New York governor Andrew Cuomo orders a boycott of anti-Israel movement

Mr Cuomo’s executive order has reportedly inspired Chuck Schumer to implement the divestment on a federal level

Mr Cuomo joined the city's 'Celebrate Israel Parade' after announcing the divestment (AP)

New York governor Andrew Cuomo has mandated any agency under his control to divest from companies which are aligned to a Palestinian-backed boycott of Israel.

Mr Cuomo signed an executive order - the first of its kind, according to NY1 News - on Sunday.

The order affects most of state government, public boards and public-benefit corporations.

He made the announcement at the Harvard Club in Manhattan before marching in the city’s Celebrate Israel Parade.

“If you boycott against Israel, New York will boycott you,“ he said at the private club. ”If you divert revenues from Israel, New York will divert revenues from you. If you sanction Israel, New York will sanction you.”

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS) was launched in 2005 and aims to put economic and political pressure on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories. The order targets BDS but also any other boycott against Israel.

New York senator Chuck Schumer said on Sunday at an unrelated press conference that he would like to implement the order on a federal level.

“I think that the state (of New York) should not do any business with any company that participates in BDS, and I am looking at introducing a federal law to do the same thing. BDS is a movement that is just totally unfair to Israel,” he told reporters.

Omar Barghouti, a BDS founder, told the New York Times that Mr Cuomo’s order is in reaction to decreasing popular support for Israel.

“Having lost many battles for hearts and minds at the grass-roots level, Israel has adopted since 2014 a new strategy to criminalize support for BDS, from the top,” Mr Barghouti wrote in an email.

The executive order will involve compiling a list over the next six months of any groups in the BDS movement, and it will be made available to the public, based on “credible information”.

Avi Posnick, managing director of international Israeli organisation StandWithUs in New York, told The Independent: "New York does hundreds of millions of dollars in annual economic trade with Israeli entities, in addition to business done with many other partners who have commercial interests in Israel. This trade encompasses many of the state’s most important economic sectors. Governor Cuomo is defending the state's economic interests against attempts to weaken its ability to conduct trade with Israel."

Mr Cuomo has banned other things in the past based on certain political allegiances.

He implemented a travel ban on nonessential government travel to North Carolina in protest of a new bill which legalizes discrimination of transgender people. New York passed similar travel bans to Mississippi and Indiana.