[ ]J Street[ ]
Friends,

This weekend, many of us celebrated Passover with our families. During the
seder, we recalled how “in every generation” threats and enemies rise up
against us, and we undoubtedly recounted the suffering our own families
experienced.

Jewish families around the world have seen it all in the last century.
State-sponsored terror. Dictators trampling the rule of law. Minorities
forced to hide in fear. Educational institutions intimidated. Media bent
to the state’s will.

We also – until now – have shared something else: A belief that these
things could never happen here. At American seders, there's always
gratitude for the life we’ve built here in America.

We came here as refugees. We studied and learned in amazing educational
institutions. Our rights were protected by the Constitution and the rule
of law. For several generations in the US, all has been well.

That is, until the threat rises again – as it does in every generation.

Which brings me to the story of Columbia University graduate student
Mohsen Mahdawi.

Mahdawi was arrested Monday by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agents in Burlington, Vermont. Having been tricked into showing up
for a fake naturalization interview, he was taken into custody for nothing
more than his political views and activism.

Born in Jenin in the occupied West Bank and educated in a refugee camp,
Mahdawi has been a lawful permanent resident of the US for a decade as
well as a student at Columbia, where he was co-president of the
Palestinian Student Union and active in protests against the war in Gaza.

A practicing Buddhist, Mahdawi [ [link removed] ]took a step back from leading campus
pro-Palestine organizing and participated in dialogue efforts that brought
him into regular contact with Israeli and Jewish students, many of whom
are speaking out publicly on his behalf.

He was a visible figure at Columbia and nationally, [ [link removed] ]appearing on 60
Minutes in December 2023, where he made the case that, “The fight for the
freedom of Palestine and the fight against antisemitism go hand in hand
because injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The constructive role Mahdawi tried to play, [ [link removed] ]attested to by his fellow
students, doesn’t appear to have mollified far-right Jewish organizations
pushing to deport students like him. The Canary Mission, for instance, has
a page on its site devoted to Mahdawi, and Betar-US boasted on X back in
January that Mahdawi was on their “deport list.”

While the disgusting behavior of groups like these are, I believe,
thoroughly repugnant to the overwhelming majority of Jewish Americans, I
am astounded by how unaware the community is that this assault on students
is being fueled by a cabal of right-wing Jewish thugs in the name of
fighting antisemitism.

It is time for our community to call these groups out and to distance
ourselves from their rhetoric and tactics.

And – just as important – we must not allow President Trump and the far
MAGA right outside our community to use the fight against antisemitism as
a pretext for their anti-immigrant, anti-education, anti-rule-of-law
agenda.

[ [link removed] ]We must tell Trump and the ideologues in his administration: You Don’t
Speak for Us.

A lot of issues divide Jewish America – whether it’s our opinion of what
Israel’s government is doing, what constitutes antisemitism or even who we
think should be allowed to speak in Jewish institutions. J Street has
strong opinions on all these things and deep, legitimate disagreements
with many other Jewish organizations who sit both to our left and to our
right.

But this moment – with the most fundamental pillars of the country we call
home being ripped apart – demands a clear, strong, unified call.

When they come for Mohsen Mahdawi through deception and deceit, when they
seize [ [link removed] ]Rumeysa Ozturk off the street in broad daylight, when they ship
legal immigrants abroad without due process and say there’s no way to get
them back – the overwhelming majority of Jewish America needs to stand up
and make clear that this is not how the fight against antisemitism,
against hate and against bigotry should be conducted.

I am sure most people who support groups like AIPAC, the American Jewish
Committee and the Anti-Defamation League are as horrified as all of us at
J Street are by what this administration is doing.

I would love to join together with these groups – many of whom J Street
regularly disagrees with – to make a powerful statement that, from wall to
wall, our community opposes how the Trump Administration is using the
fight against antisemitism as a pretext to target, detain and potentially
deport students and to try to intimidate universities into relinquishing
their academic freedom.

In the days and weeks ahead, as the going gets even tougher, I fear, I can
assure you that J Street has no intention of self-censoring or of backing
down. We will continue to sound the alarm and do all in our power to meet
the threat “of this generation” to our way of life in this country.

Even more powerful than J Street doing this alone, would be for the left,
right and center of our community to come together in common cause – ready
to fight for the values and principles that have made the United States a
wonderful and welcoming home for our people.

Yours in determination,

Jeremy Ben-Ami
President, J Street

 


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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy
Americans who want Israel to be secure, democratic and the national home of the
Jewish people. Working in American politics and the Jewish community, we
advocate policies that advance shared US and Israeli interests as well as Jewish
and democratic values, leading to a two-state solution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.



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