The House of Representatives passed a bill aimed at blocking federal funds to colleges that boycott Israel, with the vast majority of Democrats voting against it.
All but 33 left-wing lawmakers voted to block the measure, which would “prohibit an institution that participates in a non-expressive commercial boycott of Israel” from getting government funding. It would also force universities that do get federal funds to affirm their students “are not unreasonably obstructed” from studying abroad in Israel.
The measure passed 237 to 169, with all but two Republicans voting in favor. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and his top deputies were among the 167 Democrats to vote “no” alongside Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Warren Davidson, R-Ohio.
It comes as antisemitism continues to be a growing threat in the U.S. amid Israel’s war in Gaza.
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Democrats have argued the bill is an infringement on the First Amendment, while Republicans hold it up as a way to ensure Jewish students feel safe at U.S. colleges and universities.
Republicans have seized on Democrats’ divisions on the issue, which has coincided with a far-left insurgency plunging the party into civil war ahead of the midterms.
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Far-left Democrats, like the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), have attacked members of their own party who they view as not sufficiently critical of Israel. It’s translated into some antisemitic incidents, such as a gay Jewish Democrat running for Congress in California getting run out of a pro-transgender rights march over his support for Israel’s sovereignty.
Scott Wiener told CNN that people in the crowd made references to his “Israeli handlers” while berating him, a well-worn antisemitic trope.
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Those divisions were present on Thursday morning as well, with Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., co-leading the legislation that his own senior Democratic leadership opposed.
Gottheimer said of the legislation in a statement, “The goal of the BDS movement is the destruction of the democratic State of Israel, America’s critical ally in the global fight against terror. BDS has no place on college campuses or anywhere in our country. At a time when our Jewish students are facing death threats, being physically assaulted, and blocked from going to class simply for who they are, we must do everything possible to ensure they can learn safely, speak freely, and get the education they deserve.”
But progressives, including Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who said he otherwise opposes the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, called it an attack on the Constitution.
“The First Amendment right to free speech does not apply only to agreeable speech. No matter how much I may disagree with BDS, and find it strategically stupid and morally repugnant, I will always fight to protect Americans’ right to speech with which I disagree,” Nadler said in a statement.
Meanwhile, House Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., said BDS policies at colleges created hostile environments by “marginalizing Jewish students.” She said it was the government’s duty to protect the equal rights of those students, who she argued were living in a hostile environment at schools with anti-Israel policies.
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“They are discriminating against people of the Jewish faith,” Foxx said. “Now is not the time for talk. It is the time for action.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., said during debate on the bill that it was Jewish students who were often leading BDS movements on college campuses.
“This is an attack on free speech and academic freedom, all in the name of defending a genocidal apartheid state,” Tlaib said. “A vote for this bill is a betrayal of those promising young students…because they want to save lives, no matter their faith or ethnicity.”
