I have previously written about the increasing state and federal efforts to impose bans on contractors and employees who refuse to sign agreements not to boycott Israeli products. The agreements raise serious free speech concerns under the First Amendment and contravene a host of constitutional rights from speech to religion to association. Now a speech pathologist in Texas is suing after she was barred from employment with the school district after nine years of work with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas. The lawsuit on her behalf was filed in the Western District of Texas is the latest federal challenge to these laws.
Bahia Amawi is a U.S. citizen who was told that she can no longer work with the Pflugerville Independent School District because she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. The school district will not only lose someone with an advanced degree and considerable experience but multiple languages. Amawi was born in Austria and fluently speaks three languages (English, German, and Arabic).
On August 13th, the school district offered to extend her contract for another year but the standard contract had one addition among the certifications: a pledge that she “does not currently boycott Israel,” that she “will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract,” and that she shall refrain from any action “that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israeli or in an Israel-controlled territory.”
The sweeping language would prevent even advocating for the boycott or any association that could be viewed as “intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel.”
For conservatives who correctly criticize the denial of free speech on campuses and other forums, these laws undermine such principles. Amawi and her family avoid buying Israeli products as do many Americans who oppose the policies of Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians. The point is not the merits of such boycotts but the right to make such decisions and still work as a public servant in Texas.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Texas is handling the lawsuit against the law, HB 89, which went into effect last year. The lawsuit is brought on behalf of four people including “John Pluecker, a freelance writer who lost two service contracts from the University of Houston; George Hale, a reporter for KETR who was forced to sign the certification against his conscience in order to keep his job; Obinna Dennar, a Ph.D. candidate at Rice University, who was forced to forfeit payment for judging at a debate tournament; and Zachary Abdelhadi, a student at Texas State University, who has had to forego opportunities to judge high school debate tournaments.”
Since 2017, the ACLU has successfully blocked anti-boycott state laws in Kansas and Arizona.
I am a steadfast supporter of Israel, but this loyalty oath business is heinous. If you don’t like the BDS movement, and I don’t, fight it with facts, not force.
Non-boycott clauses violate the first amendment to be sure. Perhaps such clauses also fail under the same “penumbral” reasoning in which one’s choice to boycott at all is covered under the right to privacy in the same way that the choice to use contraception was defended in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965). Neither employers nor the state may prohibit such activities without falling afoul ot a right to privacy emanating from the Bill of Rights.
Now I can once agree with the ACLU. Not that I dispisise Isreal(I don’t), but only that I feel very strongly about people having the freedom of their beliefs and not to have to worry about any reprisals.I don’t think a lot of people in this country are aware that such rulings exist.
We ought to discuss, and consider, the 9th Amendment and the right of privacy in regard to this topic. They are trying to tell us how to think and invade our souls. What would the German American Bund have said about this back in the 1930s?
Ḯ ѡѳﬡđϵᴦ ḯƒ ᴘłäḯﬡţḯƒƒƨ ḉäﬡ äᴦǥǔϵ äǥäḯﬡƨţ ţħḯƨ ƨţäţǔţϵ ѳﬡ ᴦϵłḯǥḯѳǔƨ łḯɃϵᴦţƴ ǥᴦѳǔﬡđƨ äƨ ħϵłđ ḯﬡ ₩ϵƨţ Ѷḯᴦǥḯﬡḯä Ƨţäţϵ βѳäᴦđ ѳƒ Σđǔḉäţḯѳﬡ ⱴ. βäᴦﬡϵţţϵ. Ᵽϵᴦħäᴘƨ ӎäƴɃϵ ä ḉѳӎӎϵᴦḉϵ ḉłäǔƨϵ äﬡǥłϵ ѡḯţħ ţħϵ ƨţäţϵ ᴦϵǥǔłäţḯﬡǥ ḯﬡţϵᴦﬡäţḯѳﬡäł ḉѳӎӎϵᴦḉϵ.
Good for the ACLU.
There is a documentary which will explain a lot of what is going on in cases such as this. It’s called “The Lobby”. Here is part of a review:
“Documentary: ‘The Lobby – USA’. America’s “Special Relationship with Israel” Imagine, for a moment, a foreign government spying on U.S. citizens, using the most sophisticated cyber-intelligence software available. This government particularly targets students and, through the use of fake Facebook accounts and other means, smears those that criticize its policies. Consider a government that, in addition to these activities, provides U.S. members of Congress with elaborate, all-expenses-paid trips to beautiful resorts, in addition to very generously funding their election and re-election campaigns. It then writes legislation favorable to it, that these members of Congress introduce and vote on…Pro-Israel lobbies work to counter the growing BDS movement on campus through lies, distortions and half-truths;
AIPAC (American Israel Political Affairs Committee) has a very close relationship with the editorial board of the influential Washington Post;
There is a structured method used by pro-Israel lobbies to get journalists to ask the questions the lobbyists want asked;
Intimidation of BDS activists includes threats of assassination;
Information on BDS activists and activities is collected and used against them, if possible.”
Documentary does not mean unfounded claims. It means documented claims and real evidence. None of this behavior should be acceptable to any person who supports our Constitution and justice. None of it.
“Evangelical Protestantism” (AKA Zionism) is the religious branch of the Military Industrial Complex.
The US and UN (then the World of Nations) invented the modern state of Israel by threat of force, solely to justify Western military occupation for real estate supplying oil, which is the lifeblood of industrialism. (Proof that “holocaustianity” was a false flag event is found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ2X8UWHOjY Note the Zionist warning that reading the NYT and The Sun newspapers may be “offensive.”)
Because Texas is the largest state in the South, the South is the heart of the Southern Baptist Conference, and the SBC is the heart of Zionist Christianity (AKA “evangelicalism”), I have long suggested moving “Israel” and “Israelis” (AKA Khazars) from the middle east to Texas.
Scroll down 50% and read #5 for the SBC’s (and allegedly God’s) political position on “Israel:” https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/patriotism-and-the-gospel-in-american-churches-8-suggestions
If there’s any real estate of even less importance to the US than Syria, it’s Israel. If you’re curious why not one human being on planet earth can clearly explain in one or two sentences how the USA’s security is dependent on Syria or Israel, it’s because there is no such dependency except for that made up out of thin air by war mongers/MIC representatives of both major parties.
An oxymoronic phrase that confirms the thoroughness of Western brain washing on this subject is “mid east peace process,” a “peace process” alleged to exist in the most strife ridden, war torn, cesspool of religious and racist bigotry and hatred on planet earth, the center of that turmoil being Israel and Israelis.
this is really not so. i have a lot to say about MIC or Deep State and you could make a lot better case the “Deep State” and “MIC” has been set up and maintained by Presbyterians than you could say that of Bible thumpers.
Presbyterians are rather on the side of criticizing Israel than praising it, in contrast to the evangelicals.
But I doubt they hold any sway today. Really the “religion” of the Deep State is the religion of all successful contemporary organizations formal and informal: the will to power.
“Baptists” (originally called “Anabaptists” because they are against paedobaptism) comprise the largest ratio (by good margin) of Western Protestants, and the largest ratio (again by good margin) of Baptists are SBC/Southern Baptist Convention members. When Western “believers” refer to “evangelicals,” the largest ratio of that group are SBC members.
Among Western so-called “Protestants,” Presbyterians comprise a much smaller ratio compared to SBC members.
I posted, from the source itself, the singular official religious theology required of every SBC member: Jesus returns later to install a “new Jerusalem,” one of the biggest crocks ever to be swallowed by stupid, naïve, gullible “believers.” The above described “theology” comprises Zionism and nothing else.
I can personally guarantee, based on experience, that any and every SBC Pastor affirmatively prohibits denying the above theology. To deny this theology is to be excommunicated from the SBC. Compared to SBC churches, Presbyterians would likely shun members who deny Zionism, but would be less likely to excommunicate them from their church.
Zionism started taking control of evangelicalism in the late 19th C when the then-Judaics who controlled The Oxford Press published the world’s first so-called study Bible allegedly written by the criminal scofflaw named Scofield. Scofield’s study Bible commands believers to interpret this vs. “…I shall bless those who bless thee, and I shall curse those who curse thee…” to mean that God commands Christians to give their blood and money (and taxpayer blood and money) to protect Israel above even their own country. IOW, evangelicals are so evil and so stupid that they would support Israel even if it meant committing national suicide.
Scofield’s interpretation is a transparent lie. God spoke the above words to Abraham when Abraham had no children. Later Abraham’s wife Sara gave birth to Isaac who later fathered Jacob, who’s name God later changed to Israel, which name Israel God called the OT land occupied by the Ioudaios (wrongly translated in modern times as “Jew”…note there’s no such thing as an “Israeli” in the Bible).
So by Scofield’s interpretation, when God spoke to Abraham using the personal pronoun “you” (“thee”), “you” does not mean Abraham personally, but rather refers to a nation 2000 years later installed by threat of Western force in the mid east, named after Abraham’s then-non-existent son’s son. And BTW, God kept his true meaning and purpose a secret from the subject Abraham. IOW, God, in his infinite guessing game wisdom, used a secret language with secret meanings unknown and unknowable to the subject to whom God originally spoke. A secret only to be unlocked by Scofield, a person with no literary or religious training whatsoever. As described above, the foundation of Western Zionist Evangelicalism is a transparent lie.
The Scofield Bible is still very popular. It has been edited many times since first publication, and the publishers keep secret the names of the editors. An unknowing person who picked up the Scofield Reference Bible and read the introductory pages might wrongly presume Scofield was the only editor.
Thanks i am familiar with what you say about scofield bible and “dispensationalism.” i agree that is a sort of pro zionist viewpoint. but the large number of baptists does not mean that they have been powerful in the american armed forces at the higher comission levels nor intelligence services. So i think it’s a weak hypothesis. I remember people saying how Dubya’s people were all Christian Zionists Fallwell types and I never believed that. I think they had a certain confluence of opinion on some matters with jewish pro israeli strategists but it was not, at the high level, anything religious whatsoever.
mostly that is just a sucker game to fleece the Baptists for donations to holy land tours and charities and so forth.
GW Bush declared himself a Methodist. His parents were Episcopalians (another Main Line Protestant denomination more notable for denouncing Israel than supporting it – a recent Presiding Bishop of the ECUSA is alleged to have lied outright about what she saw occur during an exchange between Israelis and West Bank residents).
I remember at the time that BBC News chose to allege that Zionism in the GW Bush administration was more direct than evangelical fervor – they kept pronouncing Deputy SECDEF Paul Wolfowitz’s last name “Volfovitz” in what seemed to me an mistaken implication his Jewish background made him a tool of the Israelis.
Even here in the United States neoconservatism has been unjustly criticized as Zionism, when it can be more properly said to be naive belief in projection of military power as a cure-all for the nation and world’s ills.
Its opposite heresy, as expounded by Barack Obama, that the United States is most effective by interjecting itself into other nations’ politics without thought to our national interest or the interests of the nations we meddle in, is equally naïve and has lead to at least as much bloodshed and needless death. Just ask any Yazidi.
By your logic, Jordan was created by an act of force? So, too, with most of the states of the Middle East, as they were born under the exact same authority (Mandates by the League of Nations). Or is your curious analysis reserved for Israel?
By the way, there was no force involved in the formation of Israel.. The Ottoman Empire ceded the rights to the Middle East to the League of Nations. The Mandate for Palestine was approved not only by all the countries of the world, but also by every Arab leader and proxy. Agents for Zionism paid through the nose to purchase the land for Israel from its owners, and every effort was made to compensate every one of them. This is documented in the Peel Commission archives.
“Evangelical Protestantism” (AKA Zionism) is the religious branch of the Military Industrial Complex.
You’re doing a fine job of competing with Bill McWilliams for the position of Head Lunatic on these boards. “Patriot” seems to have left the field.
The German American Bund is in favor of banning the law.
The school district will not only lose someone with an advanced degree and considerable experience but multiple languages. Amawi was born in Austria and fluently speaks three languages (English, German, and Arabic).
Born in Austria but, in important respects, still in the Near East.
So. The Constitution guarantees rights regardless of place of birth.
Amawi and her family avoid buying Israeli products as do many Americans who oppose the policies of Israel vis-a-vis the Palestinians.
No, almost no one does that but a few fanatics.
I think that there are a lot more than you imagine. Apparently as a renounced Jew – I, and my many friends, and the many people on my FB pages / news feed, are also “fanatics” then.
So, she’s a fanatic. If you want to say that, feel free to do so. Now she should also feel free to say what she thinks and act on her conscience. That is in the US Constitution.
Israel’s sum total significance to the US and it’s security is zero or less than.
Rabbis and Jews who hate Zionism and support Palestine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKplabTRuak
Regarding your first sentence, those in the security services, CIA, NSA, DIA, etc., will beg to differ.
“It’s difficult for a person to be convinced of something that costs him money, or his livelihood.”
The persons you address are those most responsible for wasted blood and $6T in wasted treasure in mid east military excursions since 9/11: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-15/us-has-spent-5900000000000-war-2001
Rather than follow the philosophies of members of alleged “security” services, Americans should rather prefer the foreign policy advice of G. Washington in his Farewell Address. There GW specifies that “all foreign entanglements are temporary,” IOW for as long as those “entanglements” benefit the US. When Obama and HRC described US relationship with Israel as “permanent,” they spat on GW’s foremost foreign policy.
US presence in the ME minimizes national security: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-20/continued-american-occupation-middle-east-does-not-suppress-terrorism-it-causes-it
There is no such place as Palestine.
They need to rewrite the standard contract. The woman provides speech pathology services under contract. She’s not a manufacturer or distributor in a position to participate in boycotts of Israel; she can avoid offering speech pathology services in Israel, but very few people maintain a long-distance cross-national practice, so refraining is something she’d do as a matter of course, along with almost every other speech pathologist in the United States.
Using public contracting to pursue social policy is generally unwarranted, but the State of Texas does have the discretion (if they see fit) to boycott boycotters. It’s just that they’re harassing this woman in regard to matters irrelevant to her situation.
No, the state of Texas must abide by the US Constitution. Neither you nor the State of Texas may violate our Constitution because you do not like the ideas or religion of another person.
Jill, you don’t have a constitutional right to a government contract.
After all, Israel can do no wrong …..
Which is, of course, not the inspiration for Texas policy.
Go ahead, deny something never asserted. Anti-semites need their self-justifying tropes.
Israel firsters (Zionists) need their self-justifying tropes.
James Sobran’s “anti-Semite” definition: “Not someone who hates Jews, but rather someone hated by certain Jews.”
What you can’t criticize (Israel) is your God.
Sobran professed to not understand what was meant by ‘anti-semitism’. He himself professed on the one hand that conflicts in the Near East were of no interest to the United States while at the same time returning to the subject over and over. In the terminal phases of his career, he was issuing public encomiums to Mark Weber, who ran a skeevy Holocaust-denial outfit. (The series of disputes which got him canned from the staff of National Review began with columns he’d written praising Instauration, a weird proto-alt-Right publication.
Not unless the US Military fails to honor it’s oath of office in the same way so many politicians have done. But since the majority voted with and joined in the counter revolution that took the largest chunk of real votes and provided their expertise I suspect they are ready for most everything. For those who agree differently look up military tribunals under martial law
Maybe we can trade the socialist left for some good hard working educated Mexicans.
Welcome to the need for independent Self Governing Constitutional Centrists instead of these fascist fringe dwellers of the national and international and progressive variety.
How did these anti constitutionalists ever get in charge of children’s eduation?
Signing an oath to limit one’s free speech and freedom to act according to one’s conscience demeans the entire idea of taking oaths. It makes oaths superfluous. If one needs a job, most people will sign the oath and continue to engage in free speech and continues to act according to their own conscious. The States will fall on their own petards as they will soon have no contractors, dishonest contractors, or completely uninformed incompetent contractors.
Also, any individual or company known to contract with the State is bound to lose other business because customers will view that contractor as supporting apartheid, ethnic cleansing, the Gaza concentration camps, and the Holocausts against Palestinians.
Now who could have seen this coming?
Alexander Tytler perhaps:
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.
I think in Arizona you still have to swear not to overthrow the state or federal government to get state employment, including the universities and local school districts. As I told them, if I was a Communist, I would sign it anyway. 😉
Welcome to the post-Constitutional era.
Welcome to the post-Constitutional Era future.