US: Illinois state lawmakers attempt long-shot repeal of BDS ban

Middle East Eye

19-05-2025

Progressive members of the Democratic supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly are pushing forward a bill to reverse the decade-old state ban on boycotts of Israel, Capital News Illinois reported on Sunday.
Since 2015, Illinois has forbidden the investment of state pension funds in companies that engage in any form of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
The official BDS Movement was launched 20 years ago as a means of non-violent action in the face of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, modelled on the approach that ended Apartheid in South Africa.
In the US, 38 states now have some measure of an anti-BDS law that prevents a company or an individual from receiving government contracts if they demonstrate an anti-Israel stance. Ten years ago, Illinois was at the forefront of the campaign.
The state set up the Illinois Investment Policy Board for the sole purpose of looking into whether certain companies act against Israeli interests, Capital News pointed out.
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The current list of 30 banned companies includes Air Canada, which apologised earlier this year after passengers reported that some of its in-flight maps did not label the state of Israel and instead opted for "Palestinian territories."
Uniliver, the parent company of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, is also on the list after it decided in 2021 not to sell its products in the territories Israel occupied after 1967 - namely the occupied West Bank in this case - because it is, according to the United Nations, 'an internationally recognised illegal occupation", the company maintained.
Now, Illinois Democrat and the first Palestinian American elected to the state legislature, Abdelnasser Rashid, has introduced House Bill 2723 to repeal the anti-boycott law.
'This is about the right for people to advocate for what they believe - in this particular case, for human rights advocacy - without the state telling you what you have to believe and how you have to act," Rashid said, according to Capital News.
'It is a matter of making sure that Illinois is on the right side of history - not participating in the oppression of the Palestinian people - but it is also about making sure the Illinoisans and companies that do business in Illinois are not being forced and bullied and retaliated against because they chose to stand for human rights.'
While one-fifth of the Democratic caucus, including the leaders of the Latino, Black, and Progressive caucuses, initially supported the bill, Capital News said, it has been stalled.
With a Democratic supermajority in place, progressives likely want to take advantage of the tide, especially with multiple polls showing support for Israel among the American public is dropping.
At the same time, there may be pressure from the top to shelve the bill, given the pro-Israel billionaire and Democratic Governor JB Pritzker is an expected presidential nominee for the 2028 election, and will not want perceived anti-Israel movement within his state to hold back his campaign, Capital News reported.
The news report cited J Street - a pro-Israel advocacy group - as not taking a position on boycott laws either way, as long as boycotts are "initiatives which are limited to opposing the occupation" along the 1967 lines, versus calls to abolish the entire state of Israel.
At the senate level in the Illinois legislature, some lawmakers have pulled their co-sponsorship of that chamber's anti-Israel boycott bill in recent weeks.
Dick Simpson, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told Capital News: 'Why should they vote on something that isn't going to pass and then cause some constituents to be mad at them?'