A newly formed Oak Park group is campaigning against a Nov. 3 advisory referendum that asks whether Illinois should repeal laws banning state investment in companies that boycott Israel.

Oak Park Neighbors United launched its "vote no" effort after the non-binding question survived a legal challenge and was certified for the ballot, spokesman Mark Segal told the Wednesday Journal. Segal, a 30-year Oak Park resident, said the group grew out of an April township meeting where residents rejected a similar BDS-related measure 352-134.

"The genesis of Oak Park Neighbors United was when we had over 350 neighbors show up at the Oak Park Township to successfully oppose a very similar referendum being placed on the ballot," Segal said.

The group cites three reasons to vote no. It argues the referendum singles out Jewish residents and conflicts with what the group calls Oak Park's welcoming village values. Oak Park's 1968 Human Rights Ordinance bars discrimination based on national origin. The group also calls the question divisive, saying a local vote will have no effect on the international conflict. And it says the referendum distracts from pressing village concerns including zoning, affordable housing and healthcare gaps left by the closing of West Suburban Hospital.

The referendum was placed on the ballot by Oak Parkers for Free Speech, which collected more than 3,500 signatures over 12 weeks. That total far exceeded the roughly 2,000 required. The group's leaders include Caren Van Slyke, who also founded the Committee for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel.

Oak Parkers for Free Speech said in August that the measure concerns an Illinois law the group argues restricts the right to boycott, violating a unanimous 1982 Supreme Court decision protecting economic boycotts as free speech. The group said the law directly affects pensions of current and retired state employees in Oak Park.

Segal disputed that framing. He said the law does not restrict anyone's right to speak or boycott and noted no lawsuit has been filed challenging it.

The question's road to the Nov. 3 ballot included a legal fight. Oak Park's electoral board voted 2-1 in late August to overrule an objection to the referendum. Village President Vicki Scaman and Trustee Chibuike Enyia voted to keep it on the ballot; Trustee James Taglia dissented.

Attorney Michael Kasper appealed that decision to Cook County Circuit Court. Judge Viviana Martinez heard 90 minutes of arguments on Sept. 11 and took the matter under advisement, according to a Wednesday Journal report. The case has since moved to a state appellate court, where it remained pending as of Oct. 1.

A separate group, Jewish Community and Friends for Democracy, had earlier opposed the ballot question, saying "questions about a longstanding Middle East conflict do not belong on a local Oak Park ballot."

Illinois' anti-boycott law, signed in 2015 by then-Gov. Bruce Rauner, prohibits state pension funds from investing in companies participating in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, according to Capitol News Illinois. Illinois was the first state to enact such a law. Nearly 30 companies are on the state's prohibited investment list.

The Nov. 3 vote is advisory only. It will not change any law but will signal Oak Park voters' position on the state statute. Oak Park Neighbors United said it plans educational outreach in the community before Nov. 3.