Dear Friend,
I’m writing to share some great news: Thanks to pressure from the pro-democracy protest movement, the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington’s meeting with provocative right-wing Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli is now CANCELED.
That means the planned protest for this afternoon that was to be led by UnXeptable is now also OFF.
This is another major victory for all those standing up for the future of Israeli democracy – and rejecting the far-right agenda of the Netanyahu government. In their public statement, UnXeptable’s spokesperson noted that this is “a third cancellation of an event by one of the delegation ministers due to the activists' demands,” after the cancellation of events with Minister Ofir Akunis in Los Angeles and Minister Nir Barkat in Boston.
“We encourage the important bonding between the Jewish and Israeli communities in Washington and throughout the United States, and we are pleased with the communities' strong stand for our values as Jews and for Israeli democracy, security, economy, and prosperity.”
We look forward to sharing more updates on how all supporters of the pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy movement can continue to speak out for our values and stand up to extremists.
Thank you,
Tamar Ariel
Director for Capital, South & Mountain West, J Street
Over the past week, some of the current far-right Israeli government’s most extreme ministers have been touring the US for events related to Israel’s 75th anniversary. At every step of the way, they’ve been met by full-throated protests from Israeli-Americans and American Jews standing up for Israeli democracy.
Tomorrow, Thursday, June 8, Israeli Minister of the Diaspora Amichai Chikli will be meeting with the Jewish Federation and JCRC of Greater Washington at the Federation building in North Bethesda, MD. Chikli once called Tel Aviv’s LGBTQ+ pride parade “a disgraceful vulgarity,” and recently made headlines for publicly defending Elon Musk’s antisemitic comments about Jewish philanthropist George Soros. Last week, he was seen publicly mocking pro-democracy protesters during a parade for Israel’s 75th anniversary in NY.
UnXeptable, the pro-democracy movement organized and led by Israeli-Americans, is organizing a protest outside the meeting to make clear that the hateful views and anti-democratic policies of Chikli and his government are not welcome here.
We want to let you know about this protest in case you’re able to attend. See UnXeptable’s flier for details:
Thank you for your being part of the pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy movement.
Tamar Ariel
Director for Capital, South & Mountain West, J Street
