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Here’s a lesson in democracy. In preparation for the upcoming November election
a group of local activists sent a questionnaire to the 85 candidates from their county
running for seats in the state legislature. They hoped the information they’d receive
would encourage debate and allow voters to make better decisions at the ballot box.
What did they get instead? They got slammed. Their survey was called “abhorrent
and repulsive,” and the newspaper that brought the charges against them ignored
their calls for a reasonable policy debate and did not allow them to respond with as
little as a letter to the editor.
The candidate survey from Peace Action Montgomery came under attack for a single
question in it, that – you guessed it – addressed the Israeli occupation.Del. Benjamin
Kramer (D-Montgomery), one of the candidates receiving the survey, issued a public letter
Anti-Semitic? You be the judge.
Question 5 is composed of only three sentences. The first two are statements of facts:
1. “In the past, the Maryland state legislature has exercised its power to order
the state’s pension system to divest its holdings in companies that are complicit
in illegal activities in other countries.”
2. “The World Court has ruled that Israel’s separation wall and settlements in the
West Bank are illegal.”
Based on those facts, a legitimate policy question is asked:
“Would you support a similar divestment bill targeting companies that
knowingly participate in these illegal activities in Israel?”
The question does not single out Jews. It does not even single out Israel. It does
single out actions that break international law. What’s wrong with that?
Ask Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of
Greater Washington, who described the questionnaire by Peace Action Montgomery
as “abhorrent and repulsive.” The JCRC holds its own set of candidate forums and dis-
tributes questionnaires to inform its members. But apparently others cannot do as
much.
This whole controversy erupted on the front page of the local Washington Jewish
Week (“Parsing the D-word”).
Peace Action Montgomery was quoted in the D-article,
but its letter to the editor following the publication of the slander was never printed.
In that letter, Peace Action Montgomery called for an open, reasonable debate on the
merits of BDS, pro and con. The group even invited the paper that slandered it to
co-moderate the debate. But the Washington Jewish Week has chosen to ignore the
invitation altogether. What are they so afraid of?
We print here what the Washington Jewish week would not publish:
“Parsing the D Word” (July 29) not only pointed out the controversy over
using divestment as a strategy to encourage Israel to abide by international
laws regarding human rights; it also included statements by an unidentified
Jewish backer to MD Delegate, Jim Pettit, that slammed Peace Action Montg-
omery as “a façade” and questioned its legitimacy as an organization
that truly promotes peace. In reality, anyone who took the time to review
our activities would see that we have consistently opposed military inter-
ventions and U.S. funding of ALL military occupations, but particularly
those in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories, since they garner
by far the largest chunk of U.S. taxpayer dollars. We also vehemently oppose
anti-Semitism and bigotry and are offended at being defamed for our support
for human rights, protection of civil rights and opposition to violations of the
rule of law.
Our question to the Washington Jewish Week is why the published article negle-
cted to point out that our letter in response to Delegate Kramer invited him to
join us in a public debate on the issue of how best to advance a just resolution to
the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, with Washington Jewish Week as a co-moderator
of the event, along with a representative of another organization.
We have had no response to that invitation and so propose it again. We hope
thaDel. Kramer and/or Washington Jewish Week will accept this invitation
for a much needed dialogue on this significant issue.
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