Ohio Residents Pay for Genocide in Palestine
Ohio sends more taxpayer dollars to Israel’s military than almost any other state in the US. Every year, Ohio politicians send $108,326,244 in taxpayer money to fund Israel’s military occupation of Palestine. Over $5 million dollars annually comes from Cincinnati alone. Ohio is also one of the largest government holders of Israel bonds in the United States with a total of $262.5 million dollars owed by Israel to the state of Ohio.
It is also prohibited by law in Ohio for state agencies to do business with anti-Israel entities or for businesses themselves to divest from the state of Israel. In December 2016, then-Governor of Ohio John Kasich signed into law Ohio House Bill 476 which “prohibits [state] agencies from contracting with anti-Israel companies.” In the bill, a boycott is defined as “engaging in refusals to deal, terminating business activities, or other actions that are intended to limit commercial relations with persons or entities in a discriminatory manner.”
Two years later, House Concurrent Resolution (HRC) 10 was passed “to condemn the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and increasing incidents of anti-Semitism.” Proponents of this resolution included Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, Bobcats for Israel, Christians United for Israel, Ohio Christian Alliance, Hillel Chapter- John Carroll University and AMCHA Initiative. HRC 10 states that the BDS movement “is one of the main vehicles for legitimizing anti-Semitism on campus.” The resolution includes a statement about condemning “all groups, including white nationalist, neo-Nazi, and national socialist groups, that promote hatred, religious persecution, or violence towards others” which attempts to liken the BDS movement and other pro-Palestine sentiments to white supremacy hate groups. What’s ironic is that white-supremacy is a fundamental aspect of the Zionist movement, which aims to remove, by any means necessary, the indigenous Palestinians from their land and replace them with Israeli settlements.
In 2022, now-Governor Mike DeWine signed Ohio Senate Bill 135 which expanded HB 476 to include state institutions of higher education as “state agencies” making it illegal for college campuses to divest from corporations who support/invest in Israel, such as Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard. Passing these bills perpetuates the false narrative that non-violent, Palestinian-led BDS movement and other pro-Palestine and anti-Israel activities are to blame for increasing antisemitism on college campuses. The fact is that the pro-Palestine movement in the US is not rooted in antisemitism at all. It is a movement that recognizes the Palestinians’ right to exist and resist occupation and ethnic-cleansing. Zionist attempts to obscure this fact are only meant to delegitimize Palestinian struggle for liberation and those who support it.
The BDS movement continues to grow as Israel intensifies its US-funded war crimes across Middle Eastern borders into Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria. Ohio residents who want to participate in the movement as individuals can do so on their own accord, but it is illegal for any state-funded business, school, or company to divest from Israeli companies and work with anti-Israel ones. While college encampments and general protests emphasize the inherent contradictions the capitalist system provides, the state of Ohio literally does not allow these entities to divest from Israel. The potential effectiveness of organizing around the BDS movement in Ohio seems limited without combatting the state and U.S. imperialism themselves.
Cincinnati Socialists urges people to continue pressuring Ohio’s state government to overturn the anti-BDS laws and educate themselves and those around them by understanding how capitalism (and by extension, imperialism and colonialism) plays a primary role in oppression of those at home and around the globe. The working and oppressed class must organize and struggle together against the capitalist ruling class to fight for a better world.