The Tennessee General Assembly on Tuesday became the first state legislature in the U.S. to formally condemn the BDS movement with Senate Joint Resolution 170, which initially passed April 9 by the Tennessee Senate in a unanimous 30-0 vote, and was then approved by the Tennessee House of Representatives in an overwhelming 93-1 vote on April 19.
Although the legislation does not order Tennessee public institutions to divest from entities involved in the BDS movement, it refers to BDS as, “one of the main vehicles for spreading anti-Semitism and advocating the elimination of the Jewish state.” The legislation also stated that BDS is, “deeply damaging to the causes of peace, justice, equality, democracy and human rights for all the peoples in the Middle East.”
