TAKE ACTION NOW! CONTACT YOUR STATE SENATOR AND TELL THEM TO VOTE “YES” ON SENATE BILL 1260 “STAND WITH ISRAEL” LEGISLATION
Senate Bill 1260 (SB 1260), introduced by both Senator Steven Santarsiero (D-Bucks) and Senator Kristin Phillips-Hill (R-York), will prohibit holdings in the Pennsylvania State Treasury or Commonwealth pension funds from boycotting or divesting from Israel and companies doing business with Israel. Additionally, to discourage our institutions of higher learning from boycotting or divesting from Israel, the bill will withhold state funding from any school that takes such dramatic and wholly unwarranted action.
Since Oct. 7, we have seen many campus protests that have devolved from free speech into antisemitic rhetoric and demands, including:
- Divest from all businesses operating in Israel (Google, Intel, Waze, etc.)
- End all trade and academic work with Israeli companies and universities
- Disband the Hillel and Chabad
- Remove school statements condemning anti-Semitism
- Require schools to adopt the statement “From the River to the Sea” in support of Palestine.
SB 1260 will prohibit any company from conducting Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel by removing them from the Pennsylvania Treasurer’s Investments and the Pennsylvania Pension funds. Additionally, Pennsylvania colleges and universities that enact BDS policies will lose their Pennsylvania government financial assistance.
This legislation will uphold Pennsylvania’s steadfast support for Israel, America’s most dependable ally in the Middle East. Pennsylvania must continue to promote trade and commercial activities with Israel, given Israel’s strategic importance to the United States as a long-standing ally and the only true democracy in a volatile region of the world.
This legislation will be voted out of committee on Tuesday, June 25, and fast-tracked for a full vote on Thursday, June 27. Anti-Israel groups are already mounting an e-mail campaign to all state senators “demanding” they vote NO on this issue.
Call your Pennsylvania State Senator today to support SB 1260. It is especially critical to reach out to the following senators:
- Senator Amanda Cappelletti (D-Montgomery) at 717.787.5544
- Senator Art Haywood (D-Montgomery, Philadelphia) at 717.787.1427
- Senator Katie Muth (D-Chester, Montgomery) at 717.787.1398
- Senator Nikil Saval (D-Philadelphia) at 717.787.5662
To find your senator, click here. For an article on this legislation, click here.