Netanyahu Thanks Cuomo for Anti-BDS Order

NEW YORK
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) holds a joint press conference with New York Governor Andrew Mark Cuomo, at the PM office in Yerushalayim. (Haim Zach/GPO/Flash90)
FILE – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) holds a joint press conference with New York Governor Andrew Mark Cuomo, at the PM office in Yerushalayim. (Haim Zach/GPO/File/Flash90)

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu thanked New York’s governor for signing an executive order banning the state from doing business with any entity that boycotts the state of Israel.

In a letter dated Monday, Netanyahu praised Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, for his “pioneering” order, which came after the Democratic-led Assembly hesitated on passing legislation against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

“The Jewish state is facing a systematic global campaign aimed at delegitimizing it and negating its very right to exist,” the prime minister wrote. “The libelous allegations used by BDS organizations as justification for their boycotts betray the blatantly anti-Semitic nature of this campaign, whose stated purpose is to isolate and ultimately destroy the State of Israel.”

Cuomo signed the order on Sunday in Manhattan, before marching in the annual Israel Day Parade down Fifth Avenue.

Some civil rights groups have called the order unconstitutional and “McCarthyism” aimed at muzzling free speech.

Other states have passed similar bills but legislation sponsored in New York by Sens. Jack Martin and Simcha Felder was held up in the Assembly. It is the first anti-BDS measure passed by executive order.

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