Gov. Cuomo: NY must divest funds linked to Israel boycotts

[moonscape]

Source: Seattle Times (via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday issued the first executive order in the country that forces state entities to drop investments linked to boycotts of Israel.

A leading constitutional rights attorney calls the action “21st century McCarthyism.”

The Democratic governor expects state agencies to divest all public funds from any company or individual with ties to the movement known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. BDS was founded in 2005 to protest Israel’s actions toward Palestinians by boycotting Israeli products and companies.

Cuomo says New York will boycott anyone who is boycotting Israel.

Read more: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/gov-cuomo-ny-must-divest-funds-linked-to-israel-boycotts/

[Actorvist]

1. Cuomo's getting back on track

for a while, it looked like he was kinda losing the mojo that got him elected. I'm glad to see him take the stance that Hillary is taking, and that most Americans take. BDS is anti-Semitism.

[rateyes]

2. BDS is not anti-semitism. It is anti-apartheid.

It is anti-Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.

[Attorney in Texas]

11. Exactly!

[leftynyc]

15. Bullshit

Read and learn about bds:

http://www.ngo-monitor.org/key-issues/bds/bds-and-antisemitism/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/29/opinion/the-bds-movement-and-anti-semitism-on-campus.html?_r=0

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-rosen/what-the-united-methodist_b_10220988.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/benjamin-gerstein/bds-is-not-propalestine_b_9606950.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-milstein/boycott-divestment-and-sa_b_9527960.html

http://honestreporting.com/ben-white-unwittingly-answers-whether-bds-is-antisemitic/


Good for Governor Cuomo. He represents his NYers very well.

[rateyes]

16. I have read and know what BDS is. And, I support the

movement, just as I supported the boycott against apartheid in South Africa. Being against Israel's policy of apartheid does not equate to anti-semitism no matter how forcefully YOU cry "bullshit."

[leftynyc]

18. Then get some

leaders for the movement that don't make you all look like bigots. That's the only advice I can give a group I have nothing but disdain for.

[rateyes]

19. One word for you:

Netanyahu. I have nothing but disdain for him.

Apartheid is the highest form of bigotry. Israel perpetuates it.

[leftynyc]

20. As do I

which has nothing to do with what I think of bds or the FACT their idiot, bigoted leaders have blown it. Keep whining about apartheid when there are Palestinians in the Israeli government and you'll continue to look like morons to people with brains. You've asked the American people to make a choice and year after year they continue to make that choice and they choose Israel over abbas and hamas.

[cstanleytech]

3. Welcome to the DU may your time however brief be memorial. NT

[GoneOffShore]

5. And which Americans do YOU talk to?

Here in Philly there are lots of people who are in favor of BDS and a lot of them are Jewish.

Don't be an ass and enjoy your possibly short time here.

[Actorvist]

6. which Americans do I talk to?

these ones.

Your anecdote < polling data.

[cstanleytech]

7. You do realize that is just about peoples sympathies it does nothing to support

your claim that these boycotts are based on the religion of the Israeli people.

[truebrit71]

8. No it isn't

[Cheese Sandwich]

9. I see Frank Luntz's anti-BDS talking points have arrived on DU

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/rania-khalek/copy-bds-tactics-pro-israel-activists-told-un-conference

[Chan790]

4. Check. One more reason to think Andy Cuomo's an imbecile.

I don't know how Mario manages to hide his disappointment in that half-wit son of his. I'd die of shame if I had a son and they turned out like Andrew Cuomo.

[Norman Conch Quest]

10. A Different Take

From Salon...

Andrew Cuomo pushed through discriminatory policy to punish groups that boycott Israel for Palestinian human rights

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a pro-Israel executive order on Sunday that will punish people and groups who support a boycott of Israel on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

Legal experts have described this long pending anti-boycott policy as “21st-century McCarthyism,” warning it would effectively create a discriminatory “blacklist” of Palestinian human rights advocates who endorse boycotts like those organized in order to combat U.S.-backed apartheid in South Africa.

Prominent legal organizations including the Center for Constitutional Rights, National Lawyers Guild, the New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal say these politically motivated anti-boycott policies constitute an unconstitutional attack on the freedom of speech.

The New York legislature has unsuccessfully tried to push through anti-boycott legislation for months, amid intense pressure by pro-Israel lobby groups. Now it appears that Gov. Cuomo has decided to instead circumvent the legal process and implement the policy on his own.

http://www.salon.com/2016/06/05/ny_gov_cuomo_signing_unconstitutional_mccarthyite_pro_israel_exec_order_punishing_bds_boycott_movement/

[Attorney in Texas]

12. Cuomo sucks.

[Bad Dog]

13. BDS is working.

People's natural instinct is to side with the oppressed, not the oppressor.

Agrexco, Israel’s former largest exporter of agricultural produce, entered liquidation towards the end of 2011, following a campaign of blockades, demonstrations, lobbying of supermarkets and governments, popular boycotts and legal action in more than 13 countries across Europe. The campaign against the company was a major factor behind the lack of investors’ interest to salvage it.

– The largest Co-operative in Europe, the Co-Operative Group in the UK, introduced a policy to end trade with companies that source products from Israel’s illegal settlements, following a determined campaign by Co-Op members. Campaigners are working to pressure other supermarkets to adopt a similarly comprehensive position. Many supermarkets across Europe already claim not to sell produce from illegal settlements.

– A sustained campaign against Ahava, the Israeli cosmetics company situated in an illegal Israeli colony, forced the company to close its flagship London store and retailers in the UK, Norway,Japan and Canada to announce boycotts of the company.

Inspired by the integral role that Israeli academic institutions play in developing the knowledge and technology behind Israeli occupation, colonization and apartheid, and planning and justifying Israel’s worst crimes, academic boycott campaigns have spread to campuses across the world:

– Setting a worldwide precedent for the academic boycott of Israel, the University of Johannesburg severed ties with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University in 2011, following a campaign backed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and over 400 South African academics.

– Campaigns against EU-funded collaboration with private Israeli companies and Israeli universities have sprung up at campuses across Europe in response to a call from Palestinian academics and civil society.

https://bdsmovement.net/victories

[sinkingfeeling]

14. +100

[Bad Dog]

17. Thanks.

The latest victory was G4 Securitas.

Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan admitted at Sunday’s Jerusalem Post Conference in New York that G4S, the world’s largest security company, stopped doing business in Israel because it caved in to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
In March, the company revoked its contract with Israel following a campaign asking the United Nations to drop its contracts with the firm. The company has claimed that the decision was among many it had taken around the world, but Erdan disputed that claim.

http://www.jpost.com/Annual-Conference/Erdan-tells-JPost-Conference-Palestinians-not-Liberman-blocking-peace-454659

And the City of London will be more than happy to pick up the work boycotted by Wall Street.

[Babel_17]

21. This won't end well for Cuomo

The Governor who is going to be held accountable for the massive corruption in Albany seeking no accountability for the widely condemned illegal acts of taking Palestinian land.

Maybe this is part of his exit strategy, guaranteeing employment down the road as a lobbyist.