Illinois state legislators and local advocates are pushing to repeal a law that allows Illinois to sanction businesses that boycott Israel.
It comes the same week a team of independent experts commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, issuing a report that calls on the international community to end the genocide and act to punish those responsible for it.
State Rep. Abdelnasser Rashid introduced the House bill in February, though it has since been relegated to the Rules Committee. He, along with State Rep. Lilian Jimenez, State Sen. Graciela Guzman and local advocates, said the legislation was intentionally being held up and called on other elected leaders to allow it to face a vote.
Illinois law, passed in 2015, stops the Illinois Investment Policy Board from working with companies that boycott Israel or Israeli companies. It was the first of 38 states with similar laws on the books.
The bill would repeal that, with Rashid saying the state needed to “translate our values of justice into legislative action.”
“If we want to take on Donald Trump’s authoritarianism and his crackdown on free speech and silencing voices he disagrees with, then we need to be consistent,” Rashid told the Sun-Times Thursday. “And that means not allowing our own state to be silencing advocacy for human rights. … It’s time for our state to reverse this shameful law that is putting us on the side of oppression and war crimes. We’re simply asking for a fair hearing on this bill.”
A representative for Illinois House Speaker Emanuel Chris Welch declined to comment.
The Consulate General of Israel in Chicago did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Thursday.
Rashid cited public support, as well as Gov. JB Pritzker recent statements saying blocking arms sales to Israel would send “the right kind of message” and the bill’s sponsors.
“This genocide is not going to end on its own, it requires action,” said Sheri Maali, with the Justice Coalition and the Illinois Coalition for Human Rights at a news conference. “It requires every means of peaceful resistance available to us.”
Chicago-area doctors who’ve worked in hospitals in Gaza have also shared their experiences with Illinois lawmakers, trying to get them to back a bill restricting weapons sales to Israel and to speak out against Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid into Gaza, where famine has been declared, and violence continues in the West Bank.
But for Rashid, it’s also personal — he’s been exposed to the violence firsthand.
He and his family in 2023 went to visit his home of Turmus Ayya when it was attacked by Israeli settlers. He said a boy was killed, in addition to extensive property damage.
Turmus Ayya is also where 16-year-old Palestinian boy and former Chicago resident, Mashour Kouk, had his skull shattered after being beaten by an Israeli settler with a stone in January. It was one of 22 settler attacks in the West Bank that week, according to a United Nations report.
Rashid said his then 7-year-old daughter didn’t sleep that night out of fear the settlers would come back. That is the sort of fear Illinois is sponsoring by punishing companies speaking out on the issue, he said.
The United States vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in addition to calling for the release of all hostages and the unhindered distribution of aid.
“It’s been extremely heart wrenching that it’s taken a live-streamed genocide in order for many elected officials to wake up to the horrors of Israeli occupation,” Rashid said. “I wish Palestinian voices had been heard when we were shouting at the top of our lungs about Israel’s apartheid regime, and it has now come to the forefront because no one can avert their eyes from the videos and pictures coming out of Gaza. You can’t unsee it.”
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