Our business unit was considering a Pittsburgh office and evaluating it as a site.

One of the requirements for a site is a diverse and welcoming environment. This ballot initiative is likely to get Pittsburgh knocked off the list for consideration, as we don’t want to open offices in places that will target our Jewish employees, associates and customers for abuse.

And as a business that does business with Israeli people and businesses, we certainly won’t want to be targeted for explicit antisemitic discrimination.

I believe they’re working with local groups. Not sure if they’re government affiliated or not, but they did notify when Tampa and Houston were taken off the list for similar reasons.

Pittsburgh Israel-boycott referendum is dead after DSA declines to defend it in court

The Pittsburgh group behind a ballot referendum that would compel the city to boycott Israel said it won’t defend the measure against multiple legal challenges, ending its longshot bid to make November’s ballot.

The Democratic Socialists of America chapter announced it would not defend the effort on Sunday night, the evening before a scheduled court date for multiple challenges to the referendum. The local Jewish federation, several rabbis and the city controller all challenged the referendum in court, while both of Pennsylvania’s U.S. senators condemned it and a staffer in the mayor’s office resigned after revealing she had signed it.

“We have made the difficult but strategic decision to withdraw our petitions so that we can come back stronger, more experienced and fully ready to continue fighting for a free Palestine with all avenues available to us,” the Pittsburgh DSA chapter tweeted.

Claiming that “politicians and interest groups” are “afraid of this referendum because they know if it goes to a vote, it wins,” the group added, “Unfortunately, today their efforts to push us off November’s ballot succeeded.”

Jewish groups celebrated the move as a victory.

more...

DSA = Disgusting Shitty Anti-Semites