Fired School Employee Sues Over Israel Loyalty Oath
January 2, 2019
A Texas school employee has sued her school district because it fired her
after she refused to sign a loyalty oath to Israel, as Marjorie Cohn
reports.
By Marjorie Cohn
Truthout
In a return to the bad old days of McCarthyism, Bahia Amawi, a U.S. citizen
of Palestinian descent, lost her Texas elementary school job after refusing
to pledge in writing that she would not participate in the Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Earlier this month, Amawi sued the
school district that fired her.
The BDS movement against Israel has become a hot button issue in the closing
month of 2018. A bipartisan group of senators tried to attach the Israel
Anti-Boycott Act to the unanimous spending bill that Trump almost signed to
avoid the current government shutdown. Meanwhile, Donorbox, a US software
company, blocked the BDS fundraising account at the behest of a pro-Israel
group.
"The language of the affirmation Amawi was told she must sign reads like
Orwellian - or McCarthyite - self-parody, the classic political loyalty oath
that every American should instinctively shudder upon reading," Glenn
Greenwald wrote at The Intercept.
Amwai: Knows firsthand oppression. (DemocracyNow/YouTube)
On Dec. 12, the Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a lawsuit on
Amawi's behalf in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas
against Pflugerville Independent School District, alleging that Texas' law
requiring the oath violates the First Amendment. Amawi's complaint says the
law constitutes an impermissible attempt "to impose an ideological litmus
test or compel speech related to government contractors' political beliefs,
associations, and expressions."
Amawi had contracted with the school district for nine years to work with
students with autism and developmental disabilities in Austin. This fall,
for the first time, Amawi was required to sign an oath that she would not
boycott Israel. When she refused to sign it, she was fired.
"The point of boycotting any product that supports Israel is to put pressure
on the Israeli government to change its treatment, the inhumane treatment,
of the Palestinian people," Amawi explained. "Having grown up as a
Palestinian, I know firsthand the oppression and the struggle that
Palestinians face on a daily basis."
BDS
The BDS movement was launched by representatives of Palestinian civil
society in 2005, calling upon "international civil society organizations and
people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and
implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to
South Africa in the apartheid era . [including] embargoes and sanctions
against Israel."
This call specified that "these non-violent punitive measures" should last
until Israel fully complies with international law by (1) ending its
occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the barrier
wall; (2) recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian
citizens of Israel to full equality; and (3) respecting, protecting and
promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their land as
stipulated in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194.
Even though it is a nonviolent movement, Israel sees BDS as a threat to its
hegemony over the Palestinians. Israel illegally occupies Palestinian
territories, maintaining effective control over Gaza's land, airspace,
seaport, electricity, water, telecommunications and population registry.
Israel deprives Gazans of food, medicine, fuel and basic services, and
continues to build illegal Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West
Bank.
Vikomerson: No progress without pressure on Israel. (Twitter)
"There will not be progress toward a just peace without pressure on Israel
to respect Palestinian rights," said Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director
of Jewish Voice for Peace. "Bringing about that pressure, through a global
grassroots mobilization, is exactly what BDS is about."
After Amawi's firing, The New York Times editorial board wrote,
"It's not just Israel's adversaries who find the [BDS] movement appealing.
Many devoted supporters of Israel, including many American Jews, oppose the
occupation of the West Bank and refuse to buy products of the settlements in
occupied territories. Their right to protest in this way must be vigorously
defended."
Omar Barghouti, co-founder of BDS, said in an email to The New York Times,
"Having lost many battles for hearts and minds at the grass-roots level,
Israel has adopted since 2014 a new strategy to criminalize support for BDS
from the top" in order to "shield Israel from accountability."
Barghouti called Shurat HaDin, the group behind the Donorbox action blocking
the BDS account, a "repressive organization with clear connections to the
far-right Israeli government" that is "engaging in McCarthyite . tactics .
in a desperate attempt to undermine our ability to challenge Israel's regime
of apartheid and oppression."
Twenty-six U.S. states have anti-BDS laws and 13 others are pending. The
Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would have to be reintroduced when the new
Congress convenes in January, was supported by Senate Republican Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Dianne Feinstein (D-California)
opposed the bill.
Boycotts' 1st Amendment Protection
The law that triggered Amawi's firing prohibits the State of Texas from
entering into government contracts with companies, including sole
proprietorships, that boycott Israel. It defines "boycott Israel" to include
"refusing to deal with, terminating business activities with, or otherwise
taking any action that is intended to penalize, inflict harm on, or limit
commercial relations specifically with Israel, or with a person or entity
doing business in Israel or in an Israeli-controlled territory."
Boycotts are a constitutionally protected form of speech, assembly and
association. They have long been used to oppose injustice and urge political
change. The Supreme Court has held that "speech on public issues occupies
the highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values, and is entitled
to special protection." The high court ruled that advocating and supporting
boycotts "to bring about political, social, and economic change" - like
boycotts of Israel - are indisputably protected by the First Amendment.
The National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Legal and the Center for
Constitutional Rights wrote in a legal memorandum challenging anti-BDS
legislation in New York that such laws "harken back to the McCarthy era when
the state sought to deny the right to earn a livelihood to those who express
controversial political views." The memo says, "The courts long ago found
such McCarthy-era legislation to be at war with the First Amendment," as
they "unconstitutionally target core political speech activities and
infringe on the freedom to express political beliefs."
Barghouti: McCarthyite tactics. (YouTube/BBC)
Even staff members at the right-wing Anti-Defamation League (ADL) opposed
anti-BDS laws and admitted they are unconstitutional. Although the
leadership officially favors outlawing BDS, ADL staff wrote in an internal
2016 memo that anti-BDS laws divert "community resources to an ineffective,
unworkable, and unconstitutional endeavor."
Greenwald cited the grave danger anti-BDS laws pose to freedom of speech,
tweeting, "The proliferation of these laws - where US citizens are barred
from work or contracts unless they vow not to boycott Israel - is the single
greatest free speech threat in the US."
Demonstrating the incongruity of allowing Amawi to boycott any entity but
Israel, Greenwald noted, "In order to continue to work, Amawi would be
perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country,
participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the US, or
work against the policies of any other government in the world - except
Israel."
The US government remains Israel's lap dog on the world stage. On December 5
the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a resolution
calling for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories. The
United States opposed the resolution.
Meanwhile, the BDS movement continues to achieve victories. After more than
24,000 people complained to HSBC, the banking giant pulled out its
investments in Israeli arms company Elbit Systems. Elbit sells military
equipment, including drones, aircraft, artillery and weapon control systems
to the Israeli army, US Air Force and British Royal Air Force. It also
provides surveillance equipment to the US Customs and Border Protection
agency.
On the legal front, the ACLU has mounted successful court challenges to
anti-BDS laws in Kansas and Arizona and has filed litigation in Arkansas and
Texas.
Copyright Truthout. Reprinted with permission.
Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former
president of the National Lawyers Guild, deputy secretary general of the
International Association of Democratic Lawyers and an advisory board member
of Veterans for Peace. Her latest book, Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal,
Moral, and Geopolitical Issues, was recently published in an updated second
edition.