Lead Harris VP Candidate Potential Choice Supports PA Bill Cutting Funds to Universities and Colleges that Divest from or Boycott Israel
One of the lead potential choices for a VP candidate for the likely Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris is Josh Shapiro, the Governor of Pennsylvania. In his role as governor he has advocated a bill that would cut funding to any college or university that offers support to opponents of genocide by approving Divestment or Boycott of business with Israel. Since a good part of Israel’s exports relates to police and warring technology, such a bill would also protect war industry from divestment demands of students. The demand for divestment from Israel is the common thread of the movement across the nation that has been brutally repressed under the BIden Administration and Democrat and Republican politicians who commanded police actions across the nation.
In effect this bill mandates that universities engage in economic ties to Israel which is a war regime whose domestic product as well as its exports are based upon warfare., theft of land and controlling populations through mass surveillance. There would likely also be attempts to legally interpret the bills to require the universities to prevent advocacy for divestment. Similar bills are being fielded on state levels requiring universities to comply with a false definition of anti-Semitism that mandates loyalty to Israel and defines opposition of US policy expending tax dollars to arm Israel’s genocide engaged regime as anti-Semitism.
Harris’s consideration of Shapiro as a top contender should be instructive. She is definitely going to be supportive of repressive crackdown against the students on the campuses that are organizing and fighting to end the genocide. Of course no surprise there because as much as the Democrats claim to hate the Trump crowd – it is a full on love orgy when it comes to bipartisan support – with Democrats in the lead – here in NJ for laws that falsely conflate criticism of Israel with “anti-Semitism” and provide legal mechanism to invoke police and possibly military action against our protests as well as legalist sanctioning arming litigators with more tools to come after critics of Israel with false smears,
Shapiro’s policies also have stirred free speech concerns in his quietly editing state employment rules forbidding vaguely worded “scandalous or disgraceful” behavior. Shapiro also fanned the flames of successful demands that forced the ouster of U Penn former President Magill over smears of anti-Semitism of the student movement at UPenn against genocide.
FightBackbetter will continue to monitor information regarding Harris and her support for Israel and genocide and we will do our best to bring her views and actions and plans for future action to light.
More on Harris and Genocide:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/07/22/harris-plans-meeting-netanyahu-00170493
