Summary
An Israel-based organisation that, in its own words as quoted in The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under Attack in the US, “fight[s] academic and economic boycotts and challeng[es] those who seek to delegitimize the Jewish State”, acknowledges working with Israeli intelligence agencies and law enforcement, and has threatened or initiated legal action against organisations that have contemplated or passed BDS initiatives, including the Presbyterian Church (USA), the American Studies Association and the Park Slope Food Coop (PDF p.15).
Details
- In December 2014 Shurat HaDin filed an IRS complaint against the Presbyterian Church (USA) after its divestment vote, and in early 2014 it threatened to sue the ASA unless it stopped its “unlawful boycott efforts”, arguing BDS by definition discriminates on the basis of Jewish and Israeli ethnic origin (PDF p.34).
- In June 2015 it warned the Park Slope Food Coop that “implementing BDS policies could result in severe criminal and civil liability for the PSFC and its officers” (PDF p.36).
- In 2011 it sued in New York to seize fourteen flotilla boats, voluntarily dismissed, refiled in Washington, DC, where the court dismissed the case two years later; sued a US satellite communications provider over services to the flotilla; and sued President Jimmy Carter for $5 million over Palestine: Peace, Not Apartheid (PDF p.36).
Related pages
The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement Under Attack in the US, BDS movement, American Studies Association