Chris Cristie, the New Jersey Governor who ran for the Republican Presidential nomination, signed into law legislation targeting the boycott movement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS Movement).
The new law prohibits any public body of the State of New Jersey to enter into business relationships with any commercial body or organization that is boycotting Israel or cooperating with BDS.
- The legislation was passed thanks to the efforts of the Israeli Consulate in New York which lobbied Cristie and the New Jersey state legislature for a year and a half.
Israel's new Consul General in New York, Dani Dayan, said "this brave step by the Governor and the State Legislature of New Jersey is an expression of the steadfast alliance between this state and the State of Israel. The passage of this legislation against the boycott is evidence that the boycott movement is doomed to fail because the American people reject it outright." The legislation ceremony was attended by Deputy Consul General Amir Sagie.
New Jersey plays an important role in the relationship between Israel and the United States. The annual trade volume between the two stands at $1.3 billion and about 500,000 people, or 6% of New Jersey's population, is Jewish. New Jersey is also an active base of many Israeli high-tech companies.
Governor Cristie made his first official trip to Israel in 2012 and signed a memorandum of cooperation with the pharmaceutical company Teva.
The anti-boycott legislation in New Jersey comes three months after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a similar administrative order, which requires the state to ban any organization that participates in the boycott of Israel.