What would you say if I told you that the most recent right-wing initiative to stifle progressive organizations in Israel is a Knesset bill that would compel members of such organizations to wear a special badge, “visibly, on their clothing,” when they are in the Knesset?
You’d probably tell me that it’s an ugly joke, and that even satire shouldn’t use such loaded symbols for the sake of ridicule. And I would completely agree with you.
The problem, you see, is that this is not a joke. This is not The Onion. It’s yet another example of grotesque legislative overreach by right-wing Knesset members – in this case the Jewish Home’s Bezalel Smotrich – intended to delegitimize progressive Israeli organizations, to humiliate them and to stifle them. That, of course, includes representatives of our Israeli sister-organization, Israel’s Peace Now movement, the nemesis of extremist West Bank settlers who are chiefly represented in the Knesset by Smotrich’s party.
Raysh Weiss holds a PhD in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies from the University of Minnesota and is currently entering her final year of Rabbinical School at the Jewish Theological Seminary. She is the founder and director of YentaNet, a pluralistic matchmaking organization, currently serves on the Board of Directors of T'ruah, and is a co-editor of the progressive Jewish blog www.jewschool.com.
With the unrelenting blitzkrieg of violent images flooding the media from the Middle East and
beyond, it can be hard not to resort to a sense of fear and hopelessness. Such images, coupled with political
leadership built upon collective fear and defensiveness, engender a society that cannot move beyond immediate
threats and anxieties. In constantly speaking of security, we all too easily lose sight of other rights,
relegating them to a tragically secondary status.
Today, as we join our fellow Americans in mourning the victims of the hate-crime in Charleston, South Carolina, and as we re-commit to fighting political violence, racism, and bigotry, Americans for Peace Now (APN) also condemns the torching and vandalizing of the Church of Loaves and Fishes in Israel.
When: Tuesday, June 23
9:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Where: Room 2168 (Gold Room)
Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC
As we all know, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is our aim: to make people think and to act for peace.
This week, we bring you a new cartoon, asking who is a Jew ...and who recognizes a Jewish state: “Jews in Glass Houses...”
This week, Alpher discusses why Israeli Druze leaders are lobbying the government to help the Syrian Druze; does Israel have any special reason to get involved; if the Syrian Druze friendly to Israel; what Israel should do; and if there are other minority issues in Syria that should concern Israel.
