AUSTIN, Sunday, April 28, 2019 (WAFA) – Bahia Amawi, a Texas speech pathologist who lost her school contract because she refused to sign an anti-Israeli boycott agreement, has won a federal judge ruling in her favor, saying she hopes others are inspired to stand up for their beliefs.

In a victory for freedom of speech advocates and a setback for conservative state leaders, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman on Thursday issued a temporary injunction on a politically charged law that bars state contract workers from boycotting Israel, according to AP.

“I know I was on the right side of this fight,” Amawi said at the press conference at a local office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which filed the lawsuit on her behalf. “I didn’t think, ‘I’m going to run away from this fight.’ I really wanted to pursue it. Not just for me, but for the kids that I service, my own children and everybody in Texas.”

In the 56-page opinion, Pitman found that the state could not prohibit boycotting the state of Israel as a condition of public employment. His opinion is the third by a federal judge since last year against state legislation that aims to use public money to deter anti-Israel activity.

Amawi, who worked as an independently contracted speech pathologist at Pflugerville ISD, lost her job in September 2018 after refusing to sign an addendum to her contract that included the Israel boycott language.

In December, she filed a lawsuit with the council, which is known as CAIR, against Attorney General Ken Paxton and Pflugerville ISD.

M.N