FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 20, 2019

CONTACT: Tara Siegel, press@ifnotnowmovement.org

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WASHINGTON, DC — On Wednesday morning, two days after the Trump administration announced that it no longer respects the international law viewing Israeli settlements as illegal, dozens of IfNotNow members were forced out of Rep. Eliot Engel’s Washington, DC office by police after demanding that he convene a #DefundOccupation Hearing to investigate how the Israeli government uses US security assistance to perpetuate occupation and human rights abuses, including settlement expansion. Invoking Jewish tradition and song, these young Jews called on the HFAC Chairman to take back the blank check the US government has given Israel.

“For decades, American public officials like Eliot Engel have given lip service to the two-state solution while demonstrating to Israeli politicians that there will be no real consequences for creating a one-state reality that denies basic rights to Palestinians,” IfNotNow DC member Miriam Ginsberg said, “We’ve seen the results of this failed policy over the past few weeks: Trump empowering the settlement movement and another round of unnecessary violence in the region, with more unnecessary civilian deaths. Public officials who have otherwise supported human rights have participated in the problem, making empty statements and condemnations of Israeli actions, rather than putting real solutions on the table.”

The #DefundOccupation protest comes after days of silence from Engel on the announcement by Secretary Pompeo on behalf of the Trump administration that it no longer views Israeli settlements in the Occupied Territories as illegal according to international law. This was a move hailed by extremists on the right, like Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Republican Jewish Coalition. So far, Rep. Engel has not commented on the move, even as leaders of the Democratic party have spoken out.

Every year the United States sends over $3 billion in military funding to Israel, which helps perpetuate its brutal military occupation of Palestinian territories. The US places human rights conditions on its security assistance to many other countries and the US has a long history of leveraging military funding to pressure Israel and other countries to shift policies that are out of line with our values, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Yet for decades, Engel, a leading Jewish Representative, has parroted AIPAC talking points about the need for unconditional US support for Israel, even as Israel has used that money to steal Palestinian land, detain children, and create a one-state reality on the ground that denies Palestinians basic rights.

Defunding the occupation begins, the young Jewish protesters articulated, with a #DefundOccupation hearing, an effort IfNotNow launched yesterday. IfNotNow DC member Rabbi Lizz Goldstein, 31 said, “The defund occupation hearing is essential. We need to know exactly how US money is being used. We need to hear the voices of Palestinians whose safety and dignity is threatened by the violence of the occupation. We need to hear, to listen, to understand, and to take action. “

This past week, IfNotNow released the IfNotNow 2020 platform, which has two planks: defunding the Israeli occupation and standing up to white nationalism. On Monday, 50 IfNotNow members visited the Chicago office of Rep. Jan Schakowsky, another leading Jewish congressperson, calling on her to #DefundOccupation. In the coming weeks, young Jews around the country will call on their representatives to do the same.

IfNotNow DC members are available for interviews. 

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IfNotNow Education Fund is a movement led by young Jews to transform the American Jewish community's support for the occupation into a call for freedom and dignity for all Israelis and Palestinians. IfNotNow has over 2,000 members and chapters in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, New Orleans, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, the San Francisco Bay Area, Toronto, and Washington, DC.