[ ]J Street[ ]
This Week: American-Israeli Hostage Family Member On His Tireless Efforts
to Bring His Son Home 🎙️ | Extremist Settlers Kill Palestinian-American 🕯
| Don’t Let the Fight Against Antisemitism Fuel Antisemitism ⚠️ | This
Week’s Must-Reads 📖 | Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List 🗳️ | And much more.

🎙️  American-Israeli Hostage Family Member Jonathan Dekel-Chen On His
Tireless Efforts to Bring His Son Home: Jonathan Dekel-Chen, the father of
Sagui Dekel-Chen – one of the Israeli-American hostages who was recently
released – joined J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami and J Street Policy
Chief Ilan Goldenberg Wednesday on Word on The Street Live. 

* “It's just been the joy of my life to see Sagui reunite with his
family, meet his youngest daughter, of course, who was born two months
after he was taken hostage after the massacre," Jonathan said.
“There's still 50 hostages, Israeli hostages being held. The
assumption is that somewhere around 20 of them might still be alive.”
[ [link removed] ]Watch and share the call here >>

* No More Excuses. Bring Them Home. End the War: It’s long past time to
put the lives of the hostages and Palestinian civilians first. It’s
time to end this war. Tell US lawmakers and Jewish leaders to listen
to hostage families – and to the overwhelming majority of Israelis –
calling for a war-ending deal to bring the hostages home. [ [link removed] ]Add your
name >>

[ [link removed] ]Watch here >>

🕯  Extremist Settlers Kill Palestinian-American: Last week brought
horrific news from the West Bank, where violent settlers killed two
Palestinian men in a lawless attack. Sayfollah ‘Saif’ Musallet, a
20-year-old Palestinian-American visiting family, was reportedly beaten to
death. A 23-year-old, Razek Hussein al-Shalabi, was shot and killed in the
same attack. Settlers reportedly then blocked ambulances rushing to the
scene. [ [link removed] ]Read our statement >>

* J Street Presses for Action: Reps. Jerry Nadler, Adam Smith and Jim
Himes introduced the West Bank Violence Prevention Act to codify the
Biden-era sanctions framework targeting violent extremists in the West
Bank and those who fund them. This law would provide a measure of
justice and deterrence in a situation where settler violence is
spiraling out of control.

* This week, Representatives Pingree, Jackson, Goldman, Moulton,
DeSaulnier, Khanna, Courtney, Frost, Budzinski, Scanlon, Beyer and
Sylvia Garcia joined as co-sponsors of the bill. Thank them if you
can!

* And tell Congress to take action against settler violence. [ [link removed] ]Read,
sign and share our petition >>

⚠️  Don’t Let the Fight Against Antisemitism Fuel Antisemitism: “Those
leading the fight against antisemitism bear a heavy responsibility,”
Jeremy writes. “They must not allow that fight to be instrumentalized to
further unrelated political agendas – whether to shut down debate about
Israel, to close the doors of the US to immigrants or to choke off funding
to institutions of higher learning.” [ [link removed] ]Read the full Word on the Street
Substack >>

* This debate about antisemitism came into stark relief this week when
the National Education Association (NEA) – one of the nation’s largest
teachers unions – voted to stop using ADL materials.

* “We do not agree with the recommendation adopted by the
Representative Assembly of the NEA to bar ADL materials from
their teachers’ classrooms. We see real value in many of the
materials the ADL produces, including Holocaust, anti-hate and
antisemitism educational resources.”

* “At this challenging moment, we cannot afford for leading educators
and leading Jewish groups to be hurling accusations and retreating
into their corners. There are troubling examples of antisemitism in
schools that must be addressed – as well as all forms of hate and
bias,” we wrote. “At the same time, charges of antisemitism must
not be wielded to quash legitimate criticism of Israeli policy,
labeling critical speech as antisemitic hate speech. It does not
appear that the NEA vote can be dismissed as being driven by fringe
‘pro-Hamas’ antisemitic activists, as the ADL initially claimed.”
[ [link removed] ]Read and share our full statement >>

📖 This Week’s Must-Reads:

* [ [link removed] ]There Is Still Only One Way Out for Israel and Iran
Hillel Schenker writes in The Nation, "One of Netanyahu’s primary
reasons for attacking Iran was to distract attention from the ongoing
Israeli attacks in Gaza, which are a major war crime, being carried
out in a disproportionate response to the Hamas war crime committed on
October 7. If the war in Gaza is finally brought to an end, what will
be needed is a constructive postwar scenario for the future, something
that Prime Minister Netanyahu has been avoiding like the plague."

* [ [link removed] ]Amidst Rising Tensions, Seizing Historic Opportunity for Syria,
Israel, and the US
J Street Policy Center Contributing Expert Jennifer Gavito and Policy
and Research Coordinator Avraham Spraragen write, "No opportunity
comes without risk – and risks both to and from the new government
remain considerable. [...] Amidst this considerable uncertainty,
though, lies a moment of historic opportunity for all three countries
that may yet not be realized, but will almost certainly vaporize if
not seized upon very quickly."

* [ [link removed] ]Mamdani, Be a Convener, Not a Commentator
Thomas Friedman writes in The New York Times, "We need leaders ready
to be conveners of those looking for the only just solution. [...] I
am talking about creating platforms for people to hear the former
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who is now a professor at
Princeton, or two-state advocacy groups such as the Israel Policy
Forum, J Street, EcoPeace or Commanders for Israel’s Security."

* [ [link removed] ]Humanitarian Aid in Gaza: Here Is What I Know
David Lehrer writes in The Times of Israel, "The Israeli government
narrative that the previous system of aid distribution through
international aid organizations resulted in most aid falling into the
hands of Hamas is a distortion of the truth. While there is no
question that Hamas was able to steal some of the aid entering Gaza,
prior to the March 2nd blockage, according to our international
partners, most aid did not end up in Hamas’s hands but reached the
designated beneficiaries."

🗳️  Our Pro-Democracy To-Do List:

[12][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Congress to take action on settler violence >>

[14][ ]  [ [link removed] ]American Jews say: Bring them home. End the war >>

[16][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Tell Netanyahu to stop blocking aid >>

[18][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Call your Member of Congress and tell them you oppose the
Gaza war >>

[20][ ]  [ [link removed] ]Find pro-Israel, pro-democracy, pro-peace candidates at
JStreetPAC.org >>

[22][ ] [ [link removed] ]Sign up for J Street’s 2026 National Convention >>



[ [link removed] ]Check out and share the regularly updated Pro-Democracy To-Do List on
our website >>

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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy
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