According to the law, anyone calling for a boycott of Israel, including the illegal settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, can be sued by the boycott's targets without having to prove that they sustained damage, and any person or a company that declares a boycott of Israel will not be able to bid in government tenders.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said the boycott law "reflects democracy in Israel."

Democracy, in Abraham Lincoln's words, is "the government of the people, by the people, for the people." Thus, the rights of all the citizens of the state must be equally recognized.

Are the rights of all Israeli citizens respected? No. Earlier this year, David Rotem, Israeli member of Parliament and the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, stated, "Israel is a Jewish and democratic state, not a state of all its citizens." Not a state of all its citizens!

How can a state claim to have a democratic form of government while not accepting the equality of all its citizens regardless of race or religion? How can a state claim to be a democracy and reserve the rights of nationality to a select group? Isn't it an oxymoron to limit basic rights to one group alone and yet persist in calling the state a democracy?

Palestinian citizens of Israel can vote, but they remain a subordinated minority - by Israeli law! Here are a few examples of the racist policies: (1) Palestinians, expelled from their homes in 1948, are denied their legal right of return solely because they are not Jewish, while Jews from all over the world are granted automatic citizenship; (2) Palestinian towns and villages are prohibited from expanding, while new communities are being built for Jews; (3) A dual system of law discriminates between Jewish Israelis and indigenous Palestinians based on "Jewish nationality."

And let us not forget the 44-year-long illegal military occupation of the West Bank, Jerusalem and the control of Gaza!

This boycott law is itself a violation of one of the keystones of any democratic system: the right to free speech. The new law makes it illegal for Israelis and Palestinians to advocate nonviolently to counter the ever-growing illegal Jewish-only colonies built on Palestinian land, and the ever-growing racist laws against Palestinian citizens of Israel.

The call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS), issued in 2005 and supported by Palestinian civil society, calls for Israel to comply with international law by: (1) Ending its occupation and colonization of Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; (2) Recognizing the fundamental rights of Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and (3) Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194. It is also supported by hundreds of Israelis who appeal for a "boycott [of] Israeli goods and Israeli institutions." "This is the only road left," they wrote in a letter to the [UK] Guardian. "Help us all, please!"

Where shall we stand: with domination, or with equality?