Sa'ar Asks 250 US State Lawmakers for More Anti-Boycott Laws

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar addressed about 250 American state legislators in Jerusalem on 15 September 2025, at the opening event of a visit organised by his ministry. According to the text released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he told the group (Republicans and Democrats from all 50 states, on a trip the Jerusalem Post called the largest-ever delegation of US lawmakers to arrive in Israel) that the delegation was the most significant the ministry had yet brought to Israel, and part of a wider public diplomacy campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke, as did two members of the delegation: Michelle Strinden, lieutenant governor of North Dakota, and Lori Berman, minority leader of the Florida Senate.

Sa'ar's central ask was legislative. He credited state-level anti-BDS laws (measures aimed at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) as the most effective answer so far to boycott campaigns, thanked the states that have them, and called on the rest to pass them. “The boycotters – must be boycotted,” he said, urging legislators to promote engagement and investment in Israel instead. He framed the campaign against Israel as antisemitism in a modern form, and said that while criticism of Israeli policy was legitimate, what he called the starvation, genocide and apartheid campaigns were not.

What an anti-BDS law actually does

These are procurement and pensions laws rather than speech laws. They typically bar state agencies from contracting with companies that boycott Israel, require written certification from bidders, and direct state investment funds to divest from firms engaged in boycotts; many apply only above a contract threshold of around $100,000 and to companies with ten or more employees. The Jewish Virtual Library's tracker, whose listing runs to early 2024, counted 38 states with laws, executive orders or resolutions of this kind, starting with a Tennessee resolution in April 2015.

The bicycle race Sa'ar opened with

Sa'ar began and ended with Spain. The day before he spoke, the final stage of the Vuelta a España in Madrid was abandoned after demonstrators occupied the route in protest at the participation of the Israel-Premier Tech team; police put the crowd at more than 100,000 and there was no podium ceremony, The Times of Israel reported. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez had earlier that day expressed admiration for a people that mobilises for causes such as Palestine. Sa'ar said Sánchez and his ministers had encouraged violence and praised those responsible.

The 'atomic bomb' line, checked

Sa'ar also said Sánchez had expressed regret at lacking an atomic bomb to stop Israel. What Sánchez said, on 8 September 2025, was that Spain “doesn't have nuclear bombs, aircraft carriers, or large oil reserves” and so could not stop the Israeli offensive on its own, a statement about Spain's limited means, made while listing the measures it was taking instead. Euronews, in a fact-check published on 10 September 2025, found the quotation accurate but the framing sensationalised, and the suggestion that he favoured a nuclear attack on Israel inaccurate. Those measures, announced the same day, included a formal total arms embargo, port and airspace restrictions on military cargo bound for Israel and a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, Al Jazeera reported.

The killing he offered condolences for

Sa'ar paid condolences over what he called the horrific murder of Charlie Kirk, and used it to argue that political violence has no place in democratic societies. Kirk, the 31-year-old chief executive and co-founder of the conservative youth organisation Turning Point USA, was shot dead on 10 September 2025 while speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, the public radio station KUER reported. Utah's governor described it as a political assassination.

What is still unclear

The ministry's release is a prepared text and records no exchange with the legislators, so it does not show how the request for new anti-BDS laws landed, or which states were being asked. It gives no figures for the ministry's public diplomacy budget, and it does not say whether Israel raised the Spanish measures through diplomatic channels beyond the speech.