The Forward reports that Jewish groups successfully worked to prevent the Women’s March on Washington from officially including opposition to Israel’s violation of Palestinian human rights:
Occupy Wall Street. Black Lives Matter. Recent progressive movements have included in their statements of mission and goals prominent denunciations of Israel. But that didn’t happen during the run-up to the Women’s March on Washington, expected to attract hundreds of thousands of participants, to take place on January 21, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president.
The reason: Jewish groups intensified their engagement with the platform-production process, asking repeatedly — including as recent as Thursday — whether the official march would get into the Israeli-Palestine issue. The answer was no — the parts of the platform discussing issues and struggles beyond the immediate definition of women’s rights, will not veer toward the question of Israel.
“The way to deal with it was by sitting around the table, talking and editing,” said Nancy Kaufman, CEO of the National Council of Jewish Women, “and we feel very good with the results.”
In addition to NCJW, the American Jewish World Service, Bend the Arc, Hazon, Jewschool and Lab/Shul, among others, are officially sponsoring the march.
The Forward article, by Nathan Guttman, acknowledged that some people in the march would carry signs about Palestine.
Guttman reported that the success in keeping Palestine out of the official goals was particularly notable, given “the liberal makeup of the participating organizations and the partnership with several Arab-American and Muslim-American organizations. Linda Sarsour, a prominent New York-based Muslim and human rights activist, is part of the march’s leadership committee.”
According to an article published by the New York Times, billionaire philanthropist George Soros “has ties to more than 50 partners of the march.”
The March’s National Committee can be seen here.
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RELATED STORY IN THE FORWARD: “How the Women’s March Found Its Distinctly Jewish Voice,” by Forward Editor Jane Eisner.
Eisner writes:
“As a thousand people crammed into the ornate, cavernous sanctuary of B’nai Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and another 400 waited patiently in a line that extended around the block, it was clear that today’s protest organized by women against President Donald Trump had found a distinctly Jewish voice.”
Eisner concludes:
“[The gathering] seemed to present an opportunity to frame the opposition to this new presidency, favored by only a minority of American Jews, in distinctly Jewish terms. How that translates into action remains to be seen.”
Related story from Ha’aretz: Why Jewish Leaders Rally Behind a Palestinian-American Women’s March Organizer
