As anti-Israel demonstrations sweep college campuses nationwide, legal constraints are preventing universities from meeting agitators’ demands to divest from Israel in Texas.

Universities in the Lone Star State have seen their share of anti-Israel protests and encampments. Most notably, University of Texas campuses in Austin, Dallas, and Arlington have seen considerable activity, leading to the arrest of hundreds of student protesters and anti-Israel agitators.

The demonstrators’ central demand, not just in Texas but across the country, has been for their universities to divest from any financial ties with Israel. However, Texas law prohibits such a move.

In 2017, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an anti-boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) bill into law with respect to Israel, barring state governmental entities from entering into contracts with or investing in companies that boycott Israel.

The bill was authored by Rep. Phil King (R-Weatherford) and Sen. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe) and ensures that state contracts are only given to businesses that state they will not boycott or divest from Israel during the contract. According to King, Texas’ anti-BDS bill is the strongest in the country.

“In 2016, there was this growing movement of cities, counties, states, nations, and businesses deciding they were going to boycott Israel to try to bankrupt them economically,” King explained to The Dallas Express. The growing movement led him to draft the anti-BDS law.

“Part of the reason was, Texas does a lot of business with Israel,” said King. “They’re our friend, we have a lot of tourists, and they’re one of our largest trade partners. It’s wrong to try to destroy them.”

Abbott suggested as much at the time of signing, stressing the longstanding ties between Israel and Texas.

“As Israel’s number one trading partner in the United States, Texas is proud to reaffirm its support for the people of Israel, and we will continue to build on our historic partnership,” said Abbott in a press release. “Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally.”

In 2021, the Texas Holocaust, Genocide, and Antisemitism Advisory Commission was created to monitor and combat antisemitism in Texas. The statute that launched the organization used the international definition of antisemitism: “a certain perception of Jews that may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. The term includes rhetorical and physical acts of antisemitism directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals or their property or toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

King said that the commission came to him last year to report “growing whispers” of antisemitism on college campuses.

Following the report, King, alongside Rep. Dennis Paul (R-Houston), wrote a bill to prohibit academic boycotts of Israel and other foreign countries at public colleges should they prevent a student or faculty member from studying or conducting research in or about the country or interacting with the country’s scholars or representatives.

The bill states that a taxpayer-funded college is allowed to boycott a foreign country only if it is listed by the U.S. State Department as a sponsor of terrorism. Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria are the only countries currently with that designation. It went into effect in September 2023.

Protesters at UT Arlington have called for their university to ban school-sponsored study-abroad trips to Israel. Doing so would fall under academic boycotting of Israel and is now illegal.

“I think it’s interesting when I hear the protesters calling for the University of Texas to economically divest from Israel,” King told DX. “They’re not allowed by law to do that. The bottom line is that Texas has made it illegal for state colleges and universities, community colleges, too, to do any economic or academic boycott of Israel, or in any way to promote antisemitism or accept antisemitism on their campus.”

Following the October terrorist attacks against Israel by Hamas, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton released an advisory letter emphasizing the importance of standing against antisemitism, as previously covered by DX.

“Given the recent brutal Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel, it is more important than ever to enforce public policy supportive of one of America’s closest allies and a beacon of freedom in the Middle East,” read Paxton’s letter.

“Since 2017, the Texas Legislature has passed, and Governor Greg Abbott has signed into law, a series of restrictions on the ability of Governmental Entities to do business with companies that boycott energy companies, discriminate against firearm entities or associations, or boycott Israel,” he wrote. “Pursuant to these laws, no Texas Governmental Entity may enter into a contract with such boycotters or discriminators for the purchase of goods or services with a value of at least $100,000.”

AUSTIN, Texas — Capt. Christa Stedman of Austin-Travis County EMS says their overdose heat map from last week shows a troubling drug scenario that led to at least 79 separate incidents and nine deaths in the greater Austin area.

“The thing that makes this surge so different than others is most of these people weren’t trying to take opioids,” Stedman said. “They were trying to use multiple different substances — crack cocaine, methamphetamine, K2.”

If there is a silver-lining, the 17-year field expert said it was the city’s quick response teams and dispersal of hundreds of units of naloxone to counteract the deadly street narcotic.

“Some of those additional adjustments were putting additional commanders out on the street, running calls,” Stedman said. “Our community health team distributing Narcan, essentially giving it to anyone they passed.”

While the surge is reportedly over, those responsible for the spike are still mostly unknown. Patrick Eastlick, a lieutenant with the Austin Police Department’s Organized Crime Unit, says five arrests were made involving the selling of this illicit drug. However, the suspects haven’t been directly linked to this deadly batch and whether a larger local supplier or even Mexican cartels are involved is still part of an ongoing investigation. 

“Step by step, we go after the dealers, street level or higher up and just keep following leads to get to the main source,” Eastlick said.

According to a recent report from ATCEMS, Travis County has about twice as many opioid overdose deaths as any other in Texas. It’s a sobering reminder of the dangers of putting any unknown substance into your body.

“You don’t know where it came from,” Stedman said. “Even if you got it from your friend despite their best interests, unless you got it from somewhere legitimate, you’re just taking a gamble.”

Graduates from the University of Texas and other local universities are in luck: Austin is the best rental market in the U.S. for soon-to-be alumni.

Realtor.com published the article ranking the top rental markets for college graduates based on factors such as rental affordability, rental availability, job stability and job opportunities. Here’s what you need to know:

How many cities were ranked?

The housing expert website looked at 313 cities and towns with populations of over 75,000 people. These cities also sat within the nation’s 50 biggest metro areas.

How were factors measured?

For rent affordability, Realtor.com “estimated by rent-to-income ratio for households between 25 and 34 years old.” Rental availability was “estimated by rental vacancy rate.” Forecasted unemployment rate determined job stability, and online job opening data determined job opportunities.

Another factor was the “job market’s favorability toward recent college graduates, estimated by the share of new college graduate-friendly occupations.”

The average commute time and the number of establishments, such as restaurants, theaters, and shopping centers, taken from Yelp also played a role.

With all that in mind, how did Austin stack up?

In first place, Austin earned a 21.4% rent-to-income ratio and 29.6% for college grad friendly occupations. It received an average commute time of 26 minutes and Yelp culture and lifestyle businesses score of 21.5.

The Texas capital also has the highest rental vacancy rate of 9% in the Austin-Round Rock metro area.

Top 10 rental markets for college graduates in 2024

Here’s the full top 10 list:

1. Austin, Texas
2. Bloomington, Minnesota
3. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
4. Raleigh, North Carolina
5. Overland Parks, Kansas
6. Richmond, Virginia
7. Scottsdale, Arizona
8. Beaverton, Oregon
9. St. Louis, Missouri
10. Atlanta, Georgia