The House voted overwhelmingly Tuesday night to formally oppose the Palestinian-backed movement to boycott Israel, over the objections of Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.
The measure, H.Res.246 opposes "efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel and the Global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement [BDS] targeting Israel," according to the bill's text. BDS — a movement which began in 2005 — calls for groups to apply economic pressure to Israel to achieve Palestinian independence in the Middle East. The Senate passed a similar bill amid concerns that the legislation violates the First Amendment.
The bill passed the House Tuesday 398–17 with five members voting "present" to abstain from the vote. Sixteen Democrats opposed the bill, including Omar and Tlaib. Just one Republican voted against the measure, Rep. Thomas Massie.
The New York City government adopted anti-BDS legislation in 2016 after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order. While the House bill is just formal rebukes of the BDS movement, Cuomo's executive order goes further and requires New York state agencies to divest from groups that participate in the BDS movement.
Reps. Brad Schneider and Brad Scott are the initial sponsors of the resolution and as of one hour before the vote, 349 members had signed onto the legislation. Rep. Eliot Engel who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee appeared confident the measure would pass when he spoke to BuzzFeed News on Friday.
Two weeks ago, Tlaib, the first Palestinian American woman in Congress, took to Twitter to denounce the resolution saying it silences "the opposition to Israel's blatantly racist policies that demonize both Palestinians and Ethiopians."
