https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...not-to-boycott-israel/?utm_term=.4b92da2cbced
This Texas town offers hurricane relief if your politics are right
The city of Dickinson, Tex., located about 30 miles southeast of Houston, recently posted applications online for relief grants from the funds that were generously donated to the Dickinson Harvey Relief Fund, the citys website says. The application, however, includes a provision requiring applicants to promise not to boycott Israel.
The city attorney for Dickinson told a local television station he was only following a state law forbidding state agencies from doing business with Israel boycotters.
The aid grant application has triggered a strong rebuke from the American Civil Liberties Union.
In May, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the Anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions) bill into law. The statute prohibits all state agencies from contracting with, and certain public funds from investing in, companies that boycott Israel, according to the governors website. Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas, Abbott said at the bills signing. We will not tolerate such actions against an important ally.
How the law would apply to individuals seeking disaster relief rather than businesses seeking contracts is unclear.
But as the ACLU pointed out in the organizations release on the Dickinson application, The Supreme Court ruled decades ago that political boycotts are protected by the First Amendment, and other decisions have established that the government may not require individuals to sign a certification regarding their political expression in order to obtain employment, contracts, or other benefits.
In an interview with ABC 13, Dickinsons city attorney David W. Olson said the city planned to follow the law and keep the provision in place until told to do otherwise.