Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein and ZOA Chair Mark Levenson, Esq. on Monday released the following statement:
The ZOA is pleased that anti-Israel activist Peter Beinart, who opposes Israel’s existence as a Jewish State and is an anti-Israel propagandist, has taken the right and honorable action by resigning his position as an alternate to the World Zionist Congress (“WZC”). Beinart was a member of the far leftwing “Hatikvah” slate, which includes the Israel-bashing group J Street. Beinart’s resignation follows separate cases brought by the ZOA Coalition and the Eretz HaKodesh slates, before Zionist judicial tribunals, against Beinart, his “Hatikvah” slate, ARZA, and delegates and alternates on those slates who promote partial anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and/or sanctions (BDS).
In October 2019, the WZC Zionist General Council passed a resolution initiated by the ZOA Coalition, which requires the exclusion of organizations, individual delegates, and alternates who directly or indirectly support full or “partial” BDS.
“Partial BDS” includes boycotts or divestment targeting Jews, Jewish communities, Jewish schools, other Jewish institutions, and/or Jewish goods and services in Israeli territories over the “green line.” (The “green line,” more formally known as the 1949 Armistice Demarcation Line, is where the fighting stopped after six Arab nations invaded Israel and seized Israeli territory, including East Jerusalem, the Jewish Quarter, and Judea and Samaria, in 1948.)
Peter Beinart is notorious for leading and co-signing a public call in 2016 for a “targeted boycott of all goods and services from all Israeli settlements” in areas to which the Jewish people have the sole sovereign rights (which Beinart falsely and wrongly calls “the Occupied Territories”). Beinart’s boycott call also targeted “any investments that promote the Occupation.” (“Occupation” is the false and misleading term that Israel’s detractors use to refer to Israel and/or Israel’s lawful territories, over which no other country has had legal sovereignty). In a horrific action, treasonous to the Jewish people, Beinart also recently called for the elimination of the Jewish State.
ZOA hopes that the other organizations and individuals who promote full or partial anti-Israel boycotts, divestment and/or sanctions will also do the right thing and resign their delegate or alternate positions to the World Zionist Congress – or immediately publicly retract their promotion of anti-Jewish full or partial boycotts, divestment or sanctions.
ZOA’s claim (now before the Zionist Supreme Court) specifically calls out: Hatikvah slate member “Americans for Peace Now”’s “proud” call to boycott Jewish settlements and settlement products; statements by Hatikvah slate member Nomi Colton-Max and ARZA slate leader Joshua Weinberg calling for no investments in Jewish communities over the green line (which constitutes anti-Israel partial divestment); and a public letter supporting Airbnb’s boycott and delisting of Jewish homes over the green line, signed by four Hatikvah slate members, namely: J Street President Jeremy Ben-Ami, T’ruah Exec. Director Jill Jacobs, Partners for Progressive Israel (PPI) President Paul Sham, and New Israel Fund (NIF) President Daniel Sokatch.
ZOA President Morton A. Klein thanks ZOA’s Director of Special Projects Liz Berney, Esq. and ZOA Coalition alternate and Z Street President Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Esq. for their splendid work on the ZOA Coalition matters. ZOA also thanks all the members of and voters for the ZOA Coalition slate and the Eretz HaKodesh slate.