“Just as anti-BDS legislation has become a template for politicians seeking to limit boycotts of fossil fuels or gun manufacturers, the pro-Israel attack on Morningstar could become a model for groups pushing to shield companies from accountability on other issues, according to Friedman. ‘It creates a model of what it looks like for any power-holders to politicize ESG ratings. First it’s Israel, then maybe next we have India or some other country saying, ‘No, this is the wrong standard, we’ll throw a lot of money and public pressure at you,’” she said. As a result, Friedman argues that liberal Jewish communities around the country have aided a right-wing project: ‘The irony is that once again this progressive Jewish community is the cat’s paw for a broader illiberal agenda because their comfort zone demands an Israel exception.’”

“‘The point in going after Ben & Jerry’s was to have—no pun intended—a chilling effect on other companies that want to distinguish between Israel and the settlements,’ says Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace…In fact, she says, many international & US companies, like major hotel brands, for example, operate in Israel but not in the West Bank. ‘So long as they do not make a public statement, nobody cares…But if they make a public statement, all hell breaks loose.’”

Many quotes from FMEP’s Lara Friedman, including: “According to Friedman, the ADL’s recent decision to absorb JLens is not a new development, but rather something pro-Israel lawfare groups like Reut and the Zachor Legal Institute have advocated for since the early days of conscious investing. ‘So if the idea is we [pro-Israel groups] can’t prevent socially responsible investing from taking off, we have to find a way to subvert it so that it won’t end up being focused on Israel,’ Friedman said. ‘And Israel will be given an exemption effectively.’”

“‘[AIPAC helped] change the composition of the Democratic caucus to make sure there are more people in there who seem likely—based on how they were elected—to have some loyalties to AIPAC,’ said Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. Friedman added that the biggest impact of AIPAC’s spending will be in producing a ‘chilling effect’ on members of Congress. ‘What this election cycle is saying is, ‘hey, heads up, every time a letter [critical of Israel] comes across your desk, even if you agree with it, you better think about whether signing this is going to mean that someone’s going to pour money into your primary,’ she said.”

“‘What they’re saying is you can’t have ESG at all – because it risks Israeli companies being caught inside of it and that’s intolerable – or you’re going to have to reimagine ESG so it doesn’t catch Israeli companies,’ Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, which tracks advocacy aimed at Palestinian activism.”

Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman speaks to +972 about a dangerous new phase in American pro-Israel politics.

“Lara Friedman, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said: ‘Results of the latest Israeli election are a shock and surprise only to people who have been in deep denial — or who haven’t been paying attention.'”

“‘For Biden, avoidance of conflict with Israel is the paramount goal. This was true during the tenure of the previous government, during which the U.S. refrained from demanding accountability for the deaths of an American journalist and an elderly American man, both at the hands of the Israeli army; when it failed to challenge Israel’s targeting of Palestinian human rights and civil society organizations; when it was chose not to oppose Israel’s imposition of draconian restrictions on entry to the West Bank; and when it took no meaningful steps to prevent settlement expansion or to hold Israel accountable for settler violence,’ Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman said. ‘While it is certain that the list of brazen Israeli violations of Palestinian rights and even the rights of American citizens will continue to grow under an Israeli right-wing government that elevates its most unabashedly racist, Islamophobic, homophobic political forces, there is no reason to believe that U.S. policy of embracing Israeli impunity will suddenly change,’ she added.”

“‘The organized Jewish community has known from the get-go that [anti-boycott laws] infringed on free speech,’ said Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace. ‘Given a choice between upholding free speech and the right of protest for Americans, and undermining those rights writ large in order to protect Israel from criticism, they’ve demonstrated they prefer the latter.’”

“‘I found the most troubling element of the US response to what happened last week to be the statement about waiting for more evidence,’ Lara Friedman of the Foundation for Middle East Peace said during the DAWN webinar. ‘Because waiting for more evidence is not a passive statement. It is an active green light and encouragement for Israel to crack down further on these groups in order to try to manufacture more circumstantial evidence,’ she added. Friedman pointed to the discredited secret dossier on the groups that was given by Israel to European diplomats in May 2021 and supposedly contained information that justified the terror designations. ‘That dossier consisted virtually entirely of circumstantial evidence in the form of statements made by Palestinians under interrogation after they had been arrested by Israelis for similar charges,’ Friedman said. ‘This is coercive interrogation,’ on top of an already coercive military court system that leaves Palestinians with no due process. In another recent event, Friedman noted that Israel operates a ‘plea bargain factory’ in its military courts. Juana Rishmawi, a Spanish aid worker in her 60s, took a plea deal that saw her sentenced to 13 months in prison for her work with the Health Work Committees, which was declared illegal by Israel in early 2020. The Health Work Committees was not informed of the designation until Israel began an escalated campaign against it, arresting its director, Shatha Odeh, and closing its headquarters in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. ‘What [Rishmawi] pled guilty to effectively was unknowingly providing aid to an organization that Israel defines as a terrorist group,’ Friedman told the DAWN webinar. Israel held up Rishmawi’s plea agreement, made in a highly coercive context in which Rishmawi had no hope of actual justice, as proof against the targeted organizations.”