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.” 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. Add your name >>
🕯 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. 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!
⚠️ 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.” 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.” Read and share our full statement >>
📖 This Week’s Must-Reads:
- 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."
- 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."
- 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."
- 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:
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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy 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.
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