US group warns against attempts to punish boycotters of Israel

In an attempt to fight boycott of Israel in the United States, officials are introducing bills in their states to punish boycotters, according to rights groups.The Ad Hoc Group in Support of Academic Freedom and the First Amendment, a coalition of several rights groups, said in a recent statement that New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, a strong pro-Israel legislator, introduced a bill to the assembly that would punish universities that have endorsed boycott of Israeli academic institutions because they deal with illegal Israeli settlements.Silver earlier withdrew a virtually identical bill following strong opposition by groups who said the bill would have “trampled academic freedom and free speech.”Both bills came as a response to the recent resolution passed by the American Studies Association's (ASA) endorsing a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.The new bill states that public colleges are barred from using public funds to support advocacy of a boycott. A violation results in the loss of the amount that a college actually spends to support participation in activities of an organization that advocates a boycott.While opponents of the bill say that the extent of the punishment is beside the point, barring states, such as New York, from reimbursing organizational expenses on college and university campuses based on the content of the organization's speech is a clear violation of the First Amendment, said the ad hoc group.According to Maria LaHood, Senior Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, 'Withholding any amount of state funding because the state disapproves of what faculty members say is a direct assault on our constitutionally protected right to free speech. Legislation that punishes protected speech because of its viewpoint, regardless of how it's drafted, violates the Constitution.'In a recent statement after the new bill was proposed, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) asserted that, 'If enacted, such legislation will set a deplorable precedent for future legislation that might further reduce academic speech.' And they called on university leaders to 'publicly and forcefully oppose such legislation.'In addition to strong opposition coming from New York, a wide range of groups is also organizing in cities across the country in which similar legislation is cropping up.