Bill Text: NY S00606 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

---

Bill Title: 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.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-08 - REFERRED TO CORPORATIONS, AUTHORITIES AND COMMISSIONS [S00606 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-S00606-Introduced.html

---

                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           606

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                       (Prefiled)

                                     January 8, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. BRISPORT, GONZALEZ, JACKSON, SALAZAR -- 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 Israeli armed  forces,  the  government  of
    12  Israel, or citizen thereof, that is illegal pursuant to the Rome Statute
    13  of  the  International  Criminal Court or under any of the international
    14  treaties signed at Geneva on the twelfth day of August, nineteen  forty-
    15  nine, as amended, or any protocol to such convention to which the United
    16  States is a party, including:
    17    (i)  the unlawful transfer of Israeli civilians into occupied territo-
    18  ry;
    19    (ii) acts of violence committed by Israeli citizens against  protected
    20  persons living in occupied territory, including but not limited to homi-
    21  cide,  assault,  and  other  acts of physical violence; use of firearms,
    22  explosives, or other deadly force; the killing or  harming  of  animals,
    23  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.
                                                                   LBD00247-01-5
        S. 606                              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 and the Gaza Strip.
    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.