Progressive members of the Democratic supermajority in the Illinois General Assembly are pushing forward a bill to reverse the decade-old state ban on boycotts of Israel , Capital News Illinois reported on Sunday.

Since 2015, Illinois has forbidden the investment of state pension funds in companies that engage in any form of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.

The official BDS Movement was launched 20 years ago as a means of non-violent action in the face of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, modelled on the approach that ended Apartheid in South Africa.

In the US, 38 states now have some measure of an anti-BDS law that prevents a company or an individual from receiving government contracts if they demonstrate an anti-Israel stance. Ten years ago, Illinois was at the forefront of the campaign.

The state set up the Illinois Investment Policy Board for the sole purpose of looking into whether certain companies act against Israeli interests, Capital News pointed out.

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

The current list of 30 banned companies includes Air Canada, which apologised earlier this year after passengers reported that some of its in-flight maps did not label the state of Israel and instead opted for "Palestinian territories."

Uniliver, the parent company of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, is also on the list after it decided in 2021 not to sell its products in the territories Israel occupied after 1967 - namely the occupied West Bank in this case - because it is, according to the United Nations, “an internationally recognised illegal occupation", the company maintained.

Now, Illinois Democrat and the first Palestinian American elected to the state legislature, Abdelnasser Rashid, has introduced House Bill 2723 to repeal the anti-boycott law.

While one-fifth of the Democratic caucus, including the leaders of the Latino, Black, and Progressive caucuses, initially supported the bill, Capital News said, it has been stalled.

With a Democratic supermajority in place, progressives likely want to take advantage of the tide, especially with multiple polls showing support for Israel among the American public is dropping .

At the same time, there may be pressure from the top to shelve the bill, given the pro-Israel billionaire and Democratic Governor JB Pritzker is an expected presidential nominee for the 2028 election, and will not want perceived anti-Israel movement within his state to hold back his campaign, Capital News reported.

The news report cited J Street - a pro-Israel advocacy group - as not taking a position on boycott laws either way, as long as boycotts are "initiatives which are limited to opposing the occupation" along the 1967 lines, versus calls to abolish the entire state of Israel.

At the senate level in the Illinois legislature, some lawmakers have pulled their co-sponsorship of that chamber's anti-Israel boycott bill in recent weeks.