Maryland Gubernatorial Race Heating Up Over BDS

New Entrant, Jerome Segal, Proposes Conditional Boycott of Israeli Government

Until recently, anyone following the Maryland Gubernatorial Democratic Primary might have been hard-pressed to find major disagreements among the candidates.

One exception emerged recently in Maryland State Bar Association interviews over the issue of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions). State Comptroller Peter Franchot and former Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler emphatically pledged that if elected, they would retain Republican Governor Hogan’s executive order prohibiting the State of Maryland from contracting with any business that boycotts either Israel or Israel settlements in the West Bank (e.g. Ben and Jerry ice cream). While stating their own opposition to BDS, former Obama Administration Labor and Education Secretaries, Tom Perez and John King voiced concern that the ban violated first amendment rights to engage in boycotts. King indicated that he would not retain the edict.

The range of views on boycotting Israel just got much wider when socialist candidate Jerome Segal recently entered the race. Segal, who challenged Senator Ben Cardin in the 2018 Democratic Senate primary, made Cardin’s support for the rightwing Netanyahu government a central issue in the campaign.

Segal, who was not part of the Bar Association’s one-on-one interviews, today announced his plan for Maryland to be the first state to impose its own conditional boycott of the Government of Israel.

If elected, Segal’s Boycott Plan would:

1. On Day One, rescind the current ban on companies that boycott Israel or West Bank settlements.

2. Impose a freeze on all State of Maryland cooperative programs with the Israeli government.

This freeze would remain in place until the Government of Israel demonstrates a good faith effort to end the occupation in the West Bank by either:

• Enacting a permanent freeze on the expansion of West Bank settlements
• Announcing its willingness to enter negotiations with the Palestinians based upon one of these U.S. initiatives: (A) the Negotiation Parameters proposed by President Clinton in December 2000, (B) the Road Map for Peace proposed by President Bush in 2003, or © the Parameters for future negotiations as proposed by Secretary of State John Kerry in December 2016.”

3. Further, in support of the right of Maryland consumers to know what they are purchasing, and their right to boycott, should they so choose, Maryland will become the first state to require that all products produced in the West Bank settlements and sold in the state carry a label stating: “Produced in West Bank settlements.”

Segal, who has written three books on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was the Presidential candidate of The Bread and Roses Party of Maryland in 2020.

Speaking of his rivals in the June 2022 Gubernatorial Primary, Segal said:

“Some of the responses in the Bar Association interviews were truly astounding. Doug Gansler, a former Attorney General in Maryland, seemed totally unaware or indifferent to the civil liberties issues involved in using the power of the state government to coerce businesses to refrain from boycotts. The ACLU says such activity is a form of free speech that is protected under the U.S. Constitution.”

“State Comptroller Peter Franchot, in his gushing characterization of Israel as ‘wonderful,’ seems to have never heard of the Palestinians, and the occupation of 3 million people that has now gone on for over 50 years. Nor does he seem aware that almost 30 years have passed since the PLO recognized Israel’s right to exist.”

Wes Moore, similarly pledged to retain Hogan’s executive order against companies that boycott West Bank settlements, not showing any understanding of the issue.

Segal takes a different view:

“We cannot continue to act as if we are living at the beginning of the Oslo peace process in 1993 with the Rabin/Arafat handshake on the White House lawn, and an Israeli commitment to negotiate an end to the conflict. With the current Israeli government opposed to the two-state solution and refusing to enter negotiations with the Palestinians, it is impossible to continue to regard the occupation of the West Bank as temporary, pending peace agreements with the Palestinians. The current Israeli government no longer pretends to be seeking an end to the occupation, yet it is adamantly opposed to extending the right to vote to the West Bank Palestinians under its rule.”

“While some have said that Israel has de facto annexed the West Bank and has established an apartheid regime, I reject this terminology. However, it does reflect the seriousness of the situation.”

“With an intention to permanently rule over the West Bank Palestinians without giving them equal rights, the current Israeli government has clearly divorced itself from the shared democratic values upon which the special relationship between Israel and the U.S. is premised.”

“We need to signal the Israeli people that the special relationship between our two countries is premised on a joint commitment to democratic values and that permanent occupation of the Palestinians without granting them the right to vote, is incompatible with the basis for the special relationship.”

Background on Anti-BDS legislation:

The term BDS is used ambiguously. There is a formal BDS organization that calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. It was established in 2005 in Ramallah and is governed by a National Committee composed of 29 Palestinian organizations. Among other demands, it calls for Israel to allow the return of all Palestinian refugees, a demand that if met, would result in Israel no longer having a Jewish majority.

This is quite different than the targeted and conditional boycott of the Israeli government proposed by Dr. Segal.

Anti-BDS legislation or executive orders have been adopted in 35 states and proposed on the Federal level. These measures not only oppose BDS, but any form of boycott directed at Israel or at the West Bank settlements established by Israel, no matter how focused or conditional. In some forms, proposed anti-BDS legislation would criminalize participation in many forms of boycott of Israel or its settlements (e.g. Cardin’s proposed legislation). Most versions do not involve the criminalization of boycott participation but impose restrictions on access to state services, contracts, or benefits.

In Maryland, in 2017, following the defeat of anti-BDS legislation in the General Assembly, Governor Hogan issued his Executive Order circumventing the legislature. The lead sponsor of the defeated legislation was former state senator, Bobby Zirkin, who conducted the Bar Association interviews, seeking commitments to retain the Executive Order.

For interview requests: contact Olga Willard at olga.willard@willardstrategies.com

or Frank Caskin at 240–429–4682.