Activist groups call on U.S. to deny entry to Israel’s finance minister after fascistic comments re Palestinian town. He is due to address Israel Bonds conference in mid-March.
Calls for sanctions and BDS against Israel in the wake of its new government’s “bold” actions against Palestinians are causing that government to dig in. Netanyahu ally Danny Danon called on the United States to block any UN Security Council resolution against provocative Israeli actions at the holy sites in Jerusalem. While Netanyahu minister Amichai Chikli accused Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid of being the “spearhead of the BDS movement.”
Maryland’s Montgomery County Council unanimously voted to adopt a resolution that embraces the controversial IHRA working definition of antisemitism despite months of community protest.
Israel’s openly-fascistic move of shutting down seven Palestinian human rights groups in occupied territory was widely condemned by American progressives who demanded that the Biden administration take action against Israel. But rightwing Israel lobby groups were silent on the crackdown, J Street expressed “deep concern,” not condemnation. Though Americans for Peace now denounced the “persecution” of the Palestinian groups.
The latest escalation by the ADL against CAIR, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, labeling them as antisemitic because they are anti-Zionist, is further proof of the ADL’s desperation. The ADL has long worked to secure total impunity for the Israeli government. For the Palestinian community, Zionism is the political ideology that has enabled their violent subjugation and systematic dispossession. People must be able to discuss and debate these issues without being falsely smeared as anti-Semites.
In a prerecorded speech, shown at the Anti-Defamation League’s annual National Leadership Summit on May 1, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that anti-Zionism is antisemitism, tagged Palestine advocacy groups as “extremists”, and equated left critics of Israel with white supremacists.
“We deplore the Israeli government’s decision to introduce senseless violence to a prayer space. There was no need for the violence we witnessed. This situation
could have been defused peacefully. This Ramadan/Easter/Passover Israel betrayed its trust with the world’s Muslims, Christians and Jews.” From JVP rabbis’ statement on the fourth day of Passover.
Earlier this month a leaked memo revealed that that Anti-Defamation League (ADL) leaders had debated ending their controversial police delegations to Israel two years ago. Activists say the memo shows why progressive groups should cut ties with the organization.
In response to backlash from pro-Israel groups the Sierra Club has reversed its decision to cancel a series of educational trips to the country.
Noura Erakat writes in the book, “A Land With a People,” that the volume tackles power head-on, “charting the struggle against Zionism within the Jewish communities that Zionism purportedly serves. Its anti-Zionist Jewish stories are critical to decolonization.” Dr. Hatim Kanaaneh relates that the book traces some of his own history with the organization “Jewish Voice for Peace,” as he struggled to bring Palestinian narratives to a global audience.