The BDS movement — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions — is the campaign of economic pressure on Israel that John Kiriakou says he and many others support in principle. He notes that some 40 to 42 U.S. states have passed anti-BDS laws, so that a speaker invited to a publicly funded university may have to sign a document pledging support for Israel in order to be paid.[1][2] Kiriakou refuses: “I will not pledge fealty to a foreign government.” He frames the laws — now under constitutional appeal — as part of a climate in which any criticism of Israel or Netanyahu is branded antisemitic.[2][3]
A friend’s Georgia State speaking fee
Kiriakou describes a concrete case of the anti-BDS contractor laws in practice: a friend was hired to give a paid speech at Georgia State University for $500, but the contract required her to pledge allegiance to Israel — under Georgia’s anti-BDS law, taking state money as a speaker makes a person a contractor, and contractors must make that pledge. She refused, sued, and lost the case before the Georgia Supreme Court.[4]
Florida and the UK (The Inquiry)
John Kiriakou cites the spread of anti-Palestinian speech restrictions: in Florida it is, for now, illegal to express support for Palestinians on social media, and he says Miami police knocked on the door of a woman who did so on Facebook. He pairs it with the UK’s secrecy laws, under which support for Palestinian rights can bring prosecution.[5][6] In a separate telling of the same Miami Beach Facebook case, Kiriakou identifies the law behind it: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pushed legislation through the state legislature this year making it a criminal offense to criticize Israel, which Kiriakou calls patently unconstitutional.[7] Rather than sign the bill at home, DeSantis waited to fly to Israel and sign it in the presence of Benjamin Netanyahu, then gave him the pen as a souvenir — prompting Kiriakou to ask whether DeSantis works for the people of Florida or for Netanyahu.[8]