Suppressing Free Speech & Sabotaging Those Who Advocate Israel Boycott

Tikkun Magazine and our Network of Spiritual Progressives has argued the case against Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel as an effective or morally coherent way to end the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, though we vigorously challenge that Occupation.

However, we are deeply troubled and outraged by the attempts in the Jewish community to isolate or repress those who do support BDS as their tactic.

While we are firmly opposed to the violence of Hamas and the violence of the Israeli occupation, both, and have critiqued those who defend such violence, the BDS movement is an explicitly NON-VIOLENT strategy to change the policies of the State of Israel and of the US and Western countries that have empowered or enabled Israel's Occupation.

Though we don't agree with their strategy, the BDS people are using a strategy that is legal and an appropriate, if in our view misguided, way to change American and Israeli policy. Their right to do so deserves to be protected and defended.

Instead, the Jewish community has begun to withdraw support to institutions that would allow the BDS movement's views to be aired.

This is an outrageous suppression of free speech, and will in the long run contribute to the delegitimization not only of Israel but of the Jewish community-in the eyes of younger Jews who believe that a community that cannot tolerate a free and vigorous debate on controversial matters is a community that has little appeal to them.

We print below the statement of what was once considered the most progressive Jewish Federation in the U.S.-the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation-which sent out its policy directive in mid-February 2010. It clearly states that a movie that supported the view that Jewish protester Rachel Corrie, killed by an Israeli tractor driver while she was non-violently seeking to stop if from destroying a Palestinian home, could not be shown by any group supported by the Jewish Federation. Such a policy will only accelerate the conviction of younger Jews that they should not be donating money to this part of the organized Jewish community-which is a sad conclusion, since the Federation also supports other projects that are valuable in themselves (like family counseling and retirement homes and other social welfare projects). Those who claim that "the Jewish world is changing and is much more open these days to a diversity of views" should look carefully at this decision before touting an alleged new tolerance in the Jewish establishment.

Equally troubling is the advocacy by an Israel think tank of "sabotage" to be used toward those who support BDS around the world. For those of us who were victims of a similar (FBI sponsored) "sabotage" against the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War, this threat is quite stunning. Yet for those of us who have been challenging the Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the sabotage of our activities being openly advocated now has already been taking place for the last several decades in a more clandestine but quite powerful and sometimes effective ways. Nevertheless, we all need to stand behind the BDS movement's right to advocate without threats or disruption or removal of their free speech-even though we may, as we do, disagree with their strategy. -Rabbi Michael Lerner

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Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties

Dear Community Member,

The community controversy surrounding the Jewish Film Festival event in connection with the screening of the documentary "Rachel" last summer presented the unique leadership opportunity of how to manage such situations without diminishing the rich exchange and expression that defines our community. A policy was sought by those most troubled by last summer's events. In addition, the JCF's partners and grantees sought clarity on their Israel-related programming.

To address the controversy, a broad-based working group convened to create a policy governing JCF funding to grantees on potentially controversial Israel-related programming. The working group researched, drafted, vetted, listened, sought buy-in, tested, and redrafted the policy until a large percentage of stakeholders and participants were satisfied with its language and governance. This policy and guidelines will not answer all questions, but they will answer many and will provide a clear mechanism to address issues as they arise.

Specifically, the JCF will not fund organizations that

endorse or promote anti-Semitism, other forms of bigotry, violence or other extremist views

actively seek to proselytize Jews away from Judaism

advocate for, or endorse, undermining the legitimacy of Israel as a secure independent, democratic Jewish state, including through participation in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, in whole or in part

Had the policy been in effect prior to the event accompanying the screening of the movie "Rachel," we believe these guideposts would have made clear that such an event and co-sponsorships fall outside the bounds of the JCF's funding.

The JCF has a long and proud history as a funder of arts and other diverse community organizations which seek to inspire and celebrate Judaism, Jewish life and Israel, and will continue this tradition. It is our intention that this policy establishes helpful guideposts that will not squelch creativity, diversity of expression, or critical debate in our community.

Please click here to view the policy and guidelines and the accompanying FAQs.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Gorovitz
Acting CEO

Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin & Sonoma Counties

Israeli Think Tank Says Global Anti-Occupation Movement Is The Problem; Sabotage Is The Cure

February 18th, 2010 | by Carol Sanders

Reut Institute, a leading Israeli national security and socioeconomic policy think tank, has released its preliminary report on “The Delegitimization Challenge: Creating a Political Firewall” In an extraordinary exercise in doublethink, Reut scratches its head over Israel’s declining diplomatic status in the aftermath of its assault on Gaza and the Goldstone Report, and concludes that, yet again, it is the victim. The culprits here are twofold:

The Resistance Network – which operates on the basis of Islamist ideology and includes Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas; and the Delegitimization Network – which operates in the international arena in order to negate Israel’s right to exist and includes individuals and organizations in the West, which are catalyzed by the radical left.

The Report’s analysis is drenched in the language of victimization: the Resistance Network is “rooted in, and nourished by, Israel’s entrapment in the Palestinian arena.” (The Occupier is entrapped!) This Network ”sabotages every move directed at affecting separation between Israel and the Palestinians or securing a two-state solution.” The Delegitimization Network “tarnishes Israel’s reputation, ties Israel’s hands in defending itself against military assaults, and advances the ‘one-state solution’.” Together they present “an existential threat” to Israel.

Reut brags that it is “comprised of the best-and brightest young full-time professionals, trained to specialize in analyzing complex and dynamic environments…” But never once do they consider that military attacks on civilian populations, siege, Occupation, confiscation of Palestinian land , or any of Israel’s other violations of International Law have anything to do with the global outcry against Israel. Indeed, the word Occupation is mentioned only once in the entire report, and then in quotation marks as if it were a bogus concept: “The Resistance Network”, Reut pouts, “increases the burden of the ‘Occupation’.”

Pernicious as is the report’s cause-and-effect logic, the ”policy options” for countering the anti-Occupation movement are sinister. Such options include having the government:

Identify and focus on “global hubs of delegitimization (such as London, Toronto, Madrid and the Bay Area)” in order to “sabotage network catalysts”
“Rebrand Israel”, specifically in terms of its humanitarian aid, to counter the portrayal of it as “an apartheid, pariah state.”
Build a network of personal relationships with “elites and ‘influentials’” in the identified hubs.

Written by Carol Sanders

Carol Sanders was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. She is a retired legal services attorney and author of legal texts. She lived in Israel from 1963 to 1966, where she worked on a kibbutz, did graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and served as an assistant to the then-mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek. Carol is a long-time activist with Jewish Voice for Peace, and is the JVP representative to the Middle East Advisory Committee and a member of Bay Area Women in Black.