Ever since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, efforts have been made to encourage companies and organizations to boycott doing business with the Jewish State, to divest any holdings from their portfolios and to impose sanctions on companies that do business with Israel. 

For decades, the boycotts of Israel pushed by the 22-member League of Arab States have been denounced as odious. That’s certainly true of the latest reemergence of the anti-Semitic boycotts against Jews in America that are supported by anti-Jewish groups. 

In recent years, the movement for boycotts, divestment and sanctions — BDS, in shorthand — has gained traction among various groups, including the Jewish Voice for Peace. It has been urging boycotts of Israel because of what the BDS supporters say is the government’s oppression of the Palestinians.

Now, some principled members of the Missouri General Assembly have introduced legislation to bar businesses that engage in a boycott of Israel from receiving state contracts.  

If the legislation passes and is signed by Gov. Eric Greitens, Missouri would join about 21 other states in adopting such legislation (three others have enacted executive orders to similar effect). We warmly praise the bill’s sponsors in the Legislature, including Senate Majority Leader Mike Kehoe, R-Jefferson City, who has co-sponsored it with Sen. Jill Schupp, D-Creve Coeur.

Among the local supporters of the anti-BDS legislation is Jenny Wolkowitz, a past president of the Jewish Light Board of Trustees. In an interview with the Light this month, she praised Kehoe and Schupp for their support of SB 849 (http://bit.ly/mo-sb849), which has been described as the “anti-discrimination against Israel” bill. 

The bill takes aim at efforts to “discriminate against, inflict economic harm or  otherwise limit commercial relations specifically with the State of Israel or persons or entities doing business in the State of Israel.” A companion bill was filed last week in the Missouri House (HB 2179), with Speaker Todd Richardson, R-Poplar Bluff, as the lead sponsor.

Backers of the legislation note that no Missouri companies have taken part in the boycott, but Wolkowitz says the bill is needed to “get ahead of the curve and send a strong message to companies that seek to delegitimize and isolate Israel economically.” She said groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace are energetically supporting BDS locally.

In 2015, Missouri established a trade office in Israel and economic ties between the two regions have continued to grow. As reported by Eric Berger in the Jewish Light in November, five Israeli companies have come to St. Louis, attracted by beneficial relationships with the Cortex Technology District and Fortune 500 firms such as Monsanto and Express Scripts. 

Donn Rubin, CEO of BioSTL, helped lure the Israeli firm Atomation to set up shop here, and he hopes that by attracting more Israeli startups, St. Louis could become a Midwestern Silicon Valley, centrally located and much more affordable. Passage of SB 849 would send a strong message that Missouri is a good place for Israeli firms to do business. 

The broad-based coalition in favor of the anti-BDS legislation includes the American Jewish Committee, the Bergson Group, the Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Federation of St. Louis, the Friends of Israel, Christians United for Israel and several congregations, including Nusach Hari B’nai Zion, B’nai Amoona, the U. City Shul and United Hebrew. All have hosted meetings to inform the public about the importance of the anti-BDS effort.

If the anti-Israel BDS movement has its way, a hostile business climate marked by distrust could destroy a carefully developed robust spirit of cooperation. That result would be bad for business and even worse for an atmosphere of tolerance and respect that has been developed in recent years.

We commend the coalition of local organizations and indivudals for sponsoring this vitally important measure to combat the BDS attack on Israel, and Senators Kehoe and Schupp for sponsoring this urgently needed preventative legislation.

We hope that SB 849 and HB 2179 receive overwhelming  support and that a measure will promptly land on Greitens’ desk for his signature.