Showing posts with label J Street. Show all posts

Dec 7, 2021

The US government must speak out against settler violence--from J Street

My son Mattan is living proof that a more just and equal society is possible.

It was our family’s landmark case in the Israeli High Court over twenty years ago that helped bring about the official recognition of equal rights for LGBT+ parents in Israel. It was a proud moment for my family, for our community, and for Israel.

Fast forward to last week, when Mattan was arrested in the occupied West Bank by Israeli police.

He and other Jewish Israeli peace advocates have been staying near the West Bank town of a-Tuwani to learn Arabic and help document and deter a dangerous spike in settler attacks this year.

Gangs from nearby settlements have been trying to harass and intimidate Palestinians off their land by burning farmland, slaughtering livestock, vandalizing property, throwing rocks and firing weapons into towns. Ongoing attacks this year have left several dead, dozens injured and one child in the hospital after a rock fractured his skull.

The IDF -- tasked only with protecting Israeli citizens (but not with protecting vulnerable Palestinian civilians) -- has too often stood idly by, acted as security guards for the attackers, or even turned on peace activists to prevent them from filming the violence. Since West Bank Palestinians aren’t citizens, Israeli authorities almost never bother to charge settlers or hold anyone accountable for the attacks.

The US government must speak out against settler violence
Add your name if you agree

Last week, my son and his colleagues were abruptly arrested after witnessing an altercation between a settler and local Palestinians. They faced excessive, trumped-up charges which were dropped entirely a day later, but the message sent by these arrests and recent IDF raids on Israeli and Palestinian activists is clear: Stop speaking out about the occupation and settler violence. Stop making noise. Stop pointing cameras at the injustice that’s happening here.

“I don’t know if they realize this, but it just makes us more determined to stay and fight back,” Mattan told me. “We’re not going to be intimidated; we know our rights; we know what we believe in and we know the people that we’re fighting with.”

That’s where we come in.

Israeli and Palestinian peace activists are on the frontlines fighting for a better future, and we have to have their backs.

Just this week -- following both public and behind-the-scenes pressure from the Biden administration, as well as internal pressure from progressives within the Israeli government -- Israeli authorities significantly delayed plans for a major new settlement between East Jerusalem and Ramallah. It shows that when the US government acts with determination and clarity, it can have a major positive impact.

Now, we must call on the Biden administration to build on this progress and press for Israeli authorities to confront settler violence, to hold perpetrators of violence accountable no matter their citizenship, and to uphold the principles of justice and equality for both Israelis and Palestinians.

The US government must speak out against settler violence
Add your name if you agree

It might not be the usual response after having your son released from jail, but let me tell you: I’ve never been prouder.

It makes me swell with pride to see him continue the fight for equality, dignity and the basic rights of all families to live freely and raise their children in peace.

I hope it’s also a reminder to those of us in America that we are not alone in this struggle, and we cannot give up. There are brave and determined people on the ground working every day to build a better future. As Israel’s strongest partner and closest friend, America has to have their backs.

Please take a moment to add your name and call on the Biden administration to make addressing settler violence a priority in the US-Israel relationship.

Thank you, sincerely, for your support.

Ruti Kadish
National Director of Communal Relations, J Street

Apr 22, 2017

Sebastia, Nablus, Palestine: Israeli Soldiers Bulldozing Roman Ruins

On a recent trip to Palestine one could not help but notice the tragedy of the Roman Ruins as our tour guide shared the story of the Israeli government preventing archaeological excavations in this historic town.

We were literally walking on roman Mosaics--yes, many scientific groups wanted to explore the area but they are barred from making progress and preventing tourism from helping the economy of this beautiful, friendly and historic Palestinian town.

Our guide said as we walked through the ruins of the Roman Amphitheatre, "If you look at the pictures from three years ago you will see that things look different now, there was a wall there and part of the theatre but the Israeli government bulldozed this area to make a parking lot."

This amazing story and sentiment runs through the villages and countryside of Palestine. Their olive groves, centuries old farmlands and simply water for the household are often diverted by the Israeli settlements. Yes, their settlement swimming pools are full as the original villagers struggle to bathe their children.

It is an odd situation and a grave story and one wonders how it is justified.

Trying to get the word out about this land of delicious food, important history and unending vistas of almond orchards and olive trees.

I wish everyone could visit this historic land and learn the story of Palestine.

Highly recommending the Siraj Center and Bike Palestine for an eye opening vacation and adventure.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.......I found this story from the Daily Beast to further illustrate the situation.

Jaafar Ashtiyeh / AFP / Getty Images

PROTEST

03.08.132:45 PM ET

Settlers Dump Sewage On Palestinian Land

Israeli settlers from Shavei Shomron have recently started dumping untreated sewage on the farmland in Sebastiya, a small Palestinian town in the West Bank just north of Nablus. Today, Sebastiya organized its first popular demonstration in 36 years specifically to draw attention to the issue of the sewage contaminating their lands.

“We want to farm our land in peace,” Ahmed Kayed, a resident of Sebastiya and the organizer of today’s protest, told me. “But the settlers are cutting our olive trees, keeping us from our land. Now their sewage is flowing through our land, poisoning it.”

Kayed hopes that today will be Sebastiya’s first of many weekly popular demonstrations like those in Bil’in, Ni’lin and Nabi Saleh. In preparation, he proudly unfurled a sign that read, “This is our land. Get the shit out of here!”

As a village, Sebastiya is known for its picturesque Roman ruins dating back to 800 BCE, making Sebastiya one of the oldest and most historic villages in the West Bank. Before 1967, these ruins were a major tourist attraction of the Middle East. However, since the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) occupied the land, tourism has plummeted with several shops being forced to close, draining the small town’s economy. Once the first Israeli settlement was built in 1975—the second Israeli settlement in the West Bank ever, preceded only by Hebron—the village became characterized by settler violence.

Now it is known for their sewage.

At the demonstration, 150 activists—including Israelis, internationals and Palestinians from Sebastiya and surrounding villages—marched en masse from the village to the valley. On one side of the valley is a grove of olive trees, each of them tagged with a note in Arabic notifying the farmer that it will be cleared. Above the olive grove, the American suburb-like perfectly painted white houses and red roofs of the Shavei Shomron settlement are perched on the highest hill, overlooking the entire valley. IDF soldiers stood guard next to two tanks, midway down the mountain between the Palestinian protesters and the Israeli settlement.

A trickle of sewage flowed like a small creek through the valley’s clearing.

“It is quite obvious that Palestinians in the West Bank are oppressed, and important that conscientious people support them in their struggle,” Kobi Snitz, an Israeli activist from Tel Aviv, told me when I asked him what brought him here. “Especially Israelis, since this violence clearly takes place in our name.”

Despite the stench of sewage, Palestinian Muslim protestors carried their rugs and performed Friday noon prayers on the land in the valley—bowing and murmuring “Allahu Akhbar” while surrounded on one side by olive trees marked for destruction, and on the other by the Israeli settlement responsible for the trickle of sewage and eight IDF soldiers in plain sight with their fingers on the trigger, ready to shoot high-velocity teargas canisters into the crowd.

Once Friday prayers had ended, the protestors—waving Palestinian and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine flags—advanced up the side of the mountain, drawing kuffiyehs over their mouths and noses in anticipation of the onslaught of suffocating teargas from the IDF soldiers. True to form, the IDF soldiers responded by firing teargas canisters—routine for a West Bank demonstration—sending protesters running back down the mountain and away from the clearing, crying, coughing and spluttering the suffocating gas out of their eyes and mouths, leaving their land filled with the clouds of noxious teargas and the ever-present stink of sewage.

Jul 17, 2016

J Street's Jeremy Ben-Ami Talks the Danger of The Republican Platform and His Quest for Israeli-Palestinian Peace

Tomorrow, the Republican National Convention will kick off in Cleveland. The Democrats will start pouring into Philadelphia the week after. After almost a year of heated political maneuvering, we’re about to enter into the homestretch of 2016.

In the lead-up to the conventions, the Democratic and Republican parties completed work on their party platforms this week, and the documents tell the tale of two parties moving in very different directions when it comes to Israel.

While Democrats made modest progress toward a balanced, productive policy, the GOP took an alarming turn in a dangerous direction.

The Democratic platform, for the first time, included language recognizing the legitimate rights and national aspirations of the Palestinian people. While affirming the importance of the two-state solution for securing Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, it made clear that Palestinians too deserve “independence, sovereignty and dignity.”

This step brings the party’s doctrine more into line with the consensus of its members, who want to see American diplomacy bring the sides together to resolve the conflict and improve the lives of both peoples.

And it moves past the tired trope that being pro-Israel means ignoring the legitimate rights of Palestinians -- a trope that both Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders rejected during their primary campaigns, when they engaged in substantive conversations about the conflict and the two-state solution.

Of course there must be and will be further movement in the party's position in the future. It’s established, bipartisan American policy to oppose unlimited expansion of Israeli settlements and a party that stands for equality and justice will one day call out the ongoing occupation. In fact, over 40 percent of the platform committee supported an amendment that would have done just that, signaling the direction in which the party is moving on these issues.

Yet while the progress in the Democratic Party is an encouraging sign for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans, changes in the Republican Party platform are a sobering reminder that irresponsible and extreme ideas are gaining traction on the American political right.

For decades, Republican presidents have combined strong support for Israeli security with opposition to settlements and support for two states. President George H.W. Bush withheld loan guarantees and President George W. Bush called for a Palestinian state in a landmark Rose Garden speech. Both put the full weight of American diplomacy -- at Madrid and Annapolis -- behind efforts to resolve the conflict.

These positions have formed the basis for decades of bipartisan consensus around Israel and the US-Israel relationship.

The 2016 Republican platform disregards that legacy entirely. It withdraws support for the two-state solution, deletes all reference to Palestinians and makes a point of emphatically rejecting the notion that Israel is an occupying power in the West Bank.

These positions move the GOP far outside the American consensus and place the party at odds not just with the 80 percent of Jewish Americans who support two states -- but with the stated position of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Republican abandonment of its commitment to resolving the conflict and securing Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state lines the party up with the minority of Israelis who support the settlement movement and one-state annexationists.

These changes didn’t come from nowhere -- they appear to be driven by the concerted lobbying efforts of far-right activists in groups like “Iron Dome PAC." These hardliners have even slammed AIPAC from the right, insisting that they give up on bipartisanship altogether. They want their party to equate support for Israel with support for Greater Israel -- and they want to treat Palestinians as if they don’t exist.

These ideas are not just hopelessly out of touch with reality, and with most voters. They are dangerous.

But one need look no further than this Congress to feel concern that these forces are succeeding in promoting legislation, sometimes supported by more mainstream groups, that seeks to blur the Green Line and undermine the basis for the two-state solution.

For those who believe the future of Israelis and Palestinians -- and possibly the peace and security of the Middle East -- depend on a negotiated resolution of their conflict, the growing partisan divide on these issues must be of real concern.

We can only hope that once Election Day is past, responsible leaders in the Republican Party who understand the region and the world will stand up to those advancing a reckless agenda and help bring the parties back into alignment on these critical issues.

Our goal must be rebuilding bipartisan consensus around diplomacy and two states, not making Israel even more of a partisan political football.

- Jeremy

Mar 20, 2016

Did You Ever Wonder About J Street

J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, we advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

What We Believe

We support the people and state of Israel, their right to defend themselves and to live in peace and enduring security.

We seek a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people living in peace and security alongside the state of Palestine as the national homeland of the Palestinian people.

Ending the occupation and achieving two states is essential to Israeli and American national interests and security as well as to Jewish and democratic values.

Being pro-Israel means speaking out for policies that promote Israel’s interests and align with our values and against those that don’t, irrespective of the present government’s policies. As supporters of Israel, we have not only the right but the obligation to speak out when we think the policies or actions of the American or Israeli governments damage those interests or run counter to our values.

What We Do

As Americans, we advocate in Washington and in national politics for American policy that advances diplomatic resolution of Israel’s conflicts with its neighbors.

American policy plays an important role in the Middle East, and the voices of Jewish and other pro-Israel Americans are critical in shaping that policy. Through its advocacy and political work, J Street mobilizes support for American policy that helps resolve Israel’s conflicts diplomatically and re-shapes political perceptions of what it means to be pro-Israel.

Within the American Jewish community, we advocate that our institutions and leaders ground our relationship with Israel in the same values they apply to other issues, including freedom, justice and peace – the very principles set forth in Israel’s Declaration of Independence.

We urge Jewish communal officials and institutions to demonstrate leadership by speaking out in support of policies that align with our interests and values and against those that don’t. We also promote vibrant and respectful discourse about Israel within the Jewish community, expanding American connections to and support for Israel.

copied from J Street.org

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Couldn't help but notice Mr Ben-Ami on The Smerconish Show yesterday afternoon on CNN.

Always listening to Geraldo Rivera talking about J Street and how he admired and belonged to their organization. I had to find out more about it.

It seemed like Mr Ben-Ami speaking for the organization was very against trump for President.

Trump is a very scary figure to me, also. The fellow opposing Mr. Ben-Ami in the conversation was definitely against his ideas but he spoke in such a confusing tone his reasons for his disagreement were a little hard to understand.

Okay....what do you think?

Would love to hear your comments--agree or disagree.

Ronnie from Pitbulls for Peace and The Ronnie Republic Radio Round-Up always watches
Smerconish, likes J Street and Geraldo

May 1, 2014

Geraldo Rivera Radio Round-Up: Geraldo's Back

English: Yasser Arafat at 'From Peacemaking to Peacebuilding' at the Annual Meeting 2001 of the World Economic Forum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Geraldo Rivera. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Have to say it.......Good News........Geraldo's Back!

Seriously, Geraldo Rivera runs one of the best radio talk shows out there today--WABC New York--9-11 AM Central Time Zone-------I listen to it on my Chromebook.........and watch it on the streaming video.

Geraldo gets all the info--agree or disagree--he runs an intelligent show.

Geraldo has the magic to say his opinion, bring out the opposite opinion of the guest......and then say thank you. The listener is the winner because we get the info--we get to hear both sides.

Amazing conversation yesterday--Geraldo Rivera chatted with Alan Dershowitz--again a partial disagreement--about former Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat and his decision to back away on the peace agreement channeled by then President Bill Clinton. Geraldo told us that Arafat talked to him directly and said this was the biggest mistake of his life and his biggest regret but his hesitation came from the relationship of Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and Arafat felt this would have negative repercussions on the agreement.

Alan Dershowitz said in his opinion the real reason it was not signed was because Jimmy Carter had instructed Arafat not to sign it.

Always, trying to understand the Middle East, two insiders giving their take on the situation--two people who actually spoke to the individuals involved--really, how often do you hear that kind of thing on talk radio......This will be available on the podcast to hear the conversation again. It is important to understand the middle east because it affects the world--a good conversation between friends but the listener gets the info.........I do not like angry talk because we lose info.

Comparison--today on KTOK morning drive with Rick Roberts in Oklahoma....Oklahoma City......tries to stir up fear about Obama Care everyday--yes, it's disgusting, because in true Bill O'Reilly style he uses his podium to create panic when he could use it to give out much needed information.

Bad Job Rick Roberts--was this why you were drummed out of San Diego--fear mongering is such an unintelligent way to run a radio show--he said today it is just a matter of time until someone dies from Obama Care similar to the botched execution recently in Oklahoma. Really, Rick, exactly how will that take place?

Perhaps Geraldo should run for office--you have to give him credit for working across the table and engaging in a conversation. It's not like the repubs do not need to learn this rule.

The cool thing about Geraldo Rivera--he has the gift of conversation and appreciating the difference in others--take a clue Bill o'Reilly and GOP--this could work for you.

Many callers said today they were glad Geraldo was back, too....they chat with him as if he was their neighbor.......Geraldo talks the vibe of New York.....it's a fun show.

Geraldo also talked today about his affiliation with J Street and his personal views on Israel--Palestian peace. Geraldo and Alan disagreed on the settlements yesterday and Geraldo feels like J Street and most Jews in America have the right ideas for negotiation for modern times.

J Street

Nonprofit organization

J Street is a nonprofit liberal advocacy group based in the United States whose stated aim is to promote American leadership to end the Arab–Israeli and Israel–Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically. It was founded in April 2008. Wikipedia