By fighting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, J Street has allowed itself to be get distracted from its goal of opposing the Occupation. Above, a billboard of Benjamin Netanyahu leading into the 2015 Israeli elections. Credit: CreativeCommons / Dr. Avishai Teicher.
The American Jewish community is now at a crossroads. The recent Israeli elections, following the latest war on Gaza by just six months, highlighted the deep divisions between the liberal values held by a majority of American Jews, and an increasingly right-wing Israel that systematically suppresses the rights of Palestinians on both sides of the Green Line.
The two of us found our first political homes in opposing oppressive Israeli policies with J Street, after witnessing a piece of the everyday inhumanity of the Occupation while traveling in Israel/Palestine. The more we learned, and the more we experienced, the harder it was for us to reconcile Jewish social justice values of full equality and freedom with what we saw happening to Palestinians under Israeli control.
Eventually, frustration and disappointment with J Street’s political model prompted us to seek a home for our activism elsewhere. For us, it was the lack of tangible action to put pressure on Israel to change, the opposition to Palestinian-led strategies to achieve justice, and the irreconcilability of Jewish social justice values of full equality and freedom with the liberal Zionist claim that Israel can be both an equal rights democracy and a state that privileges Jews.
Jessie’s gradual disillusionment was cemented after witnessing the brutality of an IDF raid in Balata refugee camp during Operation Brothers’ Keeper and coming home to tepid emails from J Street about opposing divestment from Israeli occupation.
Liza left after grappling with the idea that preserving a state with a Jewish majority also depended on enforcing the exclusion of Palestinians through displacement, military occupation and discrimination.
For each of us, this political journey led us to get involved with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, with the understanding that working simultaneously for liberation for Palestinians from Israeli military occupation, and liberation for Jewish Israelis from an increasingly militarized, anti-democratic, and racist society required external pressure.
Social movement history has proven that people with different self interests, and indeed with different tactics, can work towards the same goal. But J Street’s desire until now to remain inside the mainstream pro-Israel camp has caused them to actively work against Palestinians and their allies who are using nonviolent tactics to bring about the end of the occupation.
By fighting BDS, J Street has allowed itself to be get distracted from its goal of opposing the Occupation, instead partnering with right-wing groups like StandWithUs who consistently fight human rights activists.
For the most part, we share the same social justice values and we want the same things that J Street wants: an end to the Occupation and an end to discrimination and violence against all the people in Israel and Palestine.
But, we believe that full liberation and safety for both peoples must be based on political equality and human dignity, not demographic segregation. And this liberation will not happen without outside pressure.
As young American Jews who care deeply about the future of all people in Israel and Palestine, we cannot sit on the sidelines and wait for the next election cycle, or a false peace process, while Israel hurtles along an increasingly racist and oppressive path. And far from fearing losing an older Jewish community’s acceptance, we have chosen to create our own, one that honors our Jewish history and values while working alongside Palestinians fighting for their rights.
The reelection of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a blatantly racist and anti-peace platform proved that only external pressure will bring Israel closer towards peace. Netanyahu’s actions of the last few weeks has highlighted for many what has been true for a long time, that the Israeli government is not serious about making peace. Thus far, limited words of criticism from elected leaders and from American Jews have done little to change this trajectory.
And while we are heartened by the fact that voices of leadership are considering changing the US approach to Palestinian statehood at the UN, that is not enough. Now that the Prime Minister himself has come out against two states, it is clear that repeating the same peace process framework is fruitless. It’s time now to consider, not just carrots, but also sticks that will encourage Israel towards a just peace agreement with Palestinians.
We are glad J Street seems to be embracing new forms of concrete actions to change policy, and we hope that they will stop using their credentials as a peace organization to fight other non-violent pressure tactics, namely boycott, divestment and sanctions.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection shows that Israel is not willing to change on its own. This is why we are calling on all people who value freedom and equality to join Palestinians and their allies in supporting all forms of non-violent pressure on Israel.
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Liza Behrendt organizes with the Boston chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace. Jessie Lowell is a graduate student at Brandeis University and a multi-issue activist.
You most certainly do not share the same values as J Street. BDS is a dishonest movement that seeks to abolish Israel. It is seeks to cause economic harm to Israeli Jews, but it exempts as targets the non-Jewish citizens of Israel. The BDS movement also provides a welcoming an environment for antisemites to get their jollies by trashing the Jewish state.
The BDS goal of abolishing Israel will never come to fruition. That is because its goal and its tactics are no better than those of the Likud and the hard right.
The only way out of this mess is two states for two peoples. Too bad you have lost sight of this obvious truth.
I am always amazed at how determined Rabbi Lerner and friend a to delegitimize Israel and put 7 million Jews at risk.
You don’t support Netanyahu’s policies so you must be antosemites. You support putting pressure on American political leaders to stop supporting Netanyahu’s policies so you must be anti-American antisemites. You support putting pressure on Israel to stop oppression and the systematic denial of human rights so you must be a left-wing anti-Israel antisemite. You put Jewish values above political solidarity with Netanyahu and his government so you must be a good Jew.
Oh . . . Maybe you are not an antisemite. Maybe you are a principled person who tries to live up to your Jewish values! If so, this would mean that either Netanyahu’s values are not Jewish or that most American Jews do not share his so-called Jewish values. Hmm mm . .
Or else you don’t support Netanyahu and desire a 2 state solution , by view the BDS movement as anti Semitic.
Jewish values or not, you both sound like a balanced normal decent humans ,who hold universal values and ethics of what is right and what is wrong, without falling victims to some old brain washing isolating from the rest of the world(like those other comments here) of the Zionist/ Israeli Hasbara, and value your humanity as a part of our world. Freedom, justice and security for all and not just some. Maybe others learn to shed their horse blinders and know crimes are crimes when they are committed by anybody, even Israel.