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Prominent American Zionist commentator and ally of President Donald Trump, Mark Levin has called on nearly 40 US states to retaliate against Britain using controversial anti-BDS laws, raising fresh questions over the willingness of Israel’s most vocal supporters to impose economic and constitutional costs on Americans in defence of a foreign state.
Levin issued the threat after Britain announced a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. “SO NOW OUR STATES CAN BOYCOTT THE UK” said Levin on X arguing that states with laws penalising boycotts of Israel should deploy them against British companies complying with the new measures.
Republican Congressman Randy Fine has gone further, explicitly threatening to use Florida law against British companies.
Fine, who helped enact Florida’s anti-BDS legislation while serving in the state legislature, warned that any British company forced to comply with the UK measures could be excluded from doing business with state and local government in Florida.
“As the British government considers forcing British companies to boycott portions of Israel,” Fine wrote, the law he sponsored “would ban any British company forced to comply from doing business with any state or local government in Florida”.
Fine claimed the consequences could extend further, saying British businesses participating in the boycott could also be prevented from operating in Florida where they required official interaction with state or local authorities, including permits or tax arrangements.
“Any company — or nation — that boycotts Israel is boycotted by Florida,” Fine declared.
Fine’s comments drew criticism from journalist Glenn Greenwald, who questioned why Florida should risk its own economic interests over a dispute involving Israel.
READ: Texas teacher fired for refusing to sign anti-BDS oath
“Why would Florida sacrifice its business interests and those of its citizens to benefit Israel? We all know why,” Greenwald wrote on X. In another post, he accused Fine of being prepared to impose costs on Floridians in order to “protect Israel and punish the UK”.
The UK is one of Florida’s largest foreign investors. According to figures published by the state, British companies support more than 70,000 jobs in Florida, while hundreds of UK-owned businesses operate across the state. Bilateral trade was valued at $5.8 billion in 2022.
The dispute also highlighted the unusually broad scope of Florida’s anti-BDS law. The legislation defines a boycott of Israel as action restricting commercial relations not only with Israel but also with businesses operating in “Israeli-controlled territories”, a definition that includes illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Britain’s measures, however, are directed specifically at trade with Israeli settlements rather than at Israel as a whole. The UK, along with other governments, maintains that the settlements are illegal under international law.
Levin referred to “close to 40 states” with legislation targeting boycotts of Israel. A 2026 study by Indiana University law professor Joseph Tomain identified 38 states with anti-BDS measures, although the laws differ significantly in scope and enforcement.
In a number of states, companies seeking government contracts must certify that they are not participating in a boycott of Israel. Other states have adopted provisions allowing public investment funds to divest from companies deemed to be engaged in such boycotts.
The pro-Israel anti-BDS measures have faced repeated constitutional challenges over whether governments can condition public contracts on an individual or company’s position towards a political boycott of a foreign state.
Civil liberties groups have argued that anti-BDS laws infringe First Amendment protections.
Federal courts have blocked or found constitutional problems with anti-BDS measures in several states, including Kansas, Arizona and Georgia. In the Georgia case involving journalist Abby Martin, a federal judge ruled that requiring her to certify that she was not boycotting Israel as a condition of a university speaking contract violated the First Amendment.
The legal position is not uniform. In 2022, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Arkansas’s anti-BDS law, finding that it regulated commercial conduct rather than protected expression. The Supreme Court later declined to hear an appeal, leaving the ruling in place without establishing a nationwide precedent on all anti-BDS laws.
READ: ‘Major victory’ as US federal judge slams anti-BDS laws unconstitutional
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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