Zionist lobby defeats in advancing anti-BDS law in US
Palestinian American filed the lawsuit after city of Houston required his company to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel.
A United States federal court has blocked the state of Texas from enforcing its anti-boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) law against a Palestinian-American contractor who refused to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel.
Rasmy Hassouna, an engineer and executive vice president of the Palestinian-owned A&R Engineering and Testing Inc, filed the lawsuit in November challenging a Texas law that bars the state from doing business with companies participating in the BDS movement against Israel.
On Friday, US District Judge Andrew S Hanen granted an injunction that blocks Texas from enforcing the anti-boycott law against Hassouna.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), who Hassouna worked with to file the suit, hailed the court ruling as “a major victory of the First Amendment against Texas’s repeated attempts to suppress speech in support of Palestine”.
“These regressive attempts to create a Palestine-exception to the First Amendment betray the central role boycotts have played in our history,” said Gadeir Abbas, Cair's senior litigation lawyer.
The rulling also considers a major deafet for the Zionist lobby in the United States that is constantly waving anti-Palestinian campaigns to suffocate the voice of pro-Palestinians.