Editorial: Anti-BDS laws protect Ohio investments in Israel Bonds
By banning state agencies from contracting with companies engaged in the BDS movement, Ohio legislators have sacrificed our civil liberties for blood money.
By: GD Murphy
Following the 2016 passing of Ohio House Bill 476, which prohibited state agency’s from contracting with companies participating in the global movement to boycott and divest from Israel, the at-the-time Speaker of the Ohio House, Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarkesville), stated that Israel is an “important economic partner with Ohio.”
“This legislation signifies and strengthens [Israel and Ohio’s] partnership by standing in solidarity with Israel,” Rosenberger said. “Which in turn strengthens our economy here at home.”
To find what Rosenberger meant when he said that “standing in solidarity with Israel” strengthens Ohio’s economy, one must look across the street from the Ohio Statehouse to the State Treasury building, where $187.5 million of Israel bonds is currently held. Another $16 million in Israel bonds were held by the Cuyahoga County treasury as of 2018.
Israel bonds are effectively a loan to Israel. Israel invests the money into its modern, innovative and murderous economy. Israel then later returns the loan with interest to the bondholder, in this case the Ohio and Cuyahoga County Treasuries.
Like all bonds, the capital loaned is subject to risk. Israel's continued economic growth is tied to its bloody expansion into Palestinian lands. Should, for instance, a global boycott of Israel occur during a time of strife, the economic damage could prevent repayment. Simply put, a free Palestine would be bad for bondholders.
About a week following the bills passing in Ohio’s house and senate in 2016, and a few months after he told a crowd of thousands at a conference put on by pro-Isreal lobbying juggernaut AIPAC that Palestinians “promote a culture of hatred and death,” the at-the-time Ohio Governor John Kasich signed the bill into law.
Kasich’s 2016 presidential campaign was backed financially by major figures in the pro-Israel lobby, including the Wexner family, who he thanked by name at the conference.
Not only did HB 476 deal a blow to the boycott, divest and sanction (BDS) movement, but it also doubled the amount that state and county treasuries could invest in foreign bonds, namely Israel’s.
“Ohio went a step further than [any other state],” said Howie Beigelman, executive director of the pro-Israel advocacy group Ohio Jewish Communities, referring to the openings in investment provided by the law.
The passing of HB 476 allowed former Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, now a figure of the alt-right, to make the record purchase of Israel bonds - $61 million in 2017 - surpassing his previous record of $50 million the previous year. In his own words, “... we are making this investment in an effort to combat the bigotry of the BDS movement... [and] to stand with the only country in the Middle East that shares American values.” As the world bears witness to the genocide in Gaza, one can only wonder what values Mandel was projecting.
HB 476 can be understood as the second phase of an effort to expand Ohio’s investment into Israel. The first phase occurred in 2004, when then-Ohio Governor Bob Taft signed HB 168 into law, repealing some of the reform laws passed in the wake of the 1994 Cuyahoga County SAFE investment collapse costing the county $115 million. HB 168, supported by Ohio's pro-Israel lobby, allowed county treasurers to invest up to 1% in foreign instruments, including Israel bonds.
While the bill did not mention Israel by name, then-House Majority Whip James Trakas (R-Independence) boasted, “I was able to convince the House that these are very safe investments and public-spirited, as Israel faces terror on all fronts.” Without subtly, David Schafer, then executive director of State of Israel Bonds in Cleveland, said “potentially, this represents a $15 million investment in Israel” from Ohio counties.
With Cuyahoga and Franklin county currently investing $16 and $25 million, reality has surpassed Schafer’s expectation. Ohio Jewish Community lobbyist Garver Keller added bills like HB 168 “the best answer to pro-Palestinian conferences.”
In 2022, Ohio expanded the anti-BDS law to include state institutions of higher education. The expansion followed The Ohio State University Student Senate’s April 6th resolution to divest interest in companies Caterpillar and Hewlett Packard due to their profiting off of Israeli settlements. The resolution, which was the first of its kind to pass through OSU, was rejected by Student Body President after pressure from Pro-Israel organizations.
The Ohio State University, one of the largest universities in the U.S., has become home to a budding Palestine Liberation Movement that threatens the Ohio’s cooperation in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The expansion of the anti-BDS law has now effectively outlawed any divestment by The Ohio State University, and other state institutions.
Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 military offense, Ohio took part in a nationwide Israel bond spending spree, which saw $1 billion in bonds purchased in a month. Four days after the offensive, the Ohio Treasury announced plans to purchase an additional $20 million in Israeli bonds. This brought the total amount of Israel bonds held by the Ohio Treasury to $187.5 million. Notably in the same period, in the private sector, Cleveland-based Keybank, the former employer of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb, doubled its holding of Israel bonds to $30 million.
The 14 states which spent the most on Israel bonds following Oct. 7, which includes Ohio, all have anti-BDS laws in place.
The surge of Israel bond sales during a conflict is not unprecedented; during previous conflicts - including the Gaza War in 2014 and the Six Day War in 1967 - sales rose rapidly.
The decision by states across the country to repress BDS runs counter to the decades old understanding that politically motivated boycotts are to be protected by the first amendment. Ohio’s repression of the Palestinian-led BDS movement is simply self-serving; should BDS pressure Israel into serious concessions (similar to the effort that undermined Apartheid South Africa) the Israel bonds held by Ohio and Cuyahoga could default. Not only has the State of Ohio supported Israel in their colonial project, they have sold out our civil liberties at home for financial gain.
Anti-BDS laws in Ohio and elsewhere followed the failed Israel Anti-Boycott Act (IABA). The IABA proposed a federal Anti-BDS statute in direct response to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passing a March 2016 Resolution which called on Israel to end its expansion of settlements and its two-tiered legal system, also known as apartheid.
The Resolution contained a specific request to create a database of business enterprises that have, directly and indirectly, enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of Israeli settlements. The database was published in 2020, and was updated in June 2023. The database has been understood by critics and supporters to assist the Palestinian struggle for liberation through the strategy of BDS.
The IABA was co-authored by Ohio’s own former Republican Senator Rob Portman (who received $224,281 from Pro-Israel donors in 2016) with the help of the AIPAC and the support of Christians United for Israel.
Summarized by Congressional Research Services, the IABA calls on congress to oppose the UNHRC’s March 2016 resolution, which they say “urges countries to pressure companies to divest from, or break contracts with, Israel.” Additionally, the bill “prohibits any U.S. person engaged in interstate or foreign commerce from supporting: … any boycott fostered or imposed by any international governmental organization against Israel or any request by any international governmental organization to impose such a boycott.”
The proposed punishment for violating the IABA: a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison.
The Israel bond program has allowed for Israel to attach its survival to the finances of states and municipalities throughout the country. States like Ohio are now financially incentivized to defend Israel's genocidal actions.
As Israel continues to violate the human rights of Palestinians, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, Ohioans need to consider the human cost of this economic partnership. Ohio politicians have shown their loyalty to the Zionist cause, at the detriment of civil liberties here at home. As citizens of Cuyahoga County, we call for our county and state representatives to divest from Israel, its colonial settlements, and its international supporters until its apartheid system is dismantled.
We demand our county representatives stand for civil liberties and human rights, to divest from Israel and to challenge the unconstitutional laws their Ohio allies have imposed. There is time to right the course and to stand in support of human rights abroad and at home.