After canceling its trips to Israel due to pressure from anti-Israel groups, the California-based Sierra Club will reportedly reinstate those trips in response to backlash from Israel supporters.
The news came after a call on Tuesday between Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action agenda for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Ross Macfarlane, vice president for conservation at the Sierra Club. During their discussion, Macfarlane assured Cooper that the trips will be back.
“We appreciate that the Sierra Club acted quickly to reverse the announced cancelations of trips to Israel which placed the famed American conservation organization directly into the crosshairs of BDS, anti-Israel and anti-piece zealots,” stated the rabbi. “The Jewish community needs to awaken to the fact that extremist anti-Israel and anti-Semitic organizations will continue to try to insert their anti-peace poison pill into the mainstream of American corporate culture as they have already done on American campuses.”
On Tuesday, Cooper had sent the Sierra Club a letter that said, in part: “It is deeply disappointing that we even have to write this protest on behalf of our 400,000 members, some of whom are also longtime supports of the work and goals of your important organization. The Sierra Club, historically a pioneer in promoting an environmentally clean world, has suddenly become an anti-Semitic polluter by caving to extremist anti-peace groups who seek to demonize, delegitimize and eliminate the democratic Jewish state.”
The J. The Jewish News of Northern California reported late last week that planned trips to Israel, including one scheduled for earlier this month, were canceled after anti-Israel groups and activists said the Sierra Club was engaging in “greenwashing,” giving Israel “legitimacy” by ignoring the Palestinians and only focusing on Israel’s environmental work.
