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Israel's violent rule increasingly driving liberal American Jews on to the streets
At odds with established Jewish organizations, many younger groups are rejecting the notion of being progressive except for Palestine
Tom McCarthy in New York
@TeeMcSee
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Wed 16 May 2018 03.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 May 2018 03.01 EDT
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Demonstrators march towards Trump Hotel in Washington on Monday to protest against the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The massacre by Israeli soldiers of dozens of Palestinians in Gaza this week has prompted a new round of protests by progressive Jewish-American groups who object to the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem – and who lump the Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu administrations together as enemies of peace in the region.
Groups such as IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and others began to step up protest activity – marches, vigils and community meet-ups – in late March, when Israeli forces killed 17 Palestinians and wounded at least 1,400 in Gaza.
The protest activity has been echoed by influential voices such as the actor Natalie Portman – who last month canceled a planned trip to Israel to accept the Genesis Prize, saying through a spokesperson that “recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her” – and the comedian Sarah Silverman, who tweeted:
The Israeli foreign ministry has said it was “protecting its citizens from thousands of violent rioters from Gaza, who have been trying to break the fence and cross into Israel, with the goal of killing or kidnapping Israelis.”
That rationalization was repeated and amplified on Tuesday by UN ambassador Nikki Haley and by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and other influential US-based institutions.
But those organizations are increasingly being taken to task by groups with younger members and different views on what it means to support the Jewish state.
“The violence that is being committed in our name, the massacre of 50-plus Palestinian protesters Monday in Gaza – we’re not going to sit idly by as that’s committed,” said Ethan Miller, a spokesman for IfNotNow.
Israel's violent rule increasingly driving liberal American Jews on to the streets
At odds with established Jewish organizations, many younger groups are rejecting the notion of being progressive except for Palestine
Tom McCarthy in New York
@TeeMcSee
Wed 16 May 2018 03.00 EDTLast modified on Wed 16 May 2018 03.01 EDT
Shares
331
Demonstrators march towards Trump Hotel in Washington on Monday to protest against the relocation of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
The massacre by Israeli soldiers of dozens of Palestinians in Gaza this week has prompted a new round of protests by progressive Jewish-American groups who object to the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem – and who lump the Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu administrations together as enemies of peace in the region.
Groups such as IfNotNow, Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice and others began to step up protest activity – marches, vigils and community meet-ups – in late March, when Israeli forces killed 17 Palestinians and wounded at least 1,400 in Gaza.
The protest activity has been echoed by influential voices such as the actor Natalie Portman – who last month canceled a planned trip to Israel to accept the Genesis Prize, saying through a spokesperson that “recent events in Israel have been extremely distressing to her” – and the comedian Sarah Silverman, who tweeted:
The Israeli foreign ministry has said it was “protecting its citizens from thousands of violent rioters from Gaza, who have been trying to break the fence and cross into Israel, with the goal of killing or kidnapping Israelis.”
That rationalization was repeated and amplified on Tuesday by UN ambassador Nikki Haley and by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and other influential US-based institutions.
But those organizations are increasingly being taken to task by groups with younger members and different views on what it means to support the Jewish state.
“The violence that is being committed in our name, the massacre of 50-plus Palestinian protesters Monday in Gaza – we’re not going to sit idly by as that’s committed,” said Ethan Miller, a spokesman for IfNotNow.
Israel's violent rule increasingly driving liberal American Jews on to the streets