AIPAC progressives will not be intimidated

At the America Israel Policy Affairs Conferences (AIPAC) intersectionality panel: defending our values ​​and ourselves, the list of questions and answers from the public was long.

On it are the progressives of the conference. And they have questions.

Being progressive and pro-Israeli is complicated.

The right tells us that you cannot be progressive and Zionist and some people on the far left tell us that you cannot be progressive and Zionist, said Rami Hod, executive director of the Berl Katznelson Center, at the Progressive Activism in Panel Israel. Which brings me here today, although listening to the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations is very, very difficult, is that we have our narrative, the progressive Zionist narrative, to maintain.

The AIPAC panels on progressive causes were numerous. They dissected the efforts for a more just Israel (Improving life in Gaza: Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, Israel and the climate crisis, Promoting Palestinian prosperity, Women of Start-Up Nation), an inclusive pro-Israel activism (Advocating for LGBTQ Equality and the US. – Israeli partnership, Israel and our progressive values, pro-Israeli activism and progressive Zionism, Zionism and feminism) and marginalized identities (African American, LGBTQ, Latino, Kurds, Israeli Minorities.)

There was a recurring question in the breakout sessions: what should a Zionist do when a cause of social justice that he supports is aligned with anti-Israel groups and platforms?

At the panel of African American leaders, speakers were asked about how Israel has become a problem of bridging between the black and Jewish communities, given that Black Lives Matter approved the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement in 2016 and how the Black Lives Movement asked the United States to cut military aid to Israel.

I think you can support issues that support African Americans without supporting this particular movement, replied Mario Bailey, senior adviser for Converge government affairs. If its injustice somewhere, you can't just say, OK, because this particular group does not support our causes, they reflect all African Americans.

Larry Scott Blackmon, a former New York City Council candidate who served in the administrations of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Michael Bloomberg, agreed with Bailey.

No organization speaks for all people of color. There are so many. I started today by saying that I was probably in 10 of them. Because it is an extremist vision of a certain community does not necessarily mean that it speaks for everyone, said Blackmon. You have people of color who are here for this conference, who are fully elected officials whose stories are not told, who are not aligned. But every day, they work to build a bridge to solve water problems, improve their communities and reach different constituency groups. Help us help you by telling this story.

The feeling of being distorted by marginal voices was shared by the progressive Jews of AIPAC.

A member of the public said: It seems that a lot of leftist Jews are joining progressive anti-Semitic organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) (and others I won't mention at the moment) and are essentially using their Jewish heritage as a shield against legitimate accusations of anti-Semitism. What is your strategy for dealing with people of Jewish descent, including the main presidential candidates who use their status to protect what I think are overtly anti-Semitic organizations that claim to be Jewish, but really are not ?

There was a recurring question in the progressive discussion sessions at AIPAC: what should a Zionist do when a cause of social justice that he supports is aligned with anti-Israel groups and platforms?

The group he wouldn't name is IfNotNow, the leftist Jewish crowd that launched a campaign to intimidate the Liberals from attending the event. Progressives don't let progressives go to AIPAC, read the IfNotNow charts, which were widely distributed online, and even outside the conference.

From European neo-Nazis and genocide deniers to the leaders of the far right movements and the most violent political parties in Israel, some of the world's worst bigots were on the scene of AIPAC this year , wrote the group in an email titled #SkipAIPAC Recap. They won and they know it. What became clear from this year's conference: AIPAC loses the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party and replaces its bipartisanship with bigotry.

At the intersectionality panel, the group was a source of discomfort such that the speakers and members of the public refused to pronounce its name. These groups which are not to be named, they are like Voldemort (from the Harry Potter books). They are trying to define the relationship with Israel based on what they see as Israeli war crimes, said A Wider Bridge executive director Tyler Gregory.

There are marginal elements of the Jewish community such as JVP and there are other groups who claim to speak on behalf of American Jews as anti-Zionists, but they just don't, replied Amanda Berman, the founder of Zioness, who supports pro-Israel militant progressivism. When we get together in a big tent of the progressive Jewish left, which is also deeply attached to Zionism because it is consistent with our progressive values ​​and progressive identity, we can silence these people … we can marginalize them .

Dr. Lauren B. Strauss, Director of the Jewish Studies Program and the American University, audibly complained during the question, particularly his blow to Bernie's Jewishness Sanders, who joined the IfNotNows attacks against AIPAC. They are Jewish even if they don't agree with you, she whispered.

It's really easy and shows a lack of subtlety in accusing the presidential candidates obviously, he was referring to Bernie Sanders, whom I don't support as being anti-Semitic because they criticized Israel, has said Strauss. The Jewish Journal. It is really pointless and damaging to just reduce people to labels like anti-Semitic or bigot. Someone asked me how I could speak here at a conference on a platform with so many fanatics. I know who they are talking about. There are a few people who spoke at the conference that I am very much against.

Strauss, who is a speaker at the conference, maintains his decision to participate.

If there is a large tent and you disagree with some parts of this tent, it is always ok to show up, and that is a reason more to show yourself and educate people on your own point of view, she said. Mine is progressive. "

Strauss is not the only AIPAC visitor to have challenged some of their speakers or tactics.

After the African American leadership panel, New Jersey lawyer Calvin W. Souder told the Journal that he skipped the main session this morning. He refused to hear the speech of Vice President Mike Pences, even though a speaker who preceded him, Senator Cory Booker (DN.J.), is one of my best friends . During the delivery of Pences, many spectators went out.

During his intervention at Progressive Activism in Israel, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who is the executive director of the Israeli Movement for Reform and Progressive Judaism, challenged the composition of his own panel.

I don't feel totally comfortable being in a panel that talks about progressive activism in Israel without someone representing the non-Jewish community, noted Kariv, suggesting that they would do better next year.

Meanwhile, Hen Mazzig, a Newspaper the Tel Aviv Institute columnist and scholar politely corrected a moderator in an identity panel when she said that the Sephardic Jews and Mizrahim were the same.

It is so Eurocentric that we even call Mizrahim Sephardic. My family was in Iraq when it was Babylon. They were not from Spain, said Mazzig. Theres Mizrahi. Theres Sephardic. In the past, we were grouped into a Sephardic or Ashkenazi category, but it is more diverse than that. My job is to broaden the conversation and show that there is more than one form of Jewish identity.

While American speakers from AIPAC advocated presenting themselves in progressive spaces as shameless Zionists, Israeli activists pleaded to remedy Israel's shortcomings.

We cannot get people to love Israel better, to communicate better with the Israelis and to recognize the self-determination of the Jewish people and to think that Zionism is not racism if we deny it. occupation, said Hold. If we refuse the settlements, if we say, you know, you should support Israel because Israel invented the cherry tomato. This is the reason why I like to come here, why I like to talk to AIPAC because nobody tells me what I can say. I have a space here. I can speak from my point of view with progressive friends of AIPAC.

Berman, while advising the crowd to stand for social justice regardless of the movement's views on Israel, explained why so many progressives came to the conference.

We are afraid of getting involved and the problem is getting worse because we cede spaces to fanatics for fear of standing up to them, she said. Do not let anyone tell you what you cannot be.

Ariel Sobel is a TEDx speaker, award-winning filmmaker and winner of the 2019 Bluecat Screenplay Competition.