New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stirred the immediate ire of human rights campaigners around the world on Sunday by signing an executive order calling for the creation of a “blacklist” that would track groups and individuals who support Palestinian rights through the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement known as BDS.
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The list, which will be posted on the agency’s website within the next six months, will be updated twice a year based on “credible information available to the public”.
The report comes on the same day as New York’s annual Celebrate Israel Parade in Manhattan, which Cuomo has previously attended. Similar bills have been introduced in both houses of the New York Legislature, and a Republican-sponsored bill passed the state Senate, which that party leads, in January.
The Democratic governor says NY will boycott anyone who is boycotting Israel.
The BDS campaign says it calls for full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens in Israel, seeks an end to end Israeli settlements in Palestinian lands, and the return of Palestinian refugees.
An executive order affects all state agencies and departments, as well as public-benefit corporations and public authorities, boards and commissions for which the governor appoints the chair, chief executive and a majority of board members.
Cuomo’s executive order is the first of its kind for any state.
Cuomo marches Sunday in the annual Celebrate Israel parade on Fifth Ave..
Cuomo is the first governor to sign such an order, which takes effect immediately, and he urged other governors to follow suit. But critics say the movement is anti-Semitic and an attack on the legitimacy of Israel itself.
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Update: New York Senator Chuck Schumer said on Sunday that he’s so inspired by Cuomo’s blacklist, he’d like to help implement it on a federal level.
