Establishes the "Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler violence act" to prohibit not-for-profit corporations from engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity; allows for recovery of a civil penalty by the state attorney general; creates a private right of action for violations.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6992
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 16, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sen. BRISPORT -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed to the Committee on Corporations, Authorities
and Commissions
AN ACT to amend the not-for-profit corporation law, in relation to
establishing the "Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli
settler violence act" to prohibit not-for-profit corporations from
engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "Not on our dime!: Ending New York funding of Israeli settler
3 violence act".
4 § 2. The not-for-profit corporation law is amended by adding a new
5 section 116 to read as follows:
6 § 116. Unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity.
7 (a) Definitions. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the
8 contrary, for the purposes of this section, the following terms shall
9 have the following meanings:
10 (1) "Unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity" means aiding
11 and abetting activity by the government of Israel, or citizen thereof,
12 that is illegal under any of the international treaties signed at Geneva
13 on the twelfth day of August, nineteen forty-nine, as amended, or any
14 protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party,
15 including:
16 (i) the unlawful transfer of Israeli civilians into occupied territo-
17 ry;
18 (ii) acts of violence committed by Israeli citizens against protected
19 persons living in occupied territory, including but not limited to homi-
20 cide, assault, and other acts of physical violence; use of firearms,
21 explosives, or other deadly force; the killing or harming of animals,
22 livestock, trees, or crops; the destruction, damage, or vandalism of
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10667-04-3
S. 6992 2
1 Palestinian property; or blocking access to Palestinian lands by fencing
2 off land, erecting structures, or other means;
3 (iii) the forced transfer or eviction of protected persons within
4 occupied territory, or the deportation of protected persons from occu-
5 pied territory;
6 (iv) the unilateral acquisition and annexation of land in occupied
7 territory; and/or
8 (v) the appropriation, expropriation, seizure, destruction, demoli-
9 tion, dismantlement, or confiscation, in whole or in part, of private
10 Palestinian land or residential, business, social, or public structures
11 or infrastructure, inhabited or uninhabited, including but not limited
12 to homes, apartment buildings, retail shops, food markets, animal shel-
13 ters, walls, warehouses, water pipes, water storage facilities, sewage
14 systems, electrical lines, roads, medical facilities, and network facil-
15 ities.
16 (2) "Occupied territory" means the Israeli-occupied West Bank, includ-
17 ing East Jerusalem.
18 (3) "Protected persons" includes civilians in occupied territory in
19 accordance with international humanitarian law.
20 (b) Unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity prohibited.
21 Unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity by a not-for-profit
22 corporation shall be prohibited as against public policy and inconsist-
23 ent with any charitable purpose.
24 (c) Recovery of civil penalty by attorney general. The attorney gener-
25 al may bring an action in the name and on behalf of the state against
26 any trustee, director, manager, or other officer or agent of a not-for-
27 profit corporation, or against a not-for-profit corporation, foreign or
28 domestic, to recover a sum of not less than one million dollars for
29 knowingly engaging in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activ-
30 ities in violation of paragraph (b) of this section. Such action shall
31 be brought no later than ten years after the commission of the act upon
32 which such action is based.
33 (d) Private right of action. An individual damaged by a violation of
34 this section may bring a civil action against any trustee, director,
35 manager, or other officer or agent of a not-for-profit corporation, or
36 against a not-for-profit corporation, foreign or domestic, to enjoin
37 unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activities by a not-for-pro-
38 fit corporation in violation of paragraph (b) of this section and
39 recover actual damages for knowingly engaging in such violations. Such
40 action shall be brought no later than ten years after the commission of
41 the act upon which such action is based. A court may also award attor-
42 neys' fees to a prevailing plaintiff.
43 § 3. Subparagraph 3-b of paragraph (a) of section 102 of the not-for-
44 profit corporation law, as amended by chapter 23 of the laws of 2014, is
45 amended to read as follows:
46 (3-b) "Charitable purposes" of a corporation means one or more of the
47 following purposes: charitable, educational, religious, scientific,
48 literary, cultural or for the prevention of cruelty to children or
49 animals. The term "charitable purposes" shall not include any acts
50 committed in violation of section one hundred sixteen of this article.
51 § 4. Paragraph (a) of section 112 of the not-for-profit corporation
52 law is amended by adding a new subparagraph 11 to read as follows:
53 (11) To dissolve a charitable corporation for violations of section
54 one hundred sixteen of this article.
55 § 5. This act shall take effect immediately.
