California’s capital city, already twinned with Bethlehem, is new battleground in global campaign to ‘delegitimize the Jewish State’
When the Sacramento City Council
proposed making Bethlehem a sister city in 2009, local Jewish groups
were initially opposed to the idea of pairing California’s capital city
with the historic Palestinian town. Eventually, the Jewish community
agreed to support the measure after the city council made a commitment
to add an Israeli sister city in the future.
That future is here and Sacramento city
leaders are set to vote on a resolution making Ashkelon its 10th sister
city next Tuesday, August 14. But pro-Palestinian activists and
supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement
against Israel have mounted an offensive against the proposal, claiming
the coastal Israeli town is a symbol of discrimination against
Sacramento’s Palestinian-American community.
“We’re concerned about Sacramento as a city
establishing a relationship that might be in agreement with
discrimination,” said Adeeb Alzanoon, a local representative for the
Palestinian American Congress, one of a half dozen local groups that
sent a letter to all nine city council members opposing the measure.
Among other things, the letter cites the
presence of the Shikma prison, which holds West Bank and Gazan
prisoners, and claims that Ashkelon was “was built on the thriving town
of Majdal Asqualan…home to generations of Palestinian families until
1948 when the army of the newly declared state of Israel began its
ethnic cleansing campaign, terrorizing the native Palestinian population
and forcing them to leave.”
We’re concerned about Sacramento as a city establishing a relationship that might be in agreement with discrimination
The pressure campaign against the proposal has
also taken the form of emails to city council members, phone calls,
plans to show up en masse at the council meeting and a signed petition.
Local Jewish leaders and at least one major
pro-Israel Christian group are mounting a counteroffensive, accusing BDS
supporters of “rewriting history” and “continuing to wage a war of
delegitimization against the Jewish state at every opportunity and in
every possible venue.”
Melissa Chapman, the Executive Director of the
Jewish Federation of the Sacramento Region and one of the drafters of
the Ashkelon plan, said the purpose of a sister city “is to promote
cultural and educational partnerships.”
“We’re trying to do the exact opposite of what some of the [opposition is] trying to do,” she said.
This is an important moment for Israel and Sacramento’s Jewish Community
Rabbis Nancy and David Wechsler-Azen, who
preside together over Congregation Beth Shalom, a Reform synagogue in
Sacramento, are urging the area’s Jewish community to show up in force
at the August 14 meeting to support the Sacramento-Ashkelon pairing.
“This is an important moment for Israel and Sacramento’s Jewish Community,” they said.
It’s also an important moment for America’s
Christian community, according to David Brog, the Executive Director of
Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a huge pro-Israel Christian group
that works in all 50 states and claims millions of supporters.
“The anti-Israel camp is trying to open up a
new front in their effort to delegitimize Israel,” he says. “This is the
first national campaign I’m aware of seeking to block a sister city
relationship. We believe it’s important to speak out on behalf of the
overwhelming majority of Americans who support closer ties with our ally
Israel.”
CUFI has set up an action alert website
where more than 13,000 of its members have already sent emails directly
to the Sacramento City Council expressing support for Ashkelon’s sister
city status.
If those opposing the sister city relationship want to find the real practitioners of apartheid, they should look in the mirror
Brog calls the claims being made by opponents to the proposal “as ridiculous as ever.”
“Their lead complaint is that Palestinians who
aren’t Israeli citizens need “special permits” to enter Ashkelon. Wow,
that sounds terrible. Until you realize that the same applies to
Americans and anyone else who’s not an Israeli citizen. In fact,
Israelis and Palestinians alike need a special permit to visit
Sacramento. It’s called a tourist visa.”
Brog also points to the fact that Sacramento
recognized Bethlehem as a sister city despite the fact that the
Palestinian Authority doesn’t permit land sales to Jews and has pledged
that no Jews will live in a Palestinian state.
“If those opposing the sister city
relationship want to find the real practitioners of apartheid, they
should look in the mirror,” he said.
The latest controversy is not the first time
the Israeli-Palestinian dispute has spilled into Sacramento. Last year,
BDS activists unsuccessfully attempted to get themselves elected to the
board of the city’s food co-op in an effort to ban Israeli-made
products.
Sacramento City Council Member Steve Cohn, a
supporter of the Ashkelon proposal, believes if cities had to satisfy
every single concern about human rights or political problems, “We
wouldn’t have a sister-city program.”
Sacramento’s nine current sister cities are
Jinan (China), Manila/Pasay City (Philippines), Matsuyama (Japan),
Hamilton (New Zealand), Liestal (Switzerland), Chisinau (Moldova),
Yongsan-gu (South Korea), San Juan de Orient (Nicaragua), and Bethlehem
(West Bank).
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