The pressure on the U.S. government to come out against Israel’s fascistic suppression of Palestinian human rights organizations just ratcheted up. U.S. liberal Zionist groups are now united in calling the Israeli actions “persecution” and demanding U.S. action.
Last week, after Israel raided seven of the organizations in the occupied West Bank and sought to close them down as supposed terrorist fronts, we reported the failure of some liberal Zionists to fully support the Palestinian human rights groups. While Americans for Peace Now called the action “persecution,” J Street merely expressed “concern” about the designation– a signal that the Biden administration then seemed to echo in its appalling comments on the raids. Because Biden had implicitly given the green light to the persecution.
Well, credit to the liberal Zionists. Eight leading American liberal Zionist groups have now called out the Israeli government and sent a strong and “urgent” letter to the Secretary of State. The groups say they “condemn” the Israeli raids on the groups, state that European states and the CIA have found no evidence for the designation and demand that the U.S. take action.
“We urge you to publicly denounce these raids and call upon the Israeli government to reverse its ‘terrorist’ determination and cease its ongoing campaign of harassment,” the letter concludes.
The letter is signed by J Street, New Israel Fund, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, T’ruah, Reconstructionist Rabbis, and other Zionist groups.
J Street called the Israeli actions “persecution” in announcing the letter.
Another excellent move: J Street also signed on to a statement by 47 organizations that includes many leading human rights groups in Israel (B’Tselem, Gisha, Zochrot, Ir Amim) condemning the designation. J Street said it had joined “46 organizations standing in solidarity with Palestinian human rights organizations that have been baselessly labeled as terrorist groups. We stand together in saying: Human Rights Are Not Terrorism.”
I stress J Street because it has clout inside the Democratic Party, including among progressives; and powerful politicians including Schumer and Pelosi listen to what it says. Its endorsement of Reps/ Jerry Nadler and Jamaal Bowman surely helped them to their wins in New York congressional primaries last night.
Let’s hope Nadler and Bowman and Andy Levin get on this campaign against this persecution.
Reps. Mark Pocan and Jim McGovern, Democrats associated with the J Street line, have already condemned the designation, in addition to Squad members and others.
It appears that growing outrage over the terrorism designation moved J Street. Dylan Williams of J Street responded two days ago to the Guardian report showing that the CIA had found no basis for the charges:
OK that’s it — the @StateDept must insist Israel reverse this repressive action: “A classified CIA report shows the agency was unable to find any evidence to support Israel’s decision to label six prominent Palestinian NGOs as “terrorist organizations.'”
Rightwing and centrist Zionist groups are still backing Israel to the hilt, of course. But the strong move by liberal Zionists suggests further fissures in the Israel lobby, which is still the gatekeeper in Washington. Those fissures will lead to the inclusion of anti-Zionist voices in the American discourse. They have been vociferous against the Israeli persecution from the start.
Ok, some people have pointed out how unsatisfactory it is to quote the assessment of ‘unnamed sources’ re the CIA report on the Israeli human rights groups. In my futile efforts to find out who these ‘unnamed sources’ are, though, I came across this gem –
https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/scheer-intelligence/john-kiriakou-israel-palestine
A former CIA mideast expert’s view of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis…John Kiriakou’s story as an Arabic-speaking former CIA agent and CIA torture whistleblower has taken a number of turns throughout his life, including a prison sentence that sent a wrecking ball through his career and personal life. During his time with the intelligence agency, however, he spent significant periods of time in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other parts of the Middle East on a quest to round up Al-Qaeda militants during the “War on Terror.”…“From the very beginning of my career at the CIA, I realized that the [threat-against-Israel narrative] was nonsense,” says Kiriakou. “Even as early as 1990 on my first trip to Saudi Arabia, no one ever mentioned Israel to me. They were obsessed with Iran [because] their existential threat was Iran. And then when you get further afield, like Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE, Oman–none of those countries have any problems with Israel….“The reason why the Israelis are always at war is because they run what comes down to an apartheid state,” he concludes. “They oppress the Palestinian people. Whether they like it or not, they’re going to have to share that land. […] The fact of the matter is, they’re going to have to give something to the Palestinians. You cannot have a South Africa-style apartheid regime–which is what they have right now–[and] expect that everything is just going to be milk and honey.”
You wrote: “Let’s hope Nadler and Bowman and Andy Levin get on this campaign against this persecution.”
Andy Levin lost his primary race, alas. AIPAC’s PACs tossed in a lot of money to make that happen. It was one of the few races where the AIPAC actually talked about Israel, denouncing Levin for his bill that included “end-use restrictions” on military aid to Israel, and dared to call both the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem part of the “occupied territories.”
Abbas, “We are ready to work with all the relevant partners in order to achieve peace and security, taking care to resist the occupation only through peaceful methods while rejecting violence and terror. We’ll continue our efforts to defend a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, striving for a just solution to the refugee problem….In the absence of a two-state solution,” Abbas concluded,” the Palestinian people have no choice but to seek their rights in a single state, with equal rights for all.” 8-22=22