We are U.S. Jews who are deeply troubled by a recent speech given by the Anti-Defamation League’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, in which he defames grassroots and civil rights organizations committed to Palestinian justice and falsely conflates anti-Zionism with far right and violent extremism. Jewish communities must embrace anti-Zionist and non-Zionist voices, along with all other voices for justice.
Now is the time for serious accountability measures, not just for the sake of defending Palestinian rights under international law, but crucially to safeguard the very credibility of and respect for international law itself.
On the occasion of the Jewish Voice for Peace transition to a new leadership, leaders in the Palestinian activist community take the opportunity to honor and thank past Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson for her dedicated and strategic leadership of an organization that has done so much to advance Palestinian rights to self-determination, freedom, justice, and equality in the U.S. and beyond.
UMass Amherst faculty issue an open letter pushing back on a statement by Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy that was critical of the upcoming panel “Criminalizing Dissent: The Attack on BDS and American Democracy.”
Leading Middle East and Islamic studies scholars call on President Trump immediately to pull back from the brink of a war with the Islamic Republic of Iran: “It is clear to us that the human, diplomatic, legal, political, and economic costs to both countries, the Persian Gulf and larger Middle East, the global economy and the global system of international humanitarian law of a US attack would be even more devastating than was the US invasion of Iraq sixteen years ago.”
The Anthropology Graduate Student Association at UCLA supports Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi who has come under attack for a recent lecture at the university: “As graduate students in the Department of Anthropology who lead discussion sections with undergraduate students, we are committed to creating inclusive and justice-centered academic settings. This includes ensuring that the loudest and most dominant perspectives in our society do not silence empirically verifiable evidence of oppression.”
Cultural workers in Gaza call on the world to boycott the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Tel Aviv, and announce the creation of the Gazavision festival: “Even when Israel bombs us, imprisons our men, women and children, kills and maims thousands of Palestinian protesters on the Great Return March and does everything to silence our voices, we will continue to sing.”
Citing faculty and students who were denied entry into Israel, New York University’s Department of Social and Cultural Analysis passes a resolution that pledges non-cooperation with the university’s study abroad program in Tel Aviv.
Emory Students for Justice in Palestine has come under attack for educational events, flyers, and protests it organized as part of Israel Apartheid Week. “Smearing racial justice advocates as ‘anti-Semites’ is an increasingly visible trend,” the organization writes, and they “reject the notion that challenges to US foreign policy and advocacy for justice in the Middle East are a form of discrimination against our friends in the Jewish community.” Emory SJP also calls on Emory University to cease validating the bigoted smear campaign and to discipline students and other Emory community members that are complicit in the ongoing harassment.
New York City residents write an open letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio saying his recent statements about Israel and antisemitism are extremely troubling and damaging: “You speak about Israel providing Jewish safety. Standing up for Israeli apartheid, as you have repeatedly done, does not promote safety. Quite the contrary.”