Page 28 - Issue 30

distinction between the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories
it militarily occupies. This critical differentiation between the State of
Israel and the settlements established in occupied territory in
violation of international law is rightly recognized and maintained in
various ways by official US policy and the constitutionally-protected
actions of private individuals and organizations.

Most Jewish Americans support policies that reflect this important
distinction. For example, a recent poll of Jewish voters in the United
States found that a majority support both continued US military aid
to Israel and measures to ensure that such assistance is not used in
connection with expanding settlements. We also note that the
McDonald’s franchisee in Israel has declined for many years to open
a restaurant in the settlements. In contrast, both the global BDS
movement and supporters of the settlements argue against this
distinction between Israel and the occupied territories, asserting
that the entirety of the land should be treated as a single political
entity. That approach forecloses the possibility of a peaceful two-
state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — a solution
supported by a supermajority of American Jews and Americans
overall, and which is the official policy of the US government.

We are also deeply concerned that moves to penalize those who
choose to protest settlements, the occupation or Israeli policy at
large violate Americans’ fundamental constitutional rights and
dangerously create a false dichotomy between freedom of speech
and support for Israel. We have joined First Amendment advocates
like the American Civil Liberties Union in opposing recent state and
local “anti-boycott” laws, as well as similar bills at the federal level,
on free speech grounds, and because they have the potential to be
weaponized against political opponents and to silence Palestinians
and human rights advocates. Several such laws have already been
ruled unconstitutional by federal courts in states such as Texas,
Arizona and Kansas.