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better understand the present through the study of history, yet we can never, with any assurance, predict the future. History is elusive, enigmatic and it can be a cruel jokester. It can take away as well as give.
A SHARED HISTORY OF RACISM AND POLICE REPRESSION
Yet, there should be a connection between the George Floyd moment and a future moment of meaningful transformation in Palestine. The logic of the anti-racist demonstrations in the United States, and all over the world, should be extended to Israel’s suffocating occupation of Palestine and severe marginalization of Palestinians living inside Israel.
Beyond any doubt, the Israeli repression, like the American police repression, is racist repression. The Israelis have a demonstrably racist prime minister who, as a result of repeated reelections, has served longer than any other prime minister in Israeli history. From the outset of the Zionist movement, white Europeans sought to drive out and exclude the Arab “other.” Israel, at its essence, is a racist apartheid regime.
Moreover, the Israelis have pioneered— and exported to the United States through various seminars and “deadly exchanges”— the techniques of militarized police repression that we have seen deployed on the streets of American cities. The United States underwrites police repression in Palestine even as it incorporates Israeli techniques into its own law enforcement agencies.
According to Jewish Voice for Peace, the Anti-Defamation League—supposedly a civil rights group but actually a repressive wing of the Israel lobby—is the largest nongovernmental trainer of police in the United States, including facilitating worst-practice exchange programs between American police, ICE and FBI, and the Israeli police and military forces. As grassroots peace and justice groups across the United States demand diversion of money from police repression into community health and social
(Advertisement) service programs, we should at the same time demand either eliminating the $3.8 billion annual allocation to the Israeli military or, better yet, shifting it into social services for Palestinians.
Can we forge a connection between racist repression and police violence in occupied Palestine and on American streets, and, in so doing, ignite an historical moment that will once again transform the Middle East, but this time in a positive direction?
History will decide, but as the demonstrations against police violence in communities across the United States and the world have shown, people do have the ability to mobilize and to change the course of events.
George Floyd may have appeared powerless on the evening of May 25, with that jackbooted officer’s knee on his neck, but history has shown that the reverse was true. Floyd’s death was tragic, to be sure, but it gave life to the most powerful and inspirational “moment” of our time. ■
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Islam in America
It Takes a Community to Support Wrongfully Imprisoned Muslims By Jeanne Finley
IN 2004,two Muslim men, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain, respected members of their community, were targeted in a fictional FBI sting, convicted of material support for terrorism in 2006, and sentenced to 15 years each. The Muslims were subjected to “preemptive prosecution,” which is a law enforcement strategy, adopted after 9/11, to target and prosecute individuals or organizations whose beliefs, ideology or religious affiliations raise security concerns for the government. Just in case the targets might become terrorists, the government concocts a sting.
The Aref-Hossain case in Albany, NY, garnered international attention, including several articles in this magazine, on different aspects of the prosecution—on the use of informants, illegal wiretapping, secret evidence, entrapment and prisons for Muslims. It wasn’t the first case of preemptive prosecution of Muslims post-9/11 and, sadly, it hasn’t been the last. But it is one that coalesced a local community in opposition to the blatant injustice of a prosecution that was designed to stoke fear that Muslim terrorists were among us.
That community collectively decided to take action and resolved to keep working for justice no matter how long it took. Since 2006, an informal coalition of citizens, activists, Muslims, lawyers and family members worked to bring these men home, advocated for them and their families, made sure that the public did not forget them or the case, and effected changes in the criminal justice system from the grassroots level.
PHOTO COURTESY JEANNE FINLEY Alicia McWilliams, aunt of David Williams of the Newburgh Four, another terrible preemptive prosecution case, hugs Mohammed Hossain on his front porch at home in Albany. A LOT HAS HAPPENED
Both Aref and Hossain are finally free and home with their families. Aref, an Iraqi Kurd, U.N. refugee, and imam of the Masjid As-Salam, where the sting was centered, finished his sentence in October 2018,
was transferred to ICE detention, where he spent eight months, and was deported on June 9, 2019. He stepped off the plane in Baghdad on June 11 and was reunited with his family and countrymen in Kurdistan after 20 years. One year later, on June 8, 2020, Hossain, a Bangladeshi immigrant, small business owner, and co-founder of the Masjid As-Salam, was released, helped by a petition filed and signed by 631 supporters for his early release under the First Step Act. The original trial judge granted him a reduction in sentence because of his age, failing health and the threat of coronavirus in federal prison. Hossain returned to his family in Albany and on June 16, we held an informal street celebration for him, presenting him with a huge welcome home card, signed by nearly 100 supporters. He spoke from his front porch about his prison experiences and his resolve to work to free other unjustly prosecuted Muslims. He is our newest activist from the Aref-Hossain case.
How to narrate the rest of those 15 years? Perhaps the story is not how long it took to free Aref and Hossain, but the actions taken by a Community, with a capital C, both Muslim and non-Muslim, not just in Albany but nationwide.
Five days after the conviction of Aref and Hossain in October
Jeanne Finley is a photographer, writer, editor and community activist.
2006, Cathy Callan, a peace activist, and May Saffar, an Iraqi exile, formed the Muslim Solidarity Committee, which is still going strong.
That same year, the Aref-Hossain Families Fund for both families’ expenses/needs (there are ten children between them) was created. Fundraising was done every year and the fund is still in existence. Starting in 2007, an annual event to commemorate August 4, the day of the men’s arrests in 2004, was held with a street march and various associated activities. In a continued show of solidarity, in 2008 the MSC chartered a bus to take more than 100 supporters to New York City to hear oral arguments for Aref’s (ultimately unsuccessful) appeal to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.
Understanding that the struggle would be long and was bigger than one case, in 2008, Support And Legal Advocacy for Muslims (Project SALAM), <www.projectsalam.org> was launched to document in a unique database all the cases nationwide of preemptive prosecutions since 2001 and to advocate for the defendants’ release.
The same year, Aref’s memoir, Son of Mountains, written in jail was published and a documentary film about the case, “Waiting for Mercy,” produced and directed by Ellie Bernstein, debuted.
By 2009, publication of Rounded Up by the late Dr. Shamshad Ahmad, president of the Masjid As-Salam, became the definitive book on the case that helped inspire the 2014 publication of Inventing Terrorists by civil rights lawyers Steve Downs and Kathy Manley, Project SALAM and the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms (NCPCF), with an updated edition in 2019. From 2014 through 2019 there were four performances of a play, “To Catch a Muslim” by Steve Downs, based on the case.
Activists and lawyers continued working on the case and in 2009, the Albany Common Council passed the “Albany Resolution,” opposing preemptive prosecution of Muslims (the first in the country) and supporting Aref and Hossain. Other defendants’ families came from as far away as New Jersey and Maryland to speak for five minutes in support.
In order to strengthen collective advocacy, in 2010 the NCPCF (now Coalition for Civil Freedoms/CCF) formed. Based in Washington, DC, the organization of civil
COURTESY AREF FAMILY The Aref family at the Slemani airport in Kurdistan, Iraq last August, saying goodbye to Salah, who was leaving to study at Harvard Law School. (L-r) Azzam, Ayah, Yassin, Salah, Zuhur and Alaa.
rights and Muslim groups, focuses on public education about the erosion of civil liberties and political freedoms, advocates for Muslim prisoners, supports their families through a unique annual conference, and runs a Ramadan Gift Appeal for prisoners.
Continuing the legal fight, in 2010, Aref became lead plaintiff on a Center for Constitutional Rights lawsuit, Aref v. Holderand later Aref v. Lynch, then Aref v. Barr, regarding the formation of two Communication Management Units—the isolating, repressive prisons created for Muslims by the Bureau of Prisons; Aref had been held in both. One element of the suit is still working its way through the courts.
In 2011, through a FOIA request, Yassin Aref discovered that in 2002 and 2003, before the sting commenced, the FBI thought he was someone else: a Pakistani al-Qaeda agent named Mohammed Yasin. Armed with this information, Aref filed a 2255 motion arguing that the misidentification, never made public or communicated to the defense, didn’t allow him a fair trial. In support of his motion, Lynne Jackson began a 133-mile Journey for Justice in 2013, walking from Albany to Binghamton to deliver a petition, signed by over 1,700 supporters, to the judge, which demanded he consider Aref’s motion and give him a new trial. The week-long walk gained national attention and expanded the public’s understanding of preemptive prosecution and the Aref-Hossain case.
Through CCF’s Coronavirus Prisoner Release Project, in 2020, Manley submitted compassionate release petitions for seven high-risk Muslim prisoners in danger of infection because of their age and health; three more petitions are pending.
However, the release of Aref and Hossain is only the conclusion of the first chapter in the ongoing pushback against preemptive prosecution and the abuse of the criminal justice system. The threat of racially and ethnically motivated terrorism from white supremacists is now “on the rise and spreading geographically” across the country and world, according to a 2019 State Department report on terrorism. It is not only African-Americans who are targets, the “white supremacist and nativist movements and individuals increasingly target immigrants....” Domestic terrorism is finally being correctly defined and a paradigm change is coming, starting with the agencies set up to keep us safe but which have only kept us afraid, insecure and imprisoned.
On June 16, I gave Hossain a souvenir— a bumper sticker that had been in my car’s back window since 2006. FREE AREF AND HOSSAIN it said. I wrote Hossain a note, “I swore I would not take this out of my car until you both were free. Now that you’re home I would like you to have it, since I don’t need it anymore.” But, it wasn’t a goodbye, instead it was a hello for the new and different level of activity for this returned member of our community, who never should have been taken away at all. ■
Special Report
Jamaal Bowman’s Historic Win Demonstrates Change is Coming By Dr. James Zogby
Educator and progressive Jamaal Bowman meets with voters at a school, June 23, 2020 in Mount Vernon, NY. Bowman defeated the proIsrael lobby-backed chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), to win in the 16th congressional district.
ON TUESDAY, JUNE 23, 2020, Jamaal Bowman made history by winning the Democratic Party primary in New York State’s 16th congressional district. Here’s why his victory is so significant.
Bowman beat Eliot Engel, a 16-term incumbent congressman who served as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and had the backing of nearly the entire Democratic Party establishment, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Bowman is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and ran on an unabashedly progressive platform that included support for Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. He was outspent by a margin of two to one. And because Bowman had taken positions Dr. James Zogby is president of the Washington, DC-based Arab American Institute, founded in 1985. His highly-acclaimed book, Arab Voices, is available at Middle East Books and More.
calling for justice for Palestinians, “dark money” pro-Israel superPACs spent an additional $2,000,000 in independent expenditures in an effort to tear down his character and defeat him. Despite all of these challenges, Jamaal Bowman won, sending the message that change is on the way.
Bowman’s victory against an entrenched incumbent came on the heels of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 unseating of 10-term Congressman Joseph Crowley in the nearby 14th district of New York. There were similarities between the two races and some important differences.
Both Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman are young people of color who defeated older white men whose constituents in their congressional districts are majority minority voters. And because both of the young winners were community activists who had developed strong grass
roots networks and the incumbent members of Congress they were challenging had grown lazy and entitled, assuming their victories were assured, Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez represented both generational change and the importance of maintaining direct contact with the voters one seeks to represent.
Both of these upstart candidates were members of the DSA, running on a progressive agenda that promoted universal health care, a quality education, a decent job, a clean environment, and affordable housing as fundamental human rights. Both were endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders (Bowman was also endorsed by OcasioCortez and Senator Elizabeth Warren), while Crowley and Engel had the support of the Democratic leadership in the Senate and House of Representatives. As such, they represent the insurgent left’s victories over the party’s centrist establishment.
While both of the defeated members of Congress relied largely on large donations from big donors or political action committees to fund their campaigns, Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez raised their campaign funds from individual small donors—replicating the approach taken by Sanders in his 2016 and 2020 presidential runs. Their wins were victories for campaign finance reform.
These similarities aside, there were two fundamental differences between the Ocasio-Cortez and Bowman victories that contribute to making the Bowman win historic. Ocasio-Cortez’s victory was a shock that caught both Crowley and the Democratic establishment by surprise. Determined that it wouldn’t happen again, New York State’s governor, its two senators, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and Clinton (in her only endorsement of the 2020 election) all lined up behind Engel. By winning against this formidable line-up, Bowman demonstrated that the progressive wave isn’t a fluke.
And then there’s the role played by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While OcasioCortez’s position on justice for Palestinians matches that of Bowman, it never became much of a factor in 2018, largely because Crowley hadn’t made it an issue and because Ocasio-Cortez’s race was run largely under the radar. She didn’t come under attack from pro-Israel groups until she was in Congress and came to the defense of her sister freshmen members, Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN).
Because Bowman was running against the very pro-Israel chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) and the party’s establishment and the pro-Israel lobby didn’t want a replay of the OcasioCortez win, they invested heavily in the effort to defeat Bowman.
Engel had long been an AIPAC point person in Congress. In 2018, as he was poised to become the HFAC chair, speaking at an AIPAC conference he pledged to use his position “to make sure that Israel continues to receive support...I want to tell you that I sit down with AIPAC on every piece of legislation that comes out.”
Protecting Engel was important. One AIPAC-allied group, Democratic Majority for Israel (DMI), spent more than $1.5 million in the Engel/Bowman race. And not unlike the $1.4 million they spent earlier this year to attack Bernie Sanders, their ads were largely personal attacks on Bowman’s character. The DMI was smart enough to know that there were no votes to be won by supporting Israel since Democratic voters were so alienated by Netanyahu’s policies; nothing was to be gained by selling spoiled goods.
Despite the money spent against him, Bowman never wavered. A week before the election, he was challenged by a rabbi from Riverdale, an affluent neighborhood in his district. In an “open letter” published in the Riverdale Press, the rabbi expressed his concern that Bowman was espousing anti-Israel views and made a number of rhetorically inflammatory charges—with Palestinian terrorism mentioned in seven consecutive paragraphs.
Bowman refused to accept the bait and instead responded in a deeply respectful “open letter” of his own in which he made clear his views on foreign policy, including the IsraeliPalestinian conflict, “are rooted in the values of human dignity” and his life experiences. In one moving passage, he noted:
“The uprising across the country against police violence also makes me empathize with the everyday experience and fear that comes with living under occupation. Just as the police force is an intimidating force in so many black communities, I can connect to what it feels like for Palestinians to feel the presence of the military in their daily lives in the West Bank. I can also understand the crushing poverty and deprivation in the Gaza Strip. I believe Palestinians have the same rights to freedom and dignity as my Jewish brothers and sisters. I will fight for their liberation just as hard as I will fight for yours.”
In the end, not only did Jamaal Bowman win, he won by a decisive margin carrying all areas of his district and all major demographic groups. Interestingly, from vote tallies I’ve seen, he also beat Engel in precincts that were heavily Jewish.
This is yet another reason why Jamaal Bowman’s victory was historic.
For decades, the pro-Israel lobby was able to carry the day in Congress because members feared the repercussions of criticizing Israel. That tide is turning. Polls show that a majority of Democrats now support greater balance in U.S. policy, oppose Netanyahu’s behavior, and believe that aid to Israel should be cut because of violations of Palestinian human rights. That’s why AIPAC was forced to “allow” members of Congress to condemn Israel’s plans to annex West Bank lands. And now their efforts to hurt Jamaal Bowman and save Eliot Engel failed.
This isn’t the first time that AIPAC has lost in their effort to defeat an “enemy” or save a “friend.” And it may be too much to hope that Bowman’s win will finally shatter the myth of AIPAC’s invincibility. The most extreme elements of the pro-Israel lobby will not give up easily, so we must remain vigilant. But as Jamaal Bowman’s win demonstrates, change is coming and that is what makes his victory so historic. ■
Congress Watch
Congressional Letters, but No Actions, Oppose Israeli Annexation of Parts of West Bank By Shirl McArthur
MUCH SOUND AND FURY,signifying nothing, is one way to characterize all the congressional harrumphing and hand-wringing over reports that Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is proceeding with plans to annex as much as 30 percent of the West Bank. Americans for Peace Now reported that representatives of Netanyahu and President Donald Trump are working together to develop a detailed map designating the territory to be annexed. They want to get the annexation process completed to establish “facts on the ground” before the U.S. general election in November. No fewer than five letters have been sent, calling on Israel to abandon the plans, but no legislative measures have been introduced, while pro-Israel measures seem to be progressing nicely.
In the Senate, on May 21, 19 Democratic senators, led by Sens. Chris Murphy (CT), Tim Kaine (VA), and Chris Van Hollen (MD), signed a letter to Netanyahu and “Alternate Prime Minister” and Defense Minister Benjamin Gantz. While paying lip service to “Palestinians’right to self-determination,” the bulk of the letter emphasizes that unilateral annexation of Palestinian territory would be “met with deep concern from our mutual allies” and erodes Israel’s “support among the American people.” Separately, on June 3, Sen. Bob Casey (DPA) sent a slightly stronger letter to Netanyahu and Gantz urging them to abandon annexation plans and continue working “toward a shared goal of a two-state solution.” Also, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) wrote to Netanyahu on May 15, expressing her concern about unilateral annexation, but her “concern” was more about the costs to Israel rather than its impact on Palestinian rights. More positively, on May 20, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-CO) wrote to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo urging that the U.S. “continue to promote a clear path toward negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and to encourage the Israeli government not to take actions outside of direct talks.”
In the House, 191 members, led by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (DIL), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Brad Schneider (D-IL) and David Price (DNC), signed a June 25 letter to Netanyahu, Gantz, and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi saying that “longstanding, bipartisan U.S. foreign policy supports direct negotiations to achieve a viable two-state solution that addresses the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians, and their desire for long-term security and a just, sustainable peace,” and expresses the signers’ fear “that unilateral actions, taken by either side, will push the parties further from negotiations and the possibility of a final, negotiated agreement.”
Meanwhile, S.Res. 234 and H.Res. 138, supporting a two-state solution, have made no progress.
Shirl McArthur is a retired foreign service officer. He lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE PASSES BILL TO PROVIDE MORE GOODIES FOR ISRAEL On May 21, the Senate Foreign Relations committee (SFRC) passed, without discussion, S. 3176, amended, introduced in January by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). The Senate bill, similar to the House bill, H.R. 1837, passed by the House last July, is a grab bag of goodies for Israel, with one significant difference. S. 3176 does not include the provision included in H.R. 1837, which would give the president authority to provide Israel any defense-related articles or services if he determines that Israel is “under an existing or imminent threat of military attack,” without any limitation of law and without congressional oversight.
S. 3176 was reported to the full Senate on June 3 and could be brought up for a vote at any time. Next, the Senate will probably amend the House’s H.R. 1837, which still rests with the SFRC, by replacing its text with the text of S. 3176, pass it, and return it to the House for action. If it passes both the Senate and the House, which seems likely, it will send Israel a strong message that there will be no congressional consequences for annexation, or any other outrageous action Israel might take.
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS URGE U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CONDEMN ACTS OF VIOLENCE IN WEST BANK
Following the increases in settler violence against Palestinians over the past two years, on June 11, 54 Representatives, led by Reps. Deb Haaland (D-NM), Jared Huffman (D-CA) and John Yarmuth (DKY), signed a letter to U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman urging him to condemn all acts of violence in the West Bank. The letter points out that “there is no doubt that such incidents, in addition to causing tragic suffering, harm the prospects for a negotiated twostate solution to the conflict that is in each of Israel’s, the Palestinians, and U.S. interests. We believe the U.S. must condemn all acts of violence that pull us further away from peace and should make its condemnation clear whether the victim is Israeli or Palestinian.”
H.R. 5595, the “Israel Anti-Boycott” bill, introduced on Jan. 13 by dependable Israel-firster, Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), now has 64 cosponsors. The previously described bills, S. 1, H.R. 336, and S.Res. 120 opposing the BDS movement, have made no progress. All these measures are intended to equate Israel’s colonies with Israel
NEW BILLS WOULD INCREASE U.S.-ISRAEL COOPERATION, SLAM THE ICC
Two bills were introduced “expanding medical partnership with Israel to lessen dependence on China.” H.R. 6829 was introduced
STATUS UPDATES
H.R. 550 and H.Con.Res. 83, No War Against Iran. H.R. 550, H.R. 2407, Human Rights for Palestinian Children.Introduced in amended by the House to include the text of H.R. 5543, introduced April 2019 by Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), still has 23 cosponsors. in January by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), “to prohibit the use of funds H.R. 1850 and S. 2680, Hamas. These bills would sanction about for unauthorized military force against Iran,” as well as the text of anyone who has anything to do with Hamas. H.R. 1850, introduced by H.R. 2456, introduced last May by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) “to Rep.BrianMast(R-FL)inMarchandpassedbytheHouseinJuly,isstill repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq Resstuck in the SFRC, and its companion bill in the Senate, S. 2680, introolution of 2002,” was sent to the Senate, where it rests. Even if duced in October by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), still has 26 cosponsors. passed by the Senate, it probably will not have enough Republican S. 3572, Remove Troops from Saudi Arabia. As with the presupport to overcome a certain presidential veto. H.Con.Res. 83, inviously described measures reacting to the murder of U.S. citizen troduced in January by Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) after the ill-conJamal Khashoggi, S. 3572, the “strained partnership” bill, has gained sidered assassination of Iran’s Quds Force Commander, Maj. Gen. no further support. The bill, introduced in March by Sens. Kevin Qassim Soleimani, was passed by the House in January. It would Cramer (R-ND) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK), would “require the removal direct the president “to terminate the use of U.S. Armed Forces to of U.S. Armed Forces from Saudi Arabia.” engage in hostilities in or against Iran.” It was forwarded to the H.Res. 458, S.Res. 506, and H.R. 4862, Tunisia, Jordan. H.Res. Senate, where it still is held at the Senate Foreign Relations Com458, introduced last June by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), which would reafmittee (SFRC). firm “the strong partnership between Tunisia and the U.S. and support
H.R. 6015, H.R. 6243, and H.R. 6081, Iran Sanctions. H.R. 6015 ing the people of Tunisia in their continued pursuit of democratic reintroduced in February by Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI), “to authorize the forms,” with 30 cosponsors, still has not been reported by the Foreign Secretary of the Treasury to require special measures for domestic fiAffairs committee. S.Res. 506 introduced in February by Sens. Chris nancialinstitutions”tostopevasionofIransanctions,stillhasfivecosponMurphy (D-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) “expressing the sense of sors, and H.R. 6243, the “Block Iranian Access to U.S. Banks” bill, inthe Senate that the U.S. should initiate negotiations to enter into a free troducedinMarchbyRep.BillHuizenga(R-MI)stillhasnocosponsors. trade agreement with the Republic of Tunisia,” has no further cosponBut H.R. 6081, introduced by Rep. French Hill (R-AR) in March “to resors. H.R. 4862, introduced in October by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), “to quire the president to report on financial institutions’ involvement with reauthorize the U.S.-Jordan Defense Cooperation Act of 2015,” has 10 officials of the Iranian government,” now has seven cosponsors. cosponsors, but still has not been reported to the full House. —S.M.
on May 12 by Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH). It has 184 cosponsors. And, on May 13, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), with 28 cosponsors, introduced S. 3722.
Twin bills were introduced “to establish a U.S.-Israel Operations-Technology Working Group.” On May 20, Sen. Gary Peters (DMI) and five cosponsors, introduced S. 3775 and, on June 11, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and two cosponsors introduced H.R. 7148.
Following reports that the ICC had decided to proceed with the investigation of U.S. military personnel for possible war crimes and was considering similar investigation of Israeli personnel for actions in the West Bank, S.Res. 570, “a resolution opposing and condemning the potential prosecution of U.S. and Israeli nationals by the International Criminal Court,” was introduced by Sen. Cruz on May 12. In addition, AIPAC-backed letters were sent to Pompeo from the House and Senate urging that he “marshal a diplomatic initiative with likeminded countries who are members of the ICC to cease its politically motivated investigations into the U.S. and Israel.” The House letter, sent May 12, was led by Reps. Elaine Luria (D-VA) and Mike Gallagher (RWI) and signed by 262 representatives. The Senate letter, sent May 13, was led by Sens. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and signed by 69 senators.
Complicating matters, neither the U.S. nor Israel is a member of the ICC. But, on Feb. 12, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) introduced H.Res. 855 that would express the “Sense of the House” that “the U.S. should ratify the Rome Statute and join the International Criminal Court.”
AIPAC-BACKED HOUSE LETTER URGES U.N. TO RENEW IRAN ARMS EMBARGO
The long-awaited House letter, led by Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs committee, Eliot Engel (DNY) and Michael McCaul (R-TX), to Pompeo urging increased U.S. diplomatic action to “renew the expiring U.N. arms embargo against Iran and U.N. travel restrictions” on certain Iranian individuals was finally sent May 4. After much delay to ensure as many signatures as possible, the letter, strongly pushed by AIPAC, was signed by 387 representatives when sent. And S.Res. 509, introduced in February by Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA), to urge the U.N. Security Council to renew the expiring restrictions on Iran, now has 51 cosponsors.
NEW BILL WOULD PROHIBIT AID TO LEBANON; SENATE LETTER URGES DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION IN YEMEN
S. 3691, “to prohibit the provision of U.S. Government assistance to any Lebanese government that is influenced or controlled by Hezbollah,” was introduced by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) May 12. It has no cosponsors. On June 16, a bipartisan group of nine senators, led by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Todd Young (R-IN) wrote to Pompeo expressing their concern over recent events in Yemen and urging him to “use the powers of your office to facilitate a comprehensive diplomatic solution to end this devastating war.” ■
Israel Affinity Organizations Received Millions In Forgivable PPP Loans By Grant F. Smith
JACK GUEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Israelis stand in front of a branch of the Israeli Bank “Bank Leumi” in Netanya, Feb. 18, 2014. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank, has included several Israeli banks on a list of companies which are ethically questionable for investment.
UNDER STRONG pressure from Congress, on July 6 the U.S. Small Business Administration, after consultation with the U.S. Department of Treasury, disclosed information about 4.9 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
The loans were intended to provide relief to U.S. businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies applying through their banks for these Small Business Administration loans had to certify the money was “necessary to support the ongoing operations.”
PPP loan funds spent to cover payroll, mortgage interest, rent
Grant F. Smith is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, DC. Smith’s books, Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America and The Israel Lobby Enters State Government, are available at Middle East Books and More.
or utilities are eligible for complete forgiveness. Vast numbers of American small businesses found their banks would not return phone calls or process loans. But a number of nonprofit organizations identified in the database of the book Big Israel: How Israel’s Lobby Moves America as being heavily involved in advancing Israel from within the U.S. received substantial support.
U.S. branches of two Israeli banks operating in the occupied West Bank participated in the PPP program. Bank Leumi originated 423 PPP loans and lent between a quarter to a half billion dollars under the program while Bank Hapoalim originated seven loans.
Among Leumi’s PPP loans were two projects of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board. Energix EPC US LLC is a subsidiary of En
ergix Renewable Energies which builds power plants to serve Israeli customers, and operates in the Israeli occupied West Bank and Golan Heights. Energix received $2-5 million in PPP loans. Oran Safety Glass, which makes bullet-proof glass and paid millions in fines afterdelivering substandard products to the U.S. Army, received $1-2 million. ■
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Activities
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SendsU.S. militaryandpolicetoIsrael fortraining.
LobbiesCongressonbehalfofIsrael. OrderedtoregisterseventimesasanIsraeliforeignagent.
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PromotesIsraeloncampusandurgesthepublictobuyIsraeligoods. PortraysIsraelasaperpetuallyseekingpeace(“PeacetakesTwo” program)againstPalestinian“intransigence.”
Organizationlaunchedin2007fundedbycasinomogulSheldonAdelson, mobilizestheestimatedhalf-millionIsraeliAmericansresidingintheU.S. to bemoreactiveonbehalfofIsrael.
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Source:SmallBusinessAdministrationloansdatabase, loanstotaling$150,000ormore.
Update on Another Misuse of Government Funds
Our report “Partners in Corruption: The Virginia Israel Advisory Board and the Tobacco Commission,” detailed a questionable deal (see Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Jan./Feb. 2020, pp. 17-19). The Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission agreed to forgive a $210,000 loan to Virginia Israel Advisory Board Vice Chairman Charles Lessin. Lessin had personally hoped to operate a refinery with Israel’s TransBioDiesel in St. Paul, VA. The project failed. But in 2019 the Virginia Israel Advisory Board chairman claimed the VIAB was creating so many jobs and businesses in Virginia ($639.85 million in capital expenditures and 727 jobs) that Lessin should not have to repay his own loan.
Jim Metz of Richmonders for Peace in Israel-Palestine filed a complaint on Nov. 25, 2019 to the Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) that the deal did not comply with state regulations. On July 6, OSIG notified Metz by letter it found his complaint was “substantiated” and must be redressed by the Tobacco Commission.
To view a video of James Metz speaking about VIAB at The Israel Lobby and American Policy conference in 2019, visit https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Gz3jShf-Hmo.
—GFS
Education
The Zionist Campaign Against Free Speech On Campus By Walter L. Hixson
IN OCTOBER 2019, I gave a talk at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland’s east side on the Israel lobby’s efforts to distort the history of injustice in Palestine. After the talk a couple of Case Western professors and a group of students from the school’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and other groups that had sponsored the event treated me to dinner.
I especially appreciated the hospitality because Cleveland’s east side has long been a bastion of power for the Israel lobby. Men such as Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, the Zionist patriarch from the 1940s, and Howard Kohr, the current chairman of AIPAC, were Clevelanders. Only months before my talk, the lobby had mounted sharp attacks on Ilan Pappe, a historian and critic of Israeli oppression, when he spoke at the Cleveland City Club.
After dinner I thanked the host Ken Ledford, the chairman of the History Department at Case Western, and told him that I appreciated his willingness to support the talk even though it risked provoking the ire of university administrators and donors. He replied, “When students take the initiative and want to gen
erate discussion about history and public policy, it is our duty as academics and mentors to support their efforts.” Contrast Professor Led
JOE CATRON, CC BY-NC 2.0
Members and supporters of Fordham’s Students for Justice in Palestine rallied on the university’s Manhattan campus in 2017.
ford’s open-mindedness and support for student activism with the attitudes on display at Tufts University and across much of the country. Last April, the SJP chapter at Tufts received the Collaboration
Award from the Office of
Contributing editor Walter L. Hixson is the author of Israel’s Armor: The Israel Lobby and the First Generation of the Palestine Conflict (available from Middle East Books and More), along with several other books and journal articles. He has been a professor of history for 36 years, achieving the rank of distinguished professor.
Campus Life as a result of its tireless efforts in support of Deadly Exchange, a JVP program that condemns Israeli training of U.S. police forces in methods of police repression. The Tufts SJP chapter had collaborated with some 20 other groups to call into question the campus police chief’s travel to Israel for training at a “counter-terrorism seminar,” which SJP argued represented a larger pattern of militarization of the campus police and mistreatment of people of color.
Today, in the wake of the massive protests over the murder of George Floyd and other African-Americans in police custody, the militarized police methods are becoming more widely recognized as deplorable. At the time, however, the student activism precipitated a backlash from administrators at Tufts, who lacked the respect for free speech on campus that Ledford and hopefully countless other academics will continue to uphold.
The day after the announcement of the award, Tufts administrators—the president, the provost, and deans—declared, “We strongly disapprove of this award,” citing SJP support for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS). The administrators proceeded to parrot Zionist lobby propaganda equating BDS with anti-Jewish prej
udice. James M. Glaser, dean of the school of arts and sciences at Tufts, condemned the award even though his own research and publications in political science focus on efforts to “overcome opposition to minority interests due to racial hostility.”
That sort of hypocrisy and the absurdity of equating support for a program advocated by a Jewish organization—JVP— with anti-Semitism appears to have been lost on these estimable holders of the Ph.D. degree. Unfortunately, what happened at Tufts was not unusual but rather part of a massive campaign to undermine Palestine advocacy across the country.
Not content to take away rights from Palestinians, Israel and the lobby want to take away the constitutional rights of Americans, including free speech on college campuses. Supposedly sacred preserves of free thought and free speech, universities are under siege by Zionist zealots who place the brutal suppression of human rights by an imperious Israel above all else.
A NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN OF SMEAR TACTICS
The Tufts administrators willingly sacrificed free speech on campus at the direction of the Zionist lobby in Boston. The administration’s smearing of its own students for their excellence in activist collaboration came on the same day that “a barrage proIsrael groups released condemnation of the award,” noted Amira Mattar, the Michael Ratner Justice Fellow at Palestine Legal. “This explains why the university president and the provost, who normally would never have gotten involved in a student award decision, took such a direct and active role.” In 2019, Palestine Legal, an organization founded in 2012 and dedicated to protecting the legal and constitutional rights of advocates for justice in Palestine, recorded 247 such incidents of suppression of U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy. Since January 2014, Palestine Legal has responded to a staggering 1,494 such incidents, a number that reflects only cases reported to Palestine Legal and therefore does not represent a full accounting of the attempts at suppression of free speech on the issue of Palestinian rights.
The efforts to exercise a chilling effect on criticism of Israel “have been going on for a long time but they have become more widespread,” noted Maria LaHood, deputy legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which engages in legal intervention to protect fundamental rights. Both LaHood and Mattar view the smear campaigns as an effort to disrupt and impede free speech and discussion of injustice in Palestine.
The Zionist lobby routinely unleashes “baseless accusations of anti-Semitism intended to divert activists, students and professors from their work of advocating for Palestinian rights,” Mattar explained. The lobby groups understand that “the more time an activist spends having to respond to baseless charges, the less time they have to focus on such issues as settlements, diversion of water and human rights in Palestine.” Pointing out that many of the legal challenges against SJP and other activists are baseless, LaHood noted, “It doesn’t always matter if they win, they still succeed in disrupting the efforts of the advocacy groups.”
At the same time, however, the avalanche of attacks on free speech reveals the lobby’s insecurities over the extent to which Palestinian advocacy has entered into mainstream organizations and especially college campuses. “It has become less of a taboo to advocate for Palestine,” Mattar explained, as the “bonds between Palestine advocates and mainstream organizations are becoming more acceptable. Despite all these attacks and harassment, it is rooted in a just cause and nothing can change that reality.”
“As the movement grows in the United States, so does the effort at suppression,” LaHood noted. The pro-Israel lobby “exerts pressure on schools to crack down.” Tactics include urging donors to threaten to withdraw funding as well as threats to spread publicity that might weaken community support for universities.
CAMPUS CASES
On March 6, 2020, just before the coronavirus shut down the campus, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger condemned a student referendum calling on Columbia to divest from companies complicit in Israeli human rights violations. Like the Tufts administrators, Bollinger parroted Israel and lobby propaganda equating BDS with anti-Semitism by declaring, without citing any evidence or examples, that BDS reflected a “mentality that goes from hard-fought debates about very real and vital issues to hostility and even hatred toward all members of groups of people simply by virtue of religious, racial, national or ethnic relationship.”
Pro-Israel lobby groups sponsored a follow-up petition signed by more than 70 Columbia faculty members applauding “our president’s condemnation of antiSemitism in its many forms.” The lettersigning campaign was initiated by the Academic Engagement Network (AEN), a lobby watchdog group created to oppose efforts to “delegitimize” Israel. It seeks to muzzle groups like SJP and proponents of BDS while at the same time absurdly and hypocritically claiming it supports “campus free expression and academic freedom.” As evidenced by its website, AEN has sponsored scores of letter-writing and smear campaigns on campuses across the country.
In early March, at Bard College, two SJP students were cleared of baseless charges of anti-Semitism sparked by their criticism of a panel discussion featuring a bigoted Harvard emeritus professor, Ruth Wisse, who once declared, “Palestinian Arabs are people who breed and bleed and advertise their misery.” Palestine Legal came to the defense of the two Jewish students, Ben and Akiva, pointing out that they “disagreed with the speakers’ viewpoint that Palestinians are undeserving of equal human rights.” For exercising their right to free speech, Ben and Akiva had to undergo an investigation by a panel of Bard professors, who in the end cleared them of any wrongdoing. Bard’s President Leon Botstein acknowledged the students had done nothing wrong and were in compliance with the campus policy on free speech. Continued on page 62
Preventing Israel Lobby Propaganda in Textbooks By Grant F. Smith
BILL CLARK/CQ-ROLL CALL, INC VIA GETTY IMAGES Screenshot from the “What do they teach our children?” Zoom webinar, (clockwise, l-r) Jeanne Trabulsi, Zoha Khalili, Dr. Samia Shoman and Miko Peled.
ISRAELI -AMERICAN author and human rights activist Miko Peled convened the first of two online webinars under the banner, “What do they teach our children? Israel’s Intervention in American Social Studies Curriculum.” The June 25 event attracted 150 live participants and hundreds more viewed video of the discussion after it was posted online.
Peled noted his shock at the “level and depth” of the intervention by organized Israel lobby groups in social studies programs covering the Middle East. He observed that they fly beneath the radar and are mostly invisible to Americans, particularly parents, like himself, who are puzzled by some portrayals of Israel in their own children’s public school curriculum.
Dr. Samia Shoman of the Advisory Committee to the California Ethnic Studies Curriculum recounted her days of being monitored
Grant F. Smith is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, DC. Smith’s latest book, The Israel Lobby Enters State Government, is now on sale at Middle East Books and More.
in the classroom after a rabbi caught wind of what he thought was unwarranted discussion of the situation in Palestine.
Zoha Khalili, staff attorney at Palestine Legal, discussed the increase in organized targeting of students in higher education doing Palestine education advocacy and outreach on campus. An example she cited was a lawsuit filed against Newton Public Schools in Massachusetts after an Israeli-American parent objected to texts and teacher training materials about Palestine. After several years of costly litigation and strong pushback by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the plaintiffs finally abandoned their lawsuit. In an article published by the American Jewish online magazine Tablet, one writer reflected, pro-Israel parents wanted to fight back but they were not joined by the major Jewish organizations. However, in the educational arena, as in politics, the major efforts are often behind the scenes. Or as Peled put it, much more “civilized.”
Jeanne Trabulsi, a retired educator who taught for 16 years in Arlington County, VA, now leads the Education Committee at the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR). Trabulsi explained
