New York's decade-old executive order punishing companies that boycott Israel has a blind spot: it cannot touch entire countries. As Canada and the United Kingdom move to restrict imports from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, Governor Kathy Hochul's office says her state's anti-BDS policy simply does not reach that far.
Executive Order 157, signed by then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in June 2016, requires state entities to divest from companies and institutions participating in boycott, divestment and sanctions activity targeting Israel, as reported by Gothamist. But Hochul's office told the outlet the order does not apply to Canada and the United Kingdom over their planned trade restrictions on Israeli settlements, and the administration confirmed it will not affect countries that prohibit trade with those settlements. The state's Office of General Services, which administers the order, said foreign governments simply do not fall into the category of entities the state could invest in to begin with, according to Gothamist's reporting.
The distinction matters because Canada, France and the United Kingdom reiterated their support for a two-state solution in a joint statement and said they will take steps to ban imports of goods from Israeli settlements, which they described as illegal under international law and an impediment to a two-state solution, the same report noted. Denmark, Finland and Sweden are among nine other countries also intending to restrict trade with the settlements, with the three lead nations pledging targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate or profit from them.
An Order Born From Legislative Gridlock
Cuomo signed the order after two similar anti-BDS bills failed in the state legislature amid pushback from civil liberties organizations, according to the Syracuse University Law Review. At the time, Cuomo framed it bluntly: if you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you, per the same Gothamist account. New York was not alone — Illinois became the first state to pass anti-BDS pension divestment legislation in July 2015 under Governor Bruce Rauner, creating a template later replicated nationwide, as noted by the Times of Israel. Today, New York is one of more than 35 states that have taken action against boycott or sanction efforts targeting Israel.
Those state-level laws have not gone unchallenged. Courts in Kansas, Arizona and Texas found that conditioning public contracts on refraining from political boycotts violates First Amendment speech protections, while an Arkansas court ruled otherwise. Several legislatures narrowed their laws to cover only larger commercial entities.
Hochul Has Kept the Order in Place Since 2021
Hochul, a Democrat seeking reelection this year, has kept the anti-BDS order in place since taking office in 2021 and used it to pressure Unilever in 2022 after Ben & Jerry's, a Unilever subsidiary, vowed to stop sales in the West Bank. Hochul said at the time that New York has no tolerance for discrimination or hate and pledged to keep championing the bond between New York and Israel, Gothamist reported. Unilever ultimately sold the ice cream brand's regional operations to an Israeli company, which continued Ben & Jerry's sales in the West Bank.
Basil Smikle, a Columbia University professor and former executive director of the state Democratic Party, said there is now a lot more open questioning about what Israel is doing in the region and its relationship with the United States. New York City has the largest Jewish population outside Israel, and a New York Times/Siena survey found Democratic voters split, with some saying they sympathize more with Palestinians and others saying they sympathize more with Israel. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a vocal proponent of BDS, has become a flashpoint in that debate — Hoodline has previously reported on Mamdani's revocation of the city's own anti-BDS order.
Republican Challenger Says the Order Falls Short
Bruce Blakeman, Hochul's Republican challenger and the Nassau County executive, has called her insufficiently supportive of Israel. State Assemblymember Nily Rozic said New York's anti-BDS order could be strengthened, arguing the state should examine whether its protections are strong enough and whether gaps need to be closed. The order requires the state to maintain a running list of companies and institutions participating in BDS activity, which the Office of General Services updates every six months; as of June 2026 that list contained 11 companies and institutions, and the office said all state entities have complied with the order and may not have had business with those listed institutions.
The Pension Fund Loophole Runs Even Deeper
Beyond the question of foreign governments, the order's reach stops entirely at New York's $309.7 billion pension fund, which is overseen by the state comptroller's office rather than the governor. A spokesperson for Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said the pension fund's own policy will not restrict investment in foreign bonds from Canada, the United Kingdom or other countries sanctioning Israeli settlements, since that policy applies only to public companies and public equity, not sovereign debt. The fund holds a separate policy prohibiting investment in companies determined to be engaged in BDS activity, but it is legally and administratively independent of the executive order.
That independence has drawn outside scrutiny. The pension fund holds more than $350 million in Israel Bonds as of the 2024-2026 period — over half of its foreign bond portfolio — making New York State one of the largest U.S. institutional investors in Israeli sovereign debt, according to the human rights group DAWN. In January 2026, DAWN served a 26-page legal warning to Hochul and state fiscal officers asserting that those public investments violate international law and fiduciary obligations, as reported by The Guardian.
New York City's own pension politics have shifted in the opposite direction. Former City Comptroller Brad Lander allowed nearly $40 million in city pension holdings of Israel Bonds to mature and expire without reinvestment by early 2025, ending a 50-year municipal record of buying Israeli government debt, per The Forward. His successor, Comptroller Mark Levine, plans to resume investing city pension funds in Israel Bonds, setting up a direct policy conflict with Mamdani, who favors permanent divestment, according to Mondoweiss's coverage of the dispute. Any resumption would still require approval from municipal trustees and union representatives who sit on the pension boards.
Meanwhile, Albany and Other States Diverge Sharply
State lawmakers in May 2026 reintroduced the Not On Our Dime! Act, which could remove tax-exempt status from New York-registered charities that send money to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The bill was originally authored in 2023 by Mamdani during his time in the state Assembly. New York's cautious posture toward the UK and Canada contrasts with Florida, where Republican Congressman Randy Fine warned that British companies could face restrictions over the UK's measures concerning Israeli settlements, the Jerusalem Post reported separately. New York officials, by contrast, continue to treat corporate boycotts and sovereign trade policy as legally distinct matters — a distinction that, for now, keeps Canada and the United Kingdom outside the reach of Executive Order 157.
