Civil Rights Groups to Arizona: Supporting Palestinian Freedom Is Not a Hate Crime
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Student protesters at Arizona State University in November 2019. (Credit: Students for Socialism at Arizona State University)
Palestine Legal joined a wide coalition of activists, community and human rights groups, and prominent individuals in opposing a new attempt to stifle and criminalize Palestine advocacy in Arizona.
Arizona lawmakers introduced mirror bills in January (HB2683/SB1143) that would require the use of the distorted IHRA definition of antisemitism in hate crimes reporting and sentencing. The legislation could also require courts to consider criticism of Israel as an aggravating factor in sentencing. In a criminal trial, advocates for Palestinian rights could face more severe sentences because of their political speech.
“We urge the Arizona legislature to vote against this legislation as it will unconstitutionally infringe on core free speech rights,” the letter states.
The bill amends Arizona law to include antisemitism—alongside race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender and disability—as one of the categories for which the state must collect bias crime statistics.
The measure adopts the controversial IHRA definition of antisemitism and its contemporary examples, which include “[a]pplying double standards [to Israel] by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation” and “[d]enying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”
In a memo opposing the bill, the ACLU of Arizona argued that this definition is “overbroad, vague and will chill First Amendment expression.”
The memo states: “HB 2683 and SB 1143 deems criticism of Israel, and Israel alone, as evidence of a potential hate crime. Only persons who make[] statements critical of Israel, and no other nation, are in danger of potential prosecution.”
It is clear who the targets of this bill are.
In November, a coalition of Black, Latinx, Palestinian and progressive students at Arizona State University protested both an event featuring Israeli soldiers and a planned talk by ICE agents on campus, noting their opposition to colonialism and state violence in each context.
The authors of the Arizona legislation have cited this principled protest against state violence as a justification for criminalizing criticism of Israel.
Arizona has a history of criminalizing protest.
As the ACLU of Arizona notes in their memo, Arizona has already taken harsh measures against protesters engaging in protected free speech, including criminal charges for University of Arizona students protesting border patrol, felony riot charges for people demonstrating outside of a local prison, and misdemeanor and felony charges for individuals at an immigration rally in Phoenix.
Arizona also has another law on the books targeting Palestine advocacy.
In 2016, Arizona passed HB 2617, prohibiting state investment in or contracts with companies, organizations, and entities that boycott Israel.
A federal judge blocked enforcement of HB 2617 in September 2018, citing First Amendment concerns. To get around this ruling, Arizona amended the law so that it no longer applied to the plaintiff who challenged the law but left intact the law’s unconstitutional requirements.
Arizona’s HB 2683/SB 1143 is part of a broader effort by pro-Israel actors and their rightwing partners to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism in legislation aimed at demonizing advocacy for Palestinian rights. Florida and South Carolina have already adopted this distorted definition; several European countries have also adopted it.
In December 2019, Donald Trump signed an executive order directing government agencies to consider the IHRA definition when investigating discrimination allegations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Since then, several Title VI complaints have been filed targeting Palestine advocacy on university campuses, including Columbia and Georgia State.
The proposed Arizona bill represents a serious escalation because it attempts to criminalize advocacy for Palestinian rights.
“This bill sets the stage for people protesting a racist military occupation to be accused of hate crimes,” said senior staff attorney Meera Shah. “If the bill is enacted, graffiti that says 'Israel is racist' could result in harsher penalties than graffiti that says, 'America is racist'. This is both illogical and a violation of the First Amendment.”
These measures will likely exacerbate the harassment of activists for Palestinian freedom. Nearly half of the incidents Palestine Legal responded to in 2019 involved false accusations of antisemitism due solely to activists’ support for Palestinian rights.
Palestine Legal will continue to track and oppose such efforts. View our Right to Boycott site for more information.
TAKE ACTION:
Sign the petition to oppose this legislation.
Email your Arizona representative with this action alert from the ACLU of Arizona.