[ ]J Street [ ]
Friends --

Over the weekend, on the way to speak with Palestinian activists on the
West Bank, I witnessed the demolition of a Palestinian family’s home for
the first time.

I was born in Israel, have been deeply involved in pro-Israel, pro-peace
advocacy in the US, and thought I knew what to expect. I didn’t. Nothing
prepared me for the anguish.

Nothing prepared me for the intensity and confusion in the children’s
cries. The pain and grief in the sobs of their parents and grandparents.
The futility and desperation in their fathers’ pleas.

For the frantic but focused determination of parents given just minutes to
salvage family keepsakes. For the devastation creeping across their faces
as they watched their memories, hopes and life savings crushed before
them.

For the detached look in the eyes of wrecking crews who’ve done this many
times before. For the blank stares of the neighbors’ children watching
alongside me -- thankful their home was spared, but knowing it could be
their family next.

I’ll be honest: I also wasn’t prepared for how bitter and angry it would
make me feel.

What kind of future are we building for the next generation? How can we
allow such injustice to continue? How can we let far-right fanatics
continue to demolish family homes and trample on basic values and freedoms
in their blind pursuit of settlement expansion and permanent, undemocratic
control of Palestinian land?

The answer is that we can’t. Together, we have to fight back.

[ [link removed] ]Friends -- If you haven’t yet signed our White House petition
for stronger action against settlement expansion, please read it now and
add your name >>

[ [link removed] ]images of the demolition

The demolition I witnessed -- purely by chance -- was in the town of al
Jwaya, whose residents have also been subjected to a wave of recent
violent settler attacks. The weekend’s demolition was another form of
oppression and harassment -- and painful scenes just like it play out
every week across the West Bank.

Together, we need to make clear to folks in Washington -- and in our
communities across America -- that these demolitions are not a ‘zoning
issue’ or a ‘real estate dispute’, as some disingenuous right-wingers
would have us believe. They have nothing to do with Israel’s security.

We need our elected officials to see through the smokescreen and wrestle
honestly with the reality: Demolitions are part of an intentional,
systematic effort to push Palestinians from their homes, to build more
settlements, and to entrench permanent, undemocratic control over the
entire West Bank.

And we need them to understand that this project spells disaster not only
for Palestinian families -- but for the generations of Israelis sent to
the frontlines to defend this, for all those on both sides trapped in a
cycle of injustice and retaliation, and for all of us who care about
Israel’s future as a just, democratic homeland for the Jewish people.

We cannot shrug this off. We cannot allow ourselves to enable or excuse it
in any way.

There’s a reason settlements are a violation of international law, and our
leaders in Washington must be unafraid to say so. To do otherwise only
undermines our values, our credibility and our ability to act as a
responsible broker for peace and progress.

[ [link removed] ]Please add your name to our White House petition today if you agree >>

Thank you, sincerely, for your support.

Ben Linder
J Street Supporter and Activist


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J Street is the political home for pro-Israel, pro-peace 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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