US federal judge rejects Georgia's anti-BDS law after journalist's lawsuit

A federal judge has rejected a pro-Israel law in the state of Georgia, citing violations of the first amendment in US constitution.

District Court Judge Mark Cohen denounced the Georgia law, which bans the state from doing business with anyone promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Georgia officials have been attempting to dismiss a lawsuit from Abby Martin, a progressive journalist and documentary filmmaker, challenging the anti-Palestine law.

BDS call to embargo Israel

The BDS movement - namely boycott, divestment and sanction movement - is urging a military embargo on Israel, and a boycott of firms ‘complicit’ in its occupation. Will countries join this call and put into action their condemnations against Israel?

The judge, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, released a 29-page decision, asserting that the law, "prohibits inherently expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment, burdens Martin's right to free speech, and is not narrowly tailored to further a substantial state interest."

'Sympathy for Palestine growing in America'

The BDS movement was initiated in 2005 by over 170 Palestinian organizations that were pushing for “various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law.”

"Even assuming that Georgia's interest in furthering foreign policy goals regarding relations with Israel is a substantial state interest, Defendants fail to explain how Martin's advocacy of a boycott of Israel has any bearing on Georgia's ability to advance foreign policy goals with Israel," Cohen said.

Anti-Israel BDS says Israeli treatment of Palestinians amounts to apartheid

The anti-Israel BDS movement censured Tel Aviv’s "institutionalized regime of systematic oppression."

His comments do not necessarily mean that the law should be struck down as the lawsuit is still in its early stages.

Martin welcomed the decision, noting that “sympathy” is growing in America towards Palestine under Israeli occupation.

"My First Amendment rights were restricted on behalf of a foreign government, which flies in the face of the principles of freedom and democracy," she said.

An independent journalist, Martin was barred from speaking at Georgia Southern University in 2019 because she refused to sign a pledge against the BDS movement.

“Israel has pushed state legislatures to enact these laws only because they know that sympathy and support for the population they brutalize, occupy, ethnically cleanse and subject to apartheid, is finally growing in popular consciousness — they want to hold back the tide of justice by preemptively restricting the right of American citizens to peacefully take a stand against their crimes."

Thousands of volunteers worldwide have joined the BDS movement, which calls for people and groups across the world to cut economic, cultural, and academic ties to Tel Aviv, to help promote the Palestinian cause.

US state laws similar to the one in Georgia have been challenged in recent years with favorable court decisions in some, like Arizona, Kansas and Texas.

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