Open Letter to LA City Councilmember Paul Koretz on his Recent Statements and Actions Regarding the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Conference at UCLA
Editor’s note: This open letter was penned by members of the LA chapter of the Jewish Solidarity Caucus and we share it here in solidarity with our members in LA and their comrades in DSA-LA.
Dear Councilmember Koretz,
We are writing to you as members of the Democratic Socialists of America, Los Angeles (DSA-LA) Jewish Solidarity Caucus (JSC). The authors of this letter are all Jewish Angelenos, and many of us live in your district. We wish to express our deep disappointment with your recent attacks on the conference held by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCLA on November 18th, 2018, your equating their politics with anti-semitism, and your willingness to stand side-by-side with the Jewish Defense League (JDL) and Yad Yamin, two violent far-right organizations that openly call for violence against Palestinians.
First, we have attached a picture of you marching with the JDL and Yad Yamin members.
Yad Yamin is a far-right group that openly calls for the use of violence against Palestinians, preaching for Jews to “Give War a Chance” and “fight back.” They were denounced by other Israel-advocacy student groups after their members were reported to have been verbally harassing and assaulting Muslim students on campus in days leading up to the SJP conference.
The JDL is a violent, right-wing organization that, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, “preaches a violent form of anti-Arab, Jewish nationalism.” Members of JDL advocate for the complete expulsion of Arabs from Israel and believe in a religious claim to Jewish ethnic supremacy. JDL has been labelled a terrorist group in both the United States and Israel. According to the FBI — not typically eager to catalog right-wing violence — there have been frequent terrorist attacks on U.S. soil committed by JDL members. There have also been numerous violent attacks targeting Israeli Arabs and Palestinians, including the slaughter of 29 worshippers at the Cave of the Patriarchs Massacre by JDL terrorist Baruch Goldstein.
What troubles us most as Jewish Angelenos is that the JDL has a history of operating in Los Angeles. In 2001, JDL members Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel were arrested for planning a series of bomb attacks aimed at the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City.
We find it unthinkable and reprehensible that you would openly associate with members of this group who have committed wanton acts of hateful violence, some even in your city. As an elected Councilmember for Los Angeles, your job is to represent everyone in your district. By not repudiating actual terrorists organizing in your midst, you have failed in your role.
Your misleading likening of anti-Zionism to anti-semitism is deluded, dangerous, and furthers the oppression of the Palestinian people.
SJP fights for a righteous and liberatory cause. The students attending the SJP conference were participating in a peaceful educational conference and should be allowed to discuss their perspectives on Israel and on the BDS movement without the threat of violence. Israel is responsible for some of the most horrific oppression and injustice in the world, particularly in Gaza, which has been described by many who have witnessed this subjugation firsthand as an “open-air prison.” Because of Israel’s rule, the nearly 2 million residents of Gaza suffer indescribable misery and violence every day. Life in the West Bank and East Jerusalem is similar: the Palestinians there are subject to harsh military rule, ever-expanding settlements, perpetual state terror, and an apartheid system that openly treats Israeli Jews as uniquely deserving of basic rights not afforded to Arabs in the region. The state of Israel is built on the violent displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, and is responsible for creating close to half of the world’s refugee population, over six million of whom are Palestinians.
Palestinians deserve justice, just as the Jews escaping the Holocaust did, and we refuse to stand idly by as you hinder their struggle. This equation of anti-Zionism with anti-semitism is both dangerous and disrespectful to millions of Jews who understand the nature of Israel’s atrocities. As you well know, these are scary times, and anti-semitism is on the rise. But to verbally abuse SJP and all those fighting with them serves only to obscure the true cause of violent anti-semitism in the United States: right-wing white supremacy. The Pittsburgh synagogue killer is a white Trump supporter with hatred not only for Jews but for refugees and immigrants seeking a home in the US. He targeted The Tree of Life Synagogue in part because of its affiliation with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, blaming Jews for ushering “invaders” into the U.S. It is a disgusting irony that the Zionists you openly support would turn the attack against Judaism in Pittsburgh into fuel for demonizing another group bravely fighting for the rights of refugees.
Perhaps worst of all, your words and conduct ultimately further the oppression of Palestinians. The Israeli lobby and other Zionist organizations frequently conflate the desire for the liberation of Palestine with anti-semitism — a rhetorical tool that has been used to cover up Israel’s outrageous acts for too long. The visage of the “self-hating Jew” is often referenced when calling out Jews who oppose the Zionist colonial Israeli project. In fact, many of the protesters you stood with at this event accused our Jewish caucus members of being “kapos.” This horrific language is a disgusting act that demeans the horrors of the Shoah.
Your actions and words before and, as shown in this video, during the conference are unacceptable.
We call on you to denounce the JDL and Yad Yamin, while acknowledging the suffering of Palestinians and the role white supremacy has played in stoking anti-semitism and xenophobia throughout the world, the U.S., and Los Angeles. We also ask that you formally apologize to the organizers of the SJP conference for your words and misconduct.
DSA-LA is an organization with a large media presence and a predilection for non-violent direct action protests. We are proud that our national organization has officially endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. We in the Jewish Solidarity Caucus see it as a fundamental duty to fight for the justice and liberation of all Palestinians. If you continue this line of reactionary politicking, we will not take it lightly.
Sincerely,
The Members of the DSA-LA Jewish Solidarity Caucus, and others in Solidarity
Sam Forman
Kelsey Goldberg
Tal Levy
David Nagy
Arielle Sallai
Kyle Scott
Joshua Smith
Jacob Woocher
Wendy Dozoretz
Steve Ducey
Andrew Hall
Michael Robin, JSC-Chicago
Avik Herur-Raman, Macalester College YDSA
Liza DeWitt
Liz Hirsch
Michael Steinborn
Max Gelula
