[Peace-discuss] Vigils, Protest, and Controversy in Ann Arbor

[David Green]

Message: 1         
   Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2005 09:43:15 -0500
   From: Henry Herskovitz <hersko at umich.edu>
Subject: Report on Beth Israel vigil 11-05-2005


JWPF Requested to Halt Vigils

Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends are in receipt
of a letter 
from Ann Arbor's Interfaith Council for Peace and
Justice, asking us 
to terminate our weekly vigils at Beth Israel. We
invite our 
readership to examine the content of this letter, and
ask yourselves 
if this sounds like a familiar refrain: otherwise
progressive groups 
failing to confront their local organized Jewish
community to oppose 
Israel's Apartheid structure, and then turning on the
individuals or 
groups that do. This letter was leaked to members of
Ann Arbor's 
Zionist community over two weeks before it was
officially received by 
JWPF. Your comments are welcome on either their letter
or our 
response. Both documents are reprinted below signature
in their 
entirety.

You can visit the 40-year-old Interfaith Council for
Peace and 
Justice web site at http://www.icpj.net/ The 18-member
Steering 
Committee has tabled indefinitely endorsing the
Palestine Civil 
Society call for boycotts, divestment and sanctions,
claiming lack of 
education, yet only two members attended a stirring
talk by Ayed 
Morrar and Jonathan Pollack, Palestinian and Israeli
activists. They 
repeated their presentation three times in two days.
Had members of 
ICPJ's Steering Committee attended, they would have
heard Jonathan 
call clearly and loudly for boycotts, sanctions, and
divestment 
against his country.

Dershowitz Flyer Available

Readers are reminded to attend a protest of the Jewish
Federation of 
Washtenaw County's "Big Event", showcasing Alan
Dershowitz, chief 
shill and plagiarizer for the State of Israel. Half
sheet fliers are 
available for download at

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~hersko/Flyers/Dershowitz%20Flyer.doc

print it, copy it, distribute it, and see you on
Thursday, December 
1st. 6pm at Ypsilanti Marriott at Eagle Crest

Reliable Vigiler On The Mend

Shirley, Ann Arbor's most successful
flyer-hander-outer and all 
around peace activist, has been temporarily sidelined
with partial 
knee replacement surgery performed on Tuesday. She is
now back from 
the hospital, and on her way to recovery. We will
welcome her back to 
Beth Israel as soon as she's deemed ready. Don't hurry
back, but we 
miss you! Ten JWPF members held vigil on November 5.


Reject Zionism,
Henry Herskovitz
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends
<http://www.a2vigil.org/>http://www.a2vigil.org

Letter from Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice

Dear Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends,

Up until this time the ICPJ has not taken a stand for
or against your 
vigils at Beth Israel.   However, seeing the impact
the vigils are 
having on our work and our attempt to build a movement
against the 
occupation we are now asking you to stop the vigils.

If the purpose of the vigils was to make the synagogue
and the 
broader community more aware of the terrible costs of
Israel's 
occupation of Palestine the vigils achieved their
purpose.  At this 
time, however, the vigils are proving to be both
hurtful and 
counterproductive in the following ways:

         For almost two years, the vigil has protested
at Beth 
Israel's only time for regular communal worship. This
has come to be 
experienced as harassment by almost everyone at the
synagogue, 
including those who oppose the occupation.  We know of
no active 
member of any synagogue in our community who supports
the vigils 
(including a number who did initially).  This
testifies to a strategy 
that is fatally flawed.  A strategy that seemed
originally designed 
to promote awareness of the occupation is now working
against that as 
everyone is focused on the vigils rather than the
occupation.

         At a time when in many parts of the country
we are seeing 
the emergence of a unified movement against the
occupation, we in Ann 
Arbor seem polarized almost to the point of paralysis
because of 
conflict over the vigils. Many people and groups who
support justice 
for Palestinians and peace are now hesitant to speak
out because they 
don't want to be associated with the vigil.  Many will
no longer work 
with ICPJ because they see ICPJ as connected to the
vigils.

         Beth Israel Congregation is a diverse group.
Many members of 
the congregation actively speak out and work for a
just peace that 
respects the rights of Palestinians.  Indeed, Rabbi
Dobrusin has 
publicly called for an end to the occupation of the
West Bank and 
Gaza Strip. Targeting these advocates for peace is a
form of 
collateral damage that erodes the ability to create a
diverse 
coalition that can effectively oppose Israel's
attempting to 
consolidate its occupation of large parts of the West
bank.

         A core ICPJ value is that we invite religious
communities to 
work with us for justice; we do not coerce them to
support our 
programs.  From our point of view the vigils have come
to the place 
where they currently violate this value.

In this atmosphere, it seems almost impossible for us
to organize the 
unorganized---those who don't yet realize that their
core values 
should lead them to oppose the occupation. The
polarization around 
the vigils has meant that different groups within
ICPJ, let alone the 
broader community, are no longer willing to work
together.  It means 
that at last some of the churches whose denomination
bodies have 
called for economic sanctions may no longer be willing
to work 
locally on justice and peace for Palestine and Israel.

While we have no expectation that a majority of the
religious Jewish 
community, or any religious community for that matter,
will at this 
point support our work against the occupation---we
want whatever 
strong disagreements we have to be about issues
related to the 
occupation -- not the vigils.  For all these reasons
we are asking 
you to end the vigils now.


Response from Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends

Dear Steering Committee Members:

Thank you for your recent letter concerning our vigils
at the Beth 
Israel Congregation. Your request to us is premised
upon a number of 
claims that we are unable to substantiate. Therefore,
in order that 
we may give your argument its due consideration we
would ask for some 
clarification. Additionally, we have other questions
bearing more 
generally upon your understanding of the
Israel-Palestine conflict 
and its solution. Hopefully, you will recognize the
sincerity with 
which we approach this matter.

In your letter you claim your "attempt[s] to build a
movement against 
the occupation" have been thwarted by the vigils.
Would you please 
provide us with evidence of such efforts and describe
how they were 
thwarted by our vigils?

Would you please provide us with evidence that "Many
people and 
groups who support justice for Palestinians and peace
are now 
hesitant to speak out because" of the vigils?

You assert that, "Many will no longer work with ICPJ
because they see 
ICPJ as connected to the vigils." Do you agree that
this constitutes 
guilt-by-association and, if so, how have you
responded it?

When and where did Rabbi Dobrusin "publicly [call] for
an end to the 
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip"? We note
that in 2003, 
the Rabbi delivered a "Sermon For Kol Nidre 5764"* and
in that sermon 
he called upon his congregants to "rally behind
[Israel] to insure 
her survival as a Jewish state." We are aware of two
ways to ensure 
the survival of Israel as a Jewish state; they are
practiced 
hand-in-hand. One is to continue to deny non-Jewish
citizens of 
Israel full equality with Jews. The second is to
continue to deny the 
rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and 
properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194. Do you
support the 
survival of Israel as a Jewish ethno-religious
supremacist state on 
these terms?

You claim that "Targeting these [Beth Israel]
advocates for peace ... 
erodes the ability to create a diverse coalition that
can effectively 
oppose Israel's attempting to consolidate its
occupation of large 
parts of the West Bank." The vigils are only two years
old; the 
Israeli occupation of the West Bank is thirty-eights
years old. In 
all that time, has the ICPJ ever before created an
effective, 
"diverse coalition" to oppose Israeli occupation? If
so, please 
describe that coalition. If not, why should we now
have any 
confidence that you can or will create one if the
vigils stop?

On July 9th of this year in an unprecedented show of
unity, 
"representatives of Palestinian civil society,
call[ed] upon 
international civil society organizations and people
of conscience 
all over the world to impose broad boycotts and
implement divestment 
initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to
South Africa 
in the apartheid era." Will you endorse, publicize,
and promote the 
Palestinian call "for Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions against 
Israel Until it Complies with International Law and
Universal 
Principles of Human Rights"?

Finally, the vigils have been an important and regular
part of our 
social justice work. If we stop the vigils then what
specific 
opportunities do you offer us for social justice work
and leadership 
within ICPJ?

We look forward to your response.

#
* - 
http://www.hvcn.org/info/bethisrael/rabbi.php?page=Sermon+For+Kol+Nidre+5764





	
		
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