Updated at 7:02 pm EST on August 4, 2025
The Trump administration has said that states and cities will not receive funding to prepare for natural disasters if they choose to boycott Israeli companies, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a terms document from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published in April.
The document says that in order to receive funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which falls under the DHS, states must certify that they will not engage in a “discriminatory prohibited boycott.”
A discriminatory prohibited boycott is defined in the document as “refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business.”
The condition on FEMA funding takes aim at the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which calls for a global boycott to pressure Israel over its occupation of Palestinian territory and now its ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
After the news about the Israeli boycott condition for FEMA aid broke, it sparked a backlash online, including from many Trump supporters. In response, the DHS removed the language about Israel from its terms for the funding, but its statement made clear it could still enforce the condition on boycotts of Israel if it chooses to.
“There is NO FEMA requirement tied to Israel in any current NOFO. No states have lost funding, and no new conditions have been imposed,” DHS wrote on X. “FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests. DHS will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism. Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding.”
The BDS movement has been targeted by US laws at the state level for years, with at least 34 US states having a law on the books that prohibits boycotting Israel in some form.
The Israeli government has been involved in pushing US states to pass anti-BDS legislation. “In recent years, we have promoted laws in most US states, which determine that strong action is to be taken against whoever tries to boycott Israel,” the office of the Israeli prime minister wrote on X in 2020.
In 2021, the US-based ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop selling ice cream in illegal settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In response, Israeli officials called on US states with anti-BDS laws on the books to punish the company and Unilever, the British conglomerate that owns Ben & Jerry’s. Many states took action against Unilever until the British company sold its Ben & Jerry’s ice cream business in Israel and the West Bank to a local licensee.
