Our group, BeCounted4Israel, disagrees with the Editorial, “Making Mischief of the Parade,” and Steve Lipman’s article, “Israel’s ‘Unity’ Parade Set For June 1 But Some Groups Seek To Ban Others” (both April 11). It is not false to say that supporters of the BDS movement are being allowed to march. The New Israel Fund, B’Tselem, and Partners for a Progressive Israel support a boycott of products from Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”) and undermine Israel in other ways that also foster hatred against Israel and Jews.
The Jewish right to settle Judea and Samaria is legal fact, proven in Article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations-authorized British Mandate; the International Court of Justice; UN Security Resolution 242; and the 1993 Oslo Accord. The land is not “occupied,” but to be negotiated during final peace talks. Palestinian construction there is tens of times larger than Jewish construction. According to Ambassador Yoram Ettinger (ret.), the real problem is “Arab unwillingness to accept Israel’s existence, not just her size.”
The New Israel Fund has distributed over $150 million to anti-Israel groups such as Adalah, which promotes a “one-state solution,” designed to destroy Israel’s Jewish nature, and Rabbis for Human Rights, which is devoted to the destabilizing the Israeli army. The board chairman of B’Tselem, a major grantee of the NIF, called for “effective sanctions” against Israel and produced a video shown at “Israel Apartheid 2012,” a worldwide college event. Partners for a Progressive Israel calls for a boycott on its website.
To say the parade is apolitical is disingenuous. Including in the parade those who support boycotts, a “one-state solution,” and the taunting of Israeli soldiers is political. Organizers should write clearer guidelines, create a campaign identifying the “West Bank” as Israeli territory whose final outcome is yet to be decided, and expose these anti-Israel groups and others that foster the condemnation of Israel and the Jewish people.
BeCounted4Israel.org
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