OHIO — Pro-Palestinian protesters at The Ohio State University are calling on the university to divest from Israel, but state law actually prohibits the university from doing so.
In 2016, then-governor John Kasich signed House Bill 476, also known as anti-boycotts, divestment and sanctions bill (BDS).
State Representative Jerry Cirino, R-District 18, explained that the bill forbids contracts between the state and businesses that boycott or divest from Israel.
“In this case it's to protect our friends and allies and to make sure that we don’t have relationships with counties that are friendly to us getting canceled because of differences of opinion on campus,” Cirino said. “They cannot go against Ohio revised code. Private universities have greater freedom to do as they wish, but certainly as a state entity, which Ohio State certainly is, as our flagship university, they do not have that option”
Cirino was responsible for strengthening the language of the BDS bill in 2022 to specifically include public universities as state agencies.
“[This issue] particularly was one of those sections that we decided that was necessary to shore up and make sure there is no confusion that the state statute barring any discrimination against Israel was even more explicit and applicable to our state university system,” he said.
First Amendment Attorney Ray Vasvari said more than three dozen states have similar laws.
Some say this state law violates the right to free speech.
“It imposes an economic penalty on those who disagree with the states official point of view, and no one should have to suffer economically because they have a different opinion than the government,” Vasvari said. “This is just another example of where we have to be careful of the freedom to express oneself without retaliation, without economic repercussions, being eaten away at the margins. You have to be vigilant of this sort of thing, because you take away bit by bit the circumstances in which people can express their opinions in ways that matter.”
Spectrum News 1 Ohio reached out to Ohio State about this issue and they replied with the following statement:
“Pursuant to Ohio state law, state entities cannot divest interests in Israel. Ohio Revised Code Section 9.76 prohibits the university from divesting any interests in Israel and prohibits adopting or adhering to a policy that requires divestment from Israel or with persons or entities associated with it.”