In a recent article in The Intercept, Glen Greenwald covers the case of Bahai Amawi , a child speech therapist in Texas who’s employment contract was not renewed due to the fact that she refused to sign an oath promising not to engage in any boycott activities towards Israel.
Now, I don’t care what your opinions are when it comes to the Israel/Palestine issue or the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), but one thing every right thinking person should be able to agree on is that this story is outrageous and an excellent example of tyranny in action. Greenwald reports in his article, A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath, Now Mandatory in Many States — so She Lost Her Job:
A children’s speech pathologist who has worked for the last nine years with developmentally disabled, autistic, and speech-impaired elementary school students in Austin, Texas, has been told that she can no longer work with the public school district, after she refused to sign an oath vowing that she “does not” and “will not” engage in a boycott of Israel or “otherwise tak[e] any action that is intended to inflict economic harm” on that foreign nation. A lawsuit on her behalf was filed early Monday morning in a federal court in the Western District of Texas, alleging a violation of her First Amendment right of free speech.
He goes on to explain that Amawi :
…began working in 2009 on a contract basis with the Pflugerville Independent School District, which includes Austin, to provide assessments and support for school children from the county’s growing Arabic-speaking immigrant community. The children with whom she has worked span the ages of 3 to 11. Ever since her work for the school district began in 2009, her contract was renewed each year with no controversy or problem.
But this year, all of that changed. On August 13, the school district once again offered to extend her contract for another year by sending her essentially the same contract and set of certifications she has received and signed at the end of each year since 2009.
She was prepared to sign her contract renewal until she noticed one new, and extremely significant, addition: a certification she was required to sign pledging that she “does not currently boycott Israel,” that she “will not boycott Israel during the term of the contract,” and that she shall refrain from any action “that is intended to penalize, inflict economic harm on, or limit commercial relations with Israel, or with a person or entity doing business in Israeli or in an Israel-controlled territory.”
The article goes on:
This required certification about Israel was the only one in the contract sent to Amawi that pertained to political opinions and activism. There were no similar clauses relating to children (such as a vow not to advocate for pedophiles or child abusers), nor were there any required political oaths that pertained to the country of which she is a citizen and where she lives and works: the United States.
In order to obtain contracts in Texas, then, a citizen is free to denounce and work against the United States, to advocate for causes that directly harm American children, and even to support a boycott of particular U.S. states, such as was done in 2017 to North Carolina in protest of its anti-LGBT law. In order to continue to work, Amawi would be perfectly free to engage in any political activism against her own country, participate in an economic boycott of any state or city within the U.S., or work against the policies of any other government in the world — except Israel.
That’s one extraordinary aspect of this story: The sole political affirmation Texans like Amawi are required to sign in order to work with the school district’s children is one designed to protect not the United States or the children of Texas, but the economic interests of Israel. As Amawi put it to The Intercept: “It’s baffling that they can throw this down our throats and decide to protect another country’s economy versus protecting our constitutional rights.”
Greenwald points out that Amawi refused to sign the oath because:
…in conjunction with her family, she has made the household decision to refrain from purchasing goods from Israeli companies in support of the global boycott to end Israel’s decadeslong occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
Amawi put in a complaint to her supervisor but to no avail:
…the supervisor ultimately told Amawi that there were no alternatives: Either she would have to sign the oath, or the district would be legally barred from paying her under any type of contract.
There really is no justification for such a clause to be added to an employment contract. This perfectly highlights the political stranglehold Israel and Zionism has over the United States. Unfortunately, as Greenwald goes on to show in the article, this is far from an isolated case. The oath in Amawi’s contract was a result of a Texas State law (HB 89) enacted in 2017 by Republican Governor Greg Abbott which is designed to stamp out BDS activity. Upon signing the bill, Abbott exclaimed that “Any anti-Israel policy is an anti-Texas policy.“ Some victims of Hurricane Harvey were even told they wouldn’t qualify for disaster relief unless they agreed never to boycott Israel.
Greenwald explains in the article that such laws are becoming commonplace and now exist in 26 US states:
At the time that Texas enacted the law barring contractors from supporting a boycott of Israel, it was the 17th state in the country to do so. As of now, 26 states have enacted such laws — including blue states run by Democrats such as New York, California, and New Jersey — while similar bills are pending in another 13 states.
He goes on to cite other examples of such legislation. It’s staggering that the American people actually allow such tyrannical laws to be enacted. Americans really ought to start asking why Israel gets such special treatment and why their elected representatives – both Democrat and Republican – seem so hell-bent on trampling over their freedoms to protect that country. As Greenwald states in his piece:
Whether or not you agree with her political view about Israel and Palestine, every American with an even minimal belief in the value of free speech should be vocally denouncing the attack on Amawi’s free speech rights and other Americans who are being similarly oppressed by these Israel-protecting censorship laws in the U.S.
I couldn’t agree more. Time for America to wake up and break free from the Zionist death-grip.
See the full article using the link below:
https://theintercept.com/2018/12/17/israel-texas-anti-bds-law/
The piece also features a video interview with Amawi. Whether you agree with her position on Israel or not, this woman should have the right to boycott any country she wants. It’s a right that all Americans should have… especially in the supposed “land of freedom”:
The Infohub 