South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem signed a bill into law last week that conflates some criticisms of the modern state of Israel with anti-Semitism.
By signing the bill into law, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism must be taken into consideration in investigations of unfair or discriminatory practices within the state of South Dakota.
The IHRA’s definition was first adopted in 2016 and lists “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” as an example of anti-Semitism. Noem signed the bill into law as Israel’s brutal campaign in Gaza has killed over 31,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and after the International Court of Justice ruled it’s “plausible” that Israel is committing genocide.
The IHRA also defines anti-Semitism as applying “double standards” to Israel by “requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” It lists “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” by “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” as another example of anti-Semitism.
According to The Jerusalem Post, South Dakota has become the 12th US state to codify the IHRA’s definition of anti-Semitism into law. At least 23 other states have supported the definition through legislative action but have not officially made it into law. The US State Department has also adopted the definition, as the US is a member country of the IHRA.
Many US states have also passed laws to punish individuals or companies who boycott Israel. The legislation is designed to fight against the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that advocates for global boycotts against Israel.
Over 30 states have adopted anti-BDS laws, and several states used them to punish Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, over the ice cream maker’s decision to stop selling its product in illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Colorado, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Arizona, Florida, and Texas all took action against Unilever by moving to divest state pension funds from the British conglomerate.
When Ben & Jerry’s first announced it would stop selling ice cream in the occupied territory, Israel launched a “maximum pressure” campaign and urged states to take action against Ben & Jerry’s. Unilever eventually sold the ice cream company’s business interests in Israel to a local company that would keep selling the product in settlements.
That law is not needed.
That law is unconstitutional and this court of supreme’s are likely to deem it so, the first time it is used….!!!!!!!!
Don’t be too sure. There are zealots on SCOTUS. The Gang of Six gave us the Hobby Lobby decision, the Citizens United decision, Axed Roe which made the Handmaids Tale a reality, killing women seeking to terminate a pregnancy so they may live and have children in the future. Do not underestimate them. Just don’t.
Just that law? What about all the others? Just scratchin’ my head here…
I am not aware of all others laws. There many laws that I disagree with. This is just one one of them. On the hand there are laws that I agree with. As for your itchy head, try Head and Shoulders, it does a good job.
I wonder if they pushed through this law because they planned to genocide the Palestinians to make people afraid to complain about their wholesale slaughter of mostly women and children. The way things are going in Gaza, any person with a heart for his fellow man will be drawn to being anti-Zionist at least and viewing it as a badge of courage in spite of what those murdering the women and children think of them… Any FOOL can see who the bad people are in this genocide!!!!!!!!!! It is not then women & children being murdered.
Believe it or not, the proudest boast of Americans was once, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend with my life your right to say it.” That was back in the time when the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were taken seriously.
…remind me…when was this golden age? …
Point taken that there have always been enemies of freedom of speech and assembly in America, but they have never been as emboldened and unhinged as they are today.
She came out after signing it and made an awful speech saying she’s protecting “God’s Chosen People”.
You’d think as part Native American, she’d be more empathetic.
Probably her bottom part is running the show…
the christian right’s ‘bible-speak’ – and it gets worse – on the ‘trump running mate’ list…
Speaking of Mr Trump. The other day he said he would cut Social Security in order to reduce the national deficit. So, calling all retirees (including me), of all political stripes, he is coming after you or your kids or your grandkids Social Security.
Refuse to endorse-by-vote a political party actively supporting genocide by bombs, guns, starvation, exposure and disease…or protect my social benefits?…decisions decisions…
Does God also have a chosen baseball team that we should (must) root for?
Well as life long fan, I can say with conviction, it is not the Pittsburgh Pirates.
See…it’s stupid shitty laws like this that gives Israel free license to genocide with impunity. Brought to you by AIPAC.
The stupid shitty law butts head with a little thing called the First Amendment. And yes, it was brought to us by AIPAC, the descendant of the AZC that should have been forced to register as a foreign agent. Ditto for AIPAC.
The same first amendment that Republicans claimed they were so intent on defending as of October 6, 2023?
Democrats also claimed they were defending the First Amendment by defending AIPAC and Israel. Biden says challengers in the Democratic Party, Third Party and Independent Candidates stand in his way of being reelected.
– There were more than a few reasons Israel wasn’t happy with John F Kennedy.
Israel wasn’t happy with JFK trying to force the AZC to register as a foreign agency was one.
Kennedy wanted Jerusalem to be an international city administered by the UN.
He wanted Israel to return 300 plus nuclear triggering devices that they stole.
His administration’s war against organized crime. (The Jewish Mob)
—————–
Now – throw in the CIA, oil companies, and LBJ and you have a smorgasbord of potential killers.
They are fools, likely paid to do it and happy to take the money.
They don’t have to be paid to do it. They just have to be brainwashed from birth and know that crossing the Israel lobby is likely to result in the end of political careers.
Of course, more an a few are paid — in a remarkable number of clever, and sometimes not apparent, ways.
“They just have to be brainwashed form birth and know that crossing the Israel lobby is likely to result in the end of political careers.”
1/ or conversely, to paraphrase ryan grim on breaking points a few weeks back, the american political rule of thumb, ‘you can never be too ‘pro-israel’ in u.s. politics’
2/ a rule that, as talked about before, may be a prob for the dem party in future – so that – hopeful scenario – realizing it can no longer automatically win on ‘israelism,’ it is forced to wean itself off aipac
1/ Not conversely, rather a corollary. But yes.
2/ Yup. Fingers crossed.
DoubleSpeak and Doublethink in “free” USA….with that pesky 1st Amendment GUARANTEEING the INALIENABLE Right to Freedom of Speech. Very dissapointed in Gov Nohem. Why are we emulating ALL of the Middle East in viewing Freedom of Speech to be a Right to be ALLOWED and GIVEN to those following the Government and Elite Narrative and vernacular AND CONVERSELY DENY to those who refuse to submit to Big Brother their freedom???Disgusting display of Orwellian Doublethink and Doublespeak…BIPARTISANLY
“dissapointed in Gov Nohem”? “very dissapointed”?
‘disgusted’? sure. ‘to be deplored and resisted’? hope so. but “disappointed”?
“disappointed” is where people ‘expect better’ of someone – because ‘they really had it in them’ to be better.
but what’s to be ‘disappointed’ at here? historically, in capitalist democracies, the political right has always repressed political freedoms – speech and assembly…
…and noem is just one more standard issue gross right-wing viper in that nest.
“…and noem is just one more standard issue gross right-wing viper in that nest.”
Yes. She’s so far up Trumps poopshoot, you can barely see her toes.
I can’t stop laughing at the last sentence. Absolutely perfect!
Why? Because the USA has already descended into the shithole.
She’s getting a head start on her ass kissing of Israel that will be required as VP.
More like giving head. She was just caught in an extra marital affair with some Trump staffer.
I guess if it’s good enough for Kamala..
Or Boebert………………the woman with the greased hand…………………
Trump is an Israel Firster.
He was before Bibi burned him.
Now I’m not so sure.
The United States of Israel is hard at work…!
No mystery in how BB feels free to flip-off the ICJ and all the anti-genocide billions.
JFC! He constantly flips off Biden. The hand that feeds the genocide.
There is no need to compare Zionism to Nazism. Reciting Israel’s officially stated intent and it’s actions, much of it IDF soldiers proudly document on video, makes the comparison for itself.
“no need to compare Zionism to Nazism. Reciting Israel’s officially stated intent and it’s actions…makes the comparison for itself.”
Agreed “no” strict “need” – and consider anti-BDS legislation as having greater practical repressive political impact…
…though the ‘comparison with Nazism’ law is repressive – infringes on political speech re Irael’s ethnonationalism – and a bad US political sign.
“drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”
Ok, hows about drawing comparisons of contemporary Israel with an Old Western tradition of slaughtering natives.. Theres something she should know a lot about.
In a lot of ways it really fits better as an analogy.
I wrote her office asking that very question. They say I’ll get a written response. We’ll see.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/964bee225fadbb6be0492ec73c3ea3cc0b6825a89dfd2cf082d0b1368616fb63.jpg
BOYCOTT STURGIS!
Ignorant Aholes are gonna do what ignorant Aholes do.
Noem will sell you out for a Scheckel.
The Nazis tried to conceal the Holocaust but the Israeli’s proudly do it in the open.
But I thought Republicans didn’t like safe spaces. . .
Peace is antisemitic.
Truth is antisemitic.
What are the consequences of wrong think/speech?
Define democracy, Israel isn’t. That renders this bill invalid.
“Define democracy, Israel isn’t.”
Israelis should have been shocked for other reasons as well. There is no democracy when dozens of detainees die in custody. There is no democracy when the state holds people for 75 days without bringing them before a judge and withholds medical care from the sick and injured even when they are dying. Only the most benighted of regimes keep people restrained and blindfolded for months, and Israel is beginning to resemble them at an alarming rate. There is also no democracy that does any of this without transparency, including releasing information on the number, identity and the condition of the detainees in its custody.
Gideon Levy (gotta love this guy) agrees with you.
https://archive.is/NoRGW
Grandstanding bitch.
LMAO!
Blatant first amendment violation. Will not survive a court challenge.
“To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize” by Kevin Alfred Strom
In the US, as clarified through Amendment #1, we have the unalienable right to free speech. Thus, govt does not get to (1) define what words mean and (2) prevent you from using whatever words you want to use as long as you don’t immediately incite an illegal action.
So this is just meaningless crap designed to intimidate.
Kind of funny (but not in a haha way) that the folks screaming about how the first amendment was under assault for the last six years have started passing laws like this during the last 5 months. So much for consistency
Well, it’s not meaningless, because it will almost certainly be used to chill and suppress free speech. Getting to a point where the courts make a state stop nonsense like this is usually a long, difficult and expensive process.
But, as you say, it’s almost certainly a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
Edit: Not having read the text of the statute, I can’t tell whether it addresses or has implications for criminal law. That might determine whether cases like Brandenburg apply, but not whether or not the cited speech is constitutionally protected. It is.
How has this crap not been challenged already … say, by Unilever or some people other impacted entity?
It has been challenged. But it hasn’t been challenged in this specific context and our courts avoid making rulings any broader than necessary to resolve the cases actually before them.
The First Amendment is Freedom of Religion, Speech and the Press. Freedom of Speech and the Press are the parts of the First Amendment that have been dead for years.
BDS Protesters should take their protests to government buildings around the country.
Oh Yeah clearly unconstitutional… And there is no doubt in my mind that this court as currently composed would try to shut us up in this time of madness, murder and mayhem!!!!
Nazis & Zionist appear to me ideologically indistinguishable, different in name only. But I do not recall the Nazis emphasizing “Erasing the children” at all, and certainly not as vociferously as these contemporary Zionists have been trumpeting this hate of the children of Gaza & it would likely include Palestine in their rancor. Also let’s not forget this wellspring of vituperation by Zionists and their ilk, that there are no innocents in Gaza. Even suckling babies & the newborn seem to have been stripped of their innocence in the minds of those perpetrating this genocide….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who are the “Human Animals” of this murderous onslaught? Could it be the 66% of women & Children & or every living soul on the land they covet…???????
BTW: Is Noem’s signature to this abomination not self-inflicted canceling to her base? I mean, how much more stupid can you get?
Gov: go back to your faux 2A PR et al. simili. Clearly, you are not to be taken seriously.