We feel compelled to respond to the Dec. 9 Chronicle article on the national Green Party’s recent decision to adopt a resolution in favor of divestment from Israel.
The Green Party resolution goes far beyond any other divestment initiative, including those emanating from Protestant churches and university campuses. The Greens call for a boycott of Israel “until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized.”
Not only is this a wholly subjective criterion — who, after all, ultimately will determine when these “rights are realized”? — but it also exposes a profound imbalance underlying the resolution itself.
Furthermore, other divestment resolutions do not call for total divestment from Israel, as the Green Party does, but rather from companies profiting from or contributing to Israeli policies in the West Bank.
The Greens’ overreaching proposal, in effect, labels Israel a pariah state. The result is a resolution so transparent that one should seriously question the true motivation of those who drafted and passed it.
For those who have been following the divestiture movement, it comes as no surprise that the initiators include known local activists who have been instrumental in promoting similar one-sided resolutions.
Milwaukeean Ruth Weill, quoted in the Chronicle article, is not only the co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party, but she also serves as chair of the Middle East Committee of Peace Action Wisconsin, an organization that has a long history of promoting an anti-Israel agenda.
Mohammed Abed, one of two people who drafted the Green Party’s resolution on divestments, is an organizer with the Wisconsin Divest from Israel campaign, an active member of Al Awda-The Palestine Right to Return Coalition. He has traveled widely throughout the state and the country unsuccessfully pushing divestment.
It is a strategy not supported or promoted by the Palestinian Authority, but by extremists who reject good faith negotiations to solve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
While Jews may differ on the best strategy for achieving a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there is virtually no disagreement about the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state.
The organizations and individuals invested in divestment resolutions, however, do not share this sentiment. This is found in the often corresponding endorsement of ideas such as the “right to return” for all Palestinians, or a “one-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In reality, these are code words for the destruction of Israel as the Jewish state.
This is in sharp contrast to the position of the Israeli government, the Palestinian leadership, the United States, United Nations and European Union, all of which are on record supporting a two-state solution.
It is also significant that to date no Jewish peace group in either Israel or the United States that supports a two-state solution has been supportive of divestment as a strategy for peace.
Among the many sound arguments against divestment is the notion that this kind of campaign serves to make Israelis feel more isolated than they already do, and drives them to the right of the political spectrum, ultimately making peace harder to attain.
Neither the Green Party nor other organizations and individuals who promote the use of divestment as a strategy for peace have chosen to focus their efforts on investing in peace, but rather on misguided attempts to polarize people and communities, making constructive actions for peace less possible.
Those who have a keen interest in hastening peace in the region should focus on efforts of reconciliation, including investment in meaningful coexistence programs that are necessary to foster a generation of Israelis and Palestinians who will work and live side-by-side in peace and security.
Using divestment as a way to draw new battle lines will help neither Israelis nor Palestinians realize their aspirations for peace and should be seen for the transparent and counterproductive strategy that it is.
The authors are officials of the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations: Paula Simon is executive director, Michael Waxman is president, Kathy Heilbronner is assistant director and Ellis Bromberg is chair of the council’s Israel Task Force.
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