IfNotNow Calls on Jewish Community to Reject David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel
If the Jewish establishment remains silent on this latest appointment they will once again demonstrate how out of touch they are with the entire Jewish community.
IfNotNow rejects the appointment of pro-occupation lawyer David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel–and we call on the entire Jewish community to join us in condemning this appointment.
This is just the latest indication that President-Elect Trump intends to pursue policies that will continue to deny freedom and dignity to Israelis and Palestinians. Friedman’s public support for annexing the West Bank and his position as the head of the American Friends of Beit El Institutions, a radical right-wing organization that funnels millions of dollars into illegal Israeli settlements, are proof of how far outside the values of American Jewish community he is.
Trump is testing us: First by appointing white nationalist Stephen Bannon as his Chief Strategist and now by appointing extremist David Friedman as Ambassador to Israel. They are cut from the same cloth of ethnic supremacist ideology, which will turn campaign rhetoric into real policies that will further endanger immigrants, Muslims, people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Jews and Palestinians. Any American Jew that doesn’t stand against them is complicit in normalizing these violent ideologies.
If the Jewish establishment remains silent on this latest appointment–as they have on Bannon–they will once again demonstrate how out of touch they are with the rest of the Jewish community. They will once again show that they are unwilling to provide the moral leadership needed in this moment of crisis.
If the Jewish establishment remains silent, we will act for them.
