Though Israel reversed its decision to bar Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan from visiting her grandmother in the West Bank, its original decision does not align with the principles of democracy.

Freedom of expression is a fundamental tenet of democracy and in the United States is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution. In 2017 Israel passed a law that prohibits those who openly support the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from traveling to Israel (and thus to the occupied West Bank). As a state that labels itself a democracy, banning those who dissent is strikingly authoritarian.

As a supporter of BDS, I have been targeted by the governments of both Israel and the United States – two self-proclaimed democracies – for exercising my constitutional right to freedom of expression. I have been blacklisted by an online organization that labels me racist, anti-Semitic and a security threat for supporting Palestinian human rights and the BDS movement. I reject these labels and the attempt of this organization to label dissension against the Israeli government as anti-Semitic.

In the United States, anti-BDS laws have been passed in some state legislatures, but in Texas, Kansas and Arizona these laws have been ruled unconstitutional by federal judges.

Israel receives the most U.S. taxpayer dollars of any foreign state, over $3 billion every year. It is long past time that we pressure our elected officials to leverage this money in order to compel Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian lands, guarantee full equality to Palestinian citizens of Israel and allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.

Wyatt Barnes

Porter

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