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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 26 2017, @06:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the chilling-effect dept.

ACLU* national legal director David Cole warns that this new piece of legislation is a serious problem to free speech. He says that just discussing the boycott of Israel could land you in prison for 20 years and fined $1 million.

The right to boycott has a long history in the United States, from the American Revolution to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Montgomery bus boycott to the campaign for divestment from businesses serving apartheid South Africa. Nowadays we celebrate those efforts. But precisely because boycotts are such a powerful form of expression, governments have long sought to interfere with them — from King George III to the police in Alabama, and now to the U.S. Congress.

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, legislation introduced in the Senate by Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) and in the House by Peter J. Roskam (R-Ill.), would make it a crime to support or even furnish information about a boycott directed at Israel or its businesses called by the United Nations, the European Union or any other "international governmental organization." Violations would be punishable by civil and criminal penalties of up to $1 million and 20 years in prison. The American Civil Liberties Union, where we both work, takes no position for or against campaigns to boycott Israel or any other foreign country. But since our organization's founding in 1920, the ACLU has defended the right to collective action. This bill threatens that right.

As a European myself I find it very strange that such a law can ever be officially proposed. And in the US of all countries where the freedom of speech in codified in the constitution.

What do you make of it?

*American Civil Liberties Union


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  • (Score: 1) by nnet on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:51AM (4 children)

    by nnet (5716) on Thursday July 27 2017, @12:51AM (#544943)

    Judaism is an ethnicity?

  • (Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday July 27 2017, @03:06AM (3 children)

    by deimtee (3272) on Thursday July 27 2017, @03:06AM (#544987) Journal

    It is an ethnicity, a religion, a race, a political system, or whatever is most convenient at the time.

    --
    If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
    • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:46AM (2 children)

      by jmorris (4844) on Thursday July 27 2017, @04:46AM (#545010)

      I put it a little different but yea, you are on the right track.

      Jews are quantum beings. Religion, ethnicity, nation? Yes. And No. And sometimes "It Depends". They can even be "white" or "not white" as best suits the Jew in question at the moment. They especially like being "white" when pontificating in MSM outlets and such about "what 'our' values are." You can even become a Jew if you marry one and a Jew can decide they aren't a Jew anymore.... until they decide differently. It is very confusing.

      One thing we do know, publishing a meme illustrating just how many work for CNN will enrage them to the point of threatening to dox some nobody on reddit. Do not collapse their wave function dude, it harshes their mellow something awful. So do not attempt to observe them closely. One must never NOTICE them. You may see a Jew, you can occasionally see some Jews, you must never SEE them.

      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @05:42AM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 27 2017, @05:42AM (#545020)

        Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

        He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

        He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

        Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.