Voters in California and Massachusetts on Tuesday defeated three searate propositions calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state and criticizing Israel for its policy in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. But in Cambridge, Mass., a sharply anti-Israeli measure was adopted Tuesday.
The Cambridge proposition, which calls for a cut in U.S. aid to Israel equivalent to the money Israel uses in the administered territories, passed narrowly, with 22,913 votes in favor and 20,113 against.
The Cambridge measure also calls on the district’s congressman to “vote in favor of a resolution to achieve peace in the Mideast by demanding that Israel end its violation of Palestinian human rights and its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
A similar measure in Newton, another suburb of Boston, was defeated by a large margin. The vote in Newton was 10,035 against the resolution and 4,597 in support of it.
The Newton measure called on the U.S. government to “support the principles of selfdetermination for the Israeli and Palestinian people; the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip next to Israel; and security for Israel and the new Palestinian state.”
Both measures in Massachusetts were known as Question No. 5.
WIDE MARGINS IN CALIFORNIA
Measure J in Berkeley and Proposition W in San Francisco were both defeated by large margins.
Proposition W, which called on the city of San Francisco officially to support “statehood in the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza,” was rejected by 133,712 voters, while 63,011 voters supported it.
Measure J in Berkeley, which called for the establishment of a “sister city relationship” with the Palestinian Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, was defeated by 31,799 votes to 13,017 in favor of the resolution.
All four measures were initiated and supported by various pro-Arab groups in the United States and the National Association of Arab Americans.
Jewish groups and supporters of Israel across the country, alarmed that the new initiatives might change American public opinion and create an anti-Israel mood in the United States, engaged in intensive campaigns in California and Massachusetts to defeat the measures.
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.
