Journalist Abby Martin Sues State of Georgia Over Law Requiring Pledge of
Allegiance to Israel
“This censorship of my talk based on forced compliance to anti-BDS laws in
Georgia is just one level of a nationwide campaign to protect Israel from
grassroots pressure.” — Abby Martin
by Alan Macleod
February 10th, 2020
By Alan Macleod
After refusing to sign a pledge of allegiance to the state of Israel, the state
of Georgia shut down a media literacy conference featuring journalist and
filmmaker Abby Martin at Georgia Southern University. Martin had recently
released a documentary critical of the Israeli government called “Gaza Fights
for Freedom.” Now she is suing the state, claiming the decision is a violation
of the First Amendment. Along with the Council on American-Islamic Relations
(CAIR) and the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF), today she filed a
federal free speech lawsuit against the university system of Georgia.
Martin was dismayed by the university’s decision: “This censorship of my talk
based on forced compliance to anti-BDS laws in Georgia is just one level of a
nationwide campaign to protect Israel from grassroots pressure. We must stand
firmly opposed to these efforts and not cower in fear to these blatant
violations of free speech,” she said.
Abby Martin
✔
@AbbyMartin
After I was scheduled to give keynote speech at an upcoming @GeorgiaSouthern
conference, organizers said I must comply w/ Georgia’s anti-BDS law & sign a
contractual pledge to not boycott Israel. I refused & my talk was canceled. The
event fell apart after colleagues supported me
8,018
8:49 PM - Jan 10, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
3,113 people are talking about this
Twenty-eight states have already mandated loyalty pledges to Israel as a means
to outlaw dissent. But in December, President Trump passed legislation
effectively criminalizing the Boycott Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) movement
that aims to put pressure on the Jewish state through economic action, along
the lines of the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa. The law mandates that
any public institution would be subject to losing all funding if the government
deems that they are not doing enough to stamp out anti-Semitism, which, it
explicitly states, includes any criticism of the Israeli government. In
December, MintPress reported that the British government under Boris Johnson is
planning to introduce similar legislation.
“The hyperbolic notion that conservatives are the ones being persecuted on
college campuses has made blatant censorship campaigns against people for
criticism of Israel, or other progressive protests, go completely ignored,”
Martin wrote.
CAIR’s Legal Defense Fund Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas said,
There is no place where free speech is more important than on campus. And this
attempt to suppress Abby’s views – denying students, academics, and others
from hearing her lecture – is as brazen as it is illegal. In adopting this
anti-BDS law, Georgia has prioritized the policy preferences of a foreign
country over the free speech rights of Americans, like Abby, who speak on this
state’s college campuses.”
The PCJF likened the BDS movement to the boycotts of the civil rights movement
in the mid-twentieth century, its Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
described the laws as “extraordinary, outrageous, illegal and
unconstitutional.” In 1956 Martin Luther King and his movement were
criminalized for carrying out boycotts, as Southern states passed legislation
to penalize their behavior, only for it to be later struck down by the Supreme
Court. This is what Martin and the alliance of non-governmental organizations
is hoping will happen here too. Why should I have to “contractually pledge
loyalty to a foreign country?” she asked at her press conference today.
In 2016, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a law requiring any person or
organization entering into a contract with the state worth at least $1,000 sign
an oath promising that they would not oppose the Israeli government in any
fashion. CAIR has reason to believe they could overturn the law its Georgia
Executive Director, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, called “blatantly and hilariously
unconstitutional.”
In 2018, Bahia Amawi, a Houston-based children’s speech pathologist who worked
with autistic, speech-impaired and other developmentally disabled children,
lost her job after she refused to sign a similar document. Amawi had been at
her job for nine years previously without a problem. CAIR took up Amawi’s case
and managed to overturn every Texas boycott law on the grounds of their
unconstitutionality and she is now free to return to work. They appear
confident of a similar victory in Georgia.
Martin began as a citizen journalist covering the Occupy movement in her native
California. From 2012 to 2015 she hosted the show Breaking the Set on RT. In
the famous D.N.I. report into alleged Russian interference into the 2016
election, the U.S. government accused her of “promoting radical discontent” in
America, something she appears to wear as a badge of honor. Her current
documentary series, Empire Files, is broadcast on TeleSUR English. However, due
to sanctions against the Venezuelan government, Gaza Fights for Freedom was
crowdfunded. She is also the host of Media Roots Radio.
Correction | An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the
state of Georgia shut down a screening of Abby Martin’s documentary film “Gaza
Fights for Freedom
