We are over 1,000 alumni of J Street’s student arm, J Street U. We call on J Street to support legislation that would reduce American military assistance to Israel should it decide to unilaterally annex large parts of the West Bank.

We represent both the present and the future of the progressive movement. As students, we spent countless hours calling on our peers, Jewish community leaders, and Members of Congress to speak out on the issue of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. We have since graduated from J Street U, but we continue to lead and advocate on this issue. We do so now as rabbis, leaders of Jewish non-profits, elected officials, staff for elected officials, journalists, community organizers, lawyers, and more.  

As Israel makes final preparations to annex the West Bank, we find ourselves in an unprecedented moment. Annexation would enshrine into law Israel’s existing policies of discrimination and violence against Palestinians, settlement expansion, and so much more. If there was ever a decisive test for the progessive movement, this is it.

Israel’s leaders are proceeding with annexation because they expect no real consequence for doing so. For fifty years, Israeli leaders have expanded their control of the West Bank with limited resistance. Now, as they threaten to make that control permanent, most American leaders and institutions have expressed outrage, but few have indicated that moving forward will result in material consequences: a tangible erosion of American monetary support.

Israel’s leaders must understand, instead, that proceeding with annexation will come at a cost. Only when Israeli leadership feels that doing so will jeopardize a portion of its $3.8 billion in annual American assistance will it have a real reason to reconsider.

Time and again, J Street has organized letters of condemnation, Jewish communal pressure, and congressional measures that fall short of creating material consequences for Israel’s actions. Those efforts have not and will not impede Israel’s attempts to expand its control of the West Bank, so long as its primary means of support—American aid—is untouched. At this critical juncture, we have exhausted all other options.

We were drawn to J Street because of its unapologetic rejection of the status quo and its willingness to do what is necessary to bring about a just resolution to conflict. This is what is necessary. This is what it means to fight for our values, for an end to occupation, and for a long-term peace.

We ask J Street to stand in strong support of any legislation that will reduce American assistance to Israel if it decides, once and for all, to annex the West Bank.


Signed,
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