By the Staff of AFP
Powerful pro-Israel forces in Washington, D.C. took a rare loss in early May when two major pieces of legislation they backed were sidelined by freedom-loving legislators, who rightly argued that criminalizing free speech is un-American.
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The two bills—the “Antisemitism Awareness Act” and the “IGO Anti-Boycott Act”—both faced serious opposition from Republicans and Democrats in Congress, who said the bills went too far by advocating criminal charges for Americans who exercised their constitutional rights.
On April 30, during a heated Senate hearing on the bill, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) blasted Congress for pushing speech restrictions as part of the Antisemitism Awareness Act. In particular, he said the measure would quash criticism of Israel in the U.S. by equating it with hate speech. “We’re either a free society governed by the Constitution, or we’re not,” said Paul.
The problem with the Antisemitism Awareness Act is that, by adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) loose definition of anti-Semitism, Congress would be accepting controversial legalese conflating anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel and opinions on history.
For over a decade, the IHRA has sought to criminalize speech and thought critical of Israel and World War II history. This means that, among other things, Americans could be arrested for calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a Nazi or by publicly stating Israel is a racist, apartheid state. Several Republicans also objected to the fact that Christians could face fines or even jail time if they quoted the Bible that it was Jewish pharisees who had Jesus of Nazareth crucified.
In the hearing, Paul blasted the bill, saying free speech is one of the most important rights Americans have, and it’s unique to the United States.
Sen. Paul said:
In Europe, you can’t say anything. In Europe, if you call a boy who thinks he’s a girl a boy, you can go to jail for that. If you say something about the Holocaust in Europe, you can go to jail.
In a positive move, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) joined Paul to introduce a series of amendments that essentially defanged the bill. The amendments included one by Sanders stating that it is not anti-Semitic to use free speech rights to oppose the “devastation of Gaza.”
As for the “IGO Anti-Boycott Act,” the House recently postponed a vote on the measure once it became clear it would fail. The “IGO Anti-Boycott Act” was sponsored by Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.). It effectively criminalizes private boycotts of Israel. If someone is found guilty of participating in a boycott of Israel, punishments could include fines up to $1 million and 20 years in prison.
On May 5, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went on social media site “X” to voice her opposition. Greene wrote:
I will be voting No. It is my job to defend Americans’ rights to buy or boycott whomever they choose without the government harshly fining them or imprisoning them.
Former Rep. Matt Gaetz summed up conservative opposition to the bills, saying, “Somewhere Democrats are writing a bill to imprison the rest of us for 20 years if we boycott countries who sign the Paris Climate Accords or join the UN or bribe the [World Health Organization]. They may get power again, which is why we shouldn’t use ours to punish dissent or ‘thought crimes’ with prison.”
