The American Jewish Committee’s Washington chapter has abandoned two resolutions its officers had originated critical of Israel’s settlements policy in Judaco and Samaria and adopted’a draft submitted to it by its national board in New York.
According to information obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the chapter voted the national office’s draft in a show of hands, counted 37-23. With about 100 members having attended the meeting, some 40 obtained. The approved draft was read by Hyman Bookbinder, the AJ Commitee’s Washington representative, which he said the New York board had sent up him that day.
The meeting was held April 30 but chapter officers refused to discuss it. Noting that the proceedings were open only to the chapter’s approximately 600 members and that the results would be forwarded to the national office for discussion at the AJ Committee’s board meeting and national plenary session this week in New York City.
The board’s version was described to JTA as “completely different” from the original resolution that had been circulated by the chapter and the amended draft that included additional language tending to soften the first one. The board’s draft reportedly backed Israeli policy more strongly than either, while less critical than the chapter on the settlements issue. The meeting was said to have been extraordinarily heated, with many of the younger members strongly opposed to criticism of Israel policy.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
