From “informationliberation.com”
The Trump administration on Monday, after facing widespread backlash, appeared to partially walk back their plan to deny disaster aid to states and cities that boycott Israel, though they’re still insisting they have the right to enforce it.
There is NO FEMA requirement tied to Israel in any current NOFO. No states have lost funding, and no new conditions have been imposed.
FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests. DHS will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and… https://t.co/AeJeaeTlRS
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 4, 2025
“There is NO FEMA requirement tied to Israel in any current NOFO. No states have lost funding, and no new conditions have been imposed,” DHS said on Monday.
“FEMA grants remain governed by existing law and policy and not political litmus tests. DHS will enforce all anti-discrimination laws and policies, including as it relates to the BDS movement, which is expressly grounded in antisemitism. Those who engage in racial discrimination should not receive a single dollar of federal funding.”
Why are you lying? You literally updated your guidelines 20 minutes ago. You do realize the old links still show the original document, right? pic.twitter.com/LFpnvRbUx0
— Mel (@Villgecrazylady) August 4, 2025
As you can see above in Mel’s tweet, DHS specifically removed the following line from their document (archived here) on the terms for claiming disaster relief funds which read, “Discriminatory prohibited boycott means refusing to deal, cutting commercial relations, or otherwise limiting commercial relations specifically with Israeli companies or with companies doing business in or with Israel or authorized by, licensed by, or organized under the laws of Israel to do business.”
“The [White House] changed this explicit language after widespread outcry BUT the DHS tweet makes it clear the admin reserves the right to deny these funds on BDS grounds based on the Anti-Boycott Act,” Saagar Enjeti commented. “Tl;dr: They still might do it. They’re just not saying it out loud right now.”
Ok after speaking w/ folks here's whats going on: An original guidance from DHS explicitly stated that federal disaster funding was barred from states that allowed boycott of Israel. The WH changed this explicit language after widespread outcry BUT the DHS tweet makes it clear… pic.twitter.com/nSaEpdTuEZ
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) August 4, 2025
They don’t want to fully disassociate from this plan because the anti-BDS laws this order drew from have been passed throughout the country and are a huge part of Israel’s agenda.
“We are advancing legislation in many countries against the BDS … so that it will simply be illegal to boycott Israel,” Israel’s then-ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, said back in 2016.
DHS head Kristi Noem signed an anti-BDS executive order in 2020 when she was Governor of South Dakota and followed it up in 2024 by signing the “strongest” hate crime bill in America to “ensure the security of God’s chosen people.”
Leaked documents obtained by the Jewish Daily Forward showed the Anti-Defamation League back in 2016 thought “anti-BDS” laws making it illegal to boycott Israel were “unconstitutional” and would be “harmful to the Jewish community” by giving “the appearance that the Jewish community exercises undue influence in government” — but they backed them anyways.
Some 29 states have passed either laws or executive orders to restrict boycotting Israel as of 2024, Newsweek reports.
A few courts have struck these blatantly unconstitutional laws down but the Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on it — effecting allowing this thuggish intimidation scheme in service of a foreign nation to continue.
The city of Dickinson, Texas in 2017 required applicants for disaster relief aid for Hurricane Harvey to sign a pledge not to boycott Israel, but they too had to backdown after facing widespread backlash.