By Nitsana Darshan-Leitner
RAMAT GAN, Israel –Shurat HaDin is continuing its battle against the racist BDS movement. This past week, we filed an amicus curiae or “friend of the court” brief with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the State of Arkansas’ Anti-BDS law, exposing the insidious discriminatory origins and tactics of the BDS movement.
The brief was drafted with the help of attorney Steven Frank of Washington, DC and Shurat HaDin’s law student interns.
Read the full Amicus brief here:
The Arkansas law requires any contractor who does business with the state to certify that they will not boycott Israel. Despite having no intention of boycotting Israel, the Arkansas Times newspaper challenged the law, arguing that the First Amendment’s free speech provisions protect participation in a political boycott. The court dismissed the newspaper’s claim and it has appealed.
Our brief exposes the dark and violent underbelly of the BDS movement as the anti-Semitic campaign to isolate, demonize and destroy Jews that it is, and not the human rights movement it pretends to be, even as the movement has adopted Hamas’ battle cry: “Free Palestine from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.” Our arguments makes it clear that the United States Constitution places no value on discrimination and that the State of Arkansas has every right under the Constitution to not fund BDS’ unlawful discriminatory agenda.
BDS needs to learn that every attack against Jews and Israel will be met with a strong response. Shurat HaDin will not rest until it hands BDS yet another powerful defeat.
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Darshan-Leitner is President of Shurat HaDin