for the state of California! We must take action to stop it TODAY.

Take action to stop AB 2844 as it heads for a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 11th!

1. Write Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Ricardo Lara to keep this bill in the “Suspense” file, a holding area for large ticket items, where it was referred on August 1. You can also call Sen. Lara at 916-651-4033. He can decide to keep it the suspense file and let it die a quiet death!

2. Tell your own state senator to vote “No” vote on 2844. AB 2844 will go to the full Senate floor quickly if it passes out of the Appropriations Committee.

AB 2844, if passed, would empower private organizations and individuals to file complaints with the Attorney General’s Office to investigate “suspect” companies, at great cost to the state.

There is no doubt that the same pro-Israel organizations that have for years deluged universities, legislatures and government agencies with unfounded complaints about advocating for Palestinians rights, would do the same under the provisions of AB 2844.

Only now, the harassment would carry a threat of criminal investigations, wasting untold millions in public funds.

We can and will defeat this costly and unconstitutional bill today!