Save Israel – Stop the Occupation (SISO) is an initiative of “prominent Israeli individuals and organizations who have joined with Jewish leaders from around the world in a sense of urgency about Israel’s future.” And since June 2017 marks 50 years since Israel’s victory of Biblical proportions over millions of its Arab enemies, SISO is there, ready to explain how dire this victory has been for Israel, since “the prolonged military occupation poses a very real threat to the safety and well-being of Israelis as well as Palestinians, and undermines the moral and democratic fabric of Israel and its standing in the community of nations.”
The fact is we, too, believe in the popular Israeli slogan, “The occupation corrupts,” and would like to see a quick end to the 50-year Israeli military rule over civilians in Judea and Samaria – via a decree of annexation. Israel has done it effectively and successfully in eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, but then her leaders lost their nerve. Perhaps better leaders will exhibit sturdier nerves.
SISO actually invites anyone who believes in “Save Israel – Stop the Occupation,” but somehow we don’t think they have pro-annexation Jews in mind. They are in favor of the two-state solution, but add that should this solution not be enforced soon, “Israel must grant full rights to Palestinians for as long as they are under Israeli control.”
At least they don’t actively promote BDS against Jewish settlers. But, alas, some of their representatives do We received a promotional email from SISO, offering to send experts on the harm o the Six Day War over to living rooms around Israel and beyond.
“The experts, who hail from numerous disciplines: military, history, political science and geography, sociology, diplomacy, civil society, and Jewish thought, have fluency in English, Hebrew, French, and German,” declare the nice folks at SISO. We expect that the readers will identify at least some of them as belonging to Israel’s extremist leftwing, as can also be discerned from their areas of fluency.
We deleted the emails and phone numbers of these experts, because we aren’t that kind of a news outlet. We also included only a smattering of experts because it gets repetitive very quickly:
Jessica Montell, Executive Director of SISO: Save Israel, Stop the Occupation, a new Israel-Diaspora partnership to build a coordinated strategy to end the Israeli occupation. Former head of B’Tselem.
Areas of expertise:
Israeli civil society
Human rights, international humanitarian law,
Conflicting narratives around 1967: Semantics of occupation or liberation
Dr Alon Liel, Former Director-General of the Israel Foreign Ministry, Israel’s Ambassador to South Africa and Turkey
Areas of expertise:
International and diplomatic dimensions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Ilan Baruch, former Israeli Ambassador to Philippines and South Africa, member of Israeli negotiating team to 1993 Interim Agreement, Head of Palestinian desk at the Foreign Ministry during Oslo Accords. Lost his right eye in War of Attrition (1970).
Areas of expertise:
Israeli diplomacy, Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Daniel Bar-Tal, Emeritus Professor at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University and internationally-acclaimed scholar of the social psychology of prolonged conflict and peacebuilding. Founder and Chair of the Board of SISO: Save Israel, Stop the Occupation. Published over twenty books and hundreds of articles on a broad range of topics related to the social and psychological effects of protracted conflict.
Areas of expertise:
How has the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affected Israeli society?
How has the Israeli education system developed since 1967?
Militarism in Israeli society
Culture and ethos of Conflict
Psychological barriers to solve the conflict
Conflicting narratives around 1967
The cost of occupation for Israeli society
Prof Dan Jacobson (speaks German), Professor emeritus, Department of Labor Studies, Tel Aviv University,
Areas of expertise:
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the peace process
Economic and political insecurity
German-Israel relations
Dr Shlomo Svirski, Founder and Academic Director of the Adva Center for equality and social justice in Israel
Areas of expertise:
Social divisions within Israeli society
The economic and social costs of the conflict and of Israeli rule over the Palestinians
Professor Dafna Canetti, Associate professor at the School of Political Science, University of Haifa.
Areas of expertise:
The mental health costs of the conflict for Israelis
The impact of terrorism and political violence on the people in the Middle East
Professor Galia Golan, Professor (emeritus), Political Science
Areas of expertise:
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Peace processes, negotiations and conflict resolution
Gender, militarism and peace
Russia
Prof Itzhak Schnell, Political Geographer
Areas of expertise:
The Israeli – Palestinian conflict and the occupation
Spatial and environmental myths in Zionism.
Jewish-Arab relations in Israel.
Prof Rachel Elior, Professor Emerita of Jewish Philosophy and Jewish Mystical Thought, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Member of International Board of the New Israel Fund and the Public Council of the Israel Religious Action Center.
Areas of expertise:
Perspectives on conflict, violence and peacemaking in Jewish thought and Jewish religion