This coming Tuesday, April 8, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m, there will be a protest that may be of interest to a lot of people in our community.
Every year, thousands of adults and children from Great Neck and other Long Island communities travel to Manhattan to march in the Celebrate Israel Day Parade.
Many of our local synagogues hire buses and design special T-shirts for the occasion. The parade is usually a very enjoyable event, devoted to expressing support for Israel.
The Jewish Community Relations Council, which in turn is supported and controlled by the UJA, sponsors the parade.
Alarmingly, this year, the parade sponsors are allowing several groups who are backing the nefarious Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel to march in the Celebrate Israel Day Parade!
Ironically the JCRC website contains a section on combating BDS (http://www.jcrcny.org/resources/israel-international-affairs/) – which contains links to various articles and studies.
Some of the linked studies demonstrate that the goals of both full and partial BDS are the complete delegitimization of Israel, economic damage to all of Israel, the promotion of the Palestinian so-called “right of return” agenda to overrun all of Israel, the singling out of Israel and Jews for attack, and the destruction of cooperative Arab-Israeli economic enterprises which benefit Arabs as well as Jews.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently stated that “attempts to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, the most threatened democracy on Earth, are simply the latest chapter in the long and dark history of anti-Semitism.”
It is thus shocking that the JCRC and UJA are permitting the following BDS backers to march in the parade this year:
1. Partners for Progressive Israel (formerly Meretz USA): This group’s website says: “Boycott these settlement products sold in the US” and lists numerous Israeli companies that it wants readers to boycott. These companies include Ahava (cosmetics), SodaStream (its various labels are listed), various food and spice companies, and wine from nine Israeli vineyards.
2. The New Israel Fund: NIF finances numerous Israeli NGOs (non-governmental organizations), some of which promote Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. For instance, five grantees of the New Israel Fund (Machsom Watch, Coalition of Women for Peace, Women Against Violence, Social TV, and Mossawa) signed a letter to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund, urging it to divest from Israel.
3. B’Tselem: This group produced the video shown at infamous “Israel Apartheid Week” events held at universities and colleges worldwide. The chair of B’Tselem’s board, Oren Yiftachel, has publically called for “effective sanctions” against Israel. B’Tselem is also a major grantee of the New Israel Fund.
The protest against the decision to allow these groups to rain on the Celebrate Israel Parade will be held next Tuesday evening (Aug. 8, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.) in front of the UJA Federation of New York, 130 East 59th Street, between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue, Manhattan. All are welcome.
See also JCCWatch.org for further information.
Please also call UJA president John Ruskay and JCRC director Michael Miller to urge them to change the misguided decision to allow groups that are attempting to damage Israel to march in the Celebrate Israel parade.
Elizabeth (Liz) Berney, Esq.
Great Neck
