Jewish Defense League Violently Attacks Pro-Palestine Activists Outside AIPAC Conference

posted on: Mar 29, 2017

BY: Nisreen Eadeh/Staff Writer

Thousands of activists from around the world protested against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference on Sunday. Arab and Jewish Americans linked arms to protest the powerful lobbying group, which supports Israel’s right-wing agenda of building more illegal settlements, advancing Israel’s military, and maintaining the occupation of Palestinians.

Nearly 18,000 people, a record number, attended the pro-Israel conference at the Washington Convention Center, which hosted high-ranking speakers like Vice President Mike Pence, Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. Nearly half of all Congressmen attended the conference, attesting to AIPAC’s immense influence over legislation and elected officials.

The rather redundant speeches consisted of offering unconditional support to Israel, protecting the Jewish State from criticism and anti-Semitism, overstating the “shared Judeo-Christian values” between the US and Israel, and praising the country for being the “only democracy” in the Middle East.

Just outside the Convention Center were protesters from several groups that stand against AIPAC, as well as the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a violent, extremist organization that uses Judaism to “protect Jews from anti-Semitism by whatever means necessary.” It is considered a radical organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and has been charged by the FBI with plotting and executing acts of terrorism.

JDL militants attacked the protesters with threats and violence. Many had their faces covered and were carrying the JDL flag. During one altercation, JDL militants beat two pro-Palestine activists to the ground and used their flags as bludgeons. Police had to intervene to break up the violence and arrest the attackers, but they were quickly released.

This past weekend in DC, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) brutally attacked a 55-year-old Palestinian-American professor and father of four. pic.twitter.com/Q5pb2G3Fpy

— The IMEU (@theIMEU) March 29, 2017

Footage of the JDL attack, some out of shot.

There were several groups present at the demonstration being targeted by JDL. The protests were organized by Palestinian American leaders at Al-Awda, the Palestinian Right of Return Coalition. Using the hashtag #SupportPalestineInDC2017, Al-Awda organized protesters from across the US and the world for their rally.

“This year in particular, we refused to tone down our voice and we refused demands to appease the gatekeepers like we have in the past,” Al-Awda’s Cleveland, Boston, and Detroit chapters said in a statement released after the event. “This is nothing new, this is what Al-Awda has been doing since its inception and we aren’t going to sell our people’s rights away, ever. We are proud of the massive attendance at our National Rally to Support Palestine and Protest AIPAC! The results speak for themselves by the thousands in attendance from around the world!”

The ANSWER Coalition, an organization founded by Arab Americans, co-organized with Al-Awda and showed up on Sunday holding their iconic yellow and black signs, as well as Palestinian flags.

Also demonstrating were Code Pink and If Americans Knew. Using the hashtags #ResistAIPAC and #DismantleAIPAC, the groups rallied together to get over 1,000 protesters to attend the demonstration. Students from local universities also stopped by to learn more about AIPAC and its destructive relationship with Palestinians and the US from the groups.

Dr. Cornel West, a scholar and activist, was among the keynote speakers. Iyad Burnat, director of Five Broken Cameras, was also there. Both speakers discussed the role AIPAC plays in perpetuating the occupation and abusing Palestinian human rights. They spoke to groups of Arab, Latino, Black, Jewish, and Asian Americans. The crowd’s diversity was highly noticeable this year, as it also included international protesters from Australia and Europe.

Palestinians in the West Bank also protested the conference. The National Campaign to Lift the Closure of Hebron held a demonstration in the occupied city to “condemn the pro-Israel lobby’s support of the Israeli ‘colonial racist regime’” that has shut down businesses, homes, and places of worship in Hebron.

However, it was the record-breaking turnout of Jewish protesters against AIPAC that has been gaining attention this year. Over one thousand members of IfNotNow, an apolitical American Jewish organization speaking out against the Jewish role in the occupation of Palestine, arrived at the demonstration.

Our energy won’t wane. #ResistAIPAC #JewishResistance pic.twitter.com/0unI2tHsCP

— IfNotNow (@IfNotNowOrg) March 26, 2017

Speaking to the French media outlet, Le Point, some IfNotNow protesters cited the intimidation they suffer for not supporting Israel wholeheartedly. One protester, Abraham Gutman, told Le Point, “AIPAC says that I am not Jewish enough because I do not support the oppression of the Palestinian people and criticize Israel, which is also my country of birth! This is foolish!”

More Jews than ever came out to reject AIPAC and its support of far-right Israel policies, creating a new variation of the Jewish identity that resists the Jewish State, but not their religion. This level of engagement with the anti-Israel lobby protests has been a long time coming, though. The occupation has been going on for 50 years. Will it take another 50 years for 1,000 more American Jews to link arms against the calamitous relationship between the US and Israel?

Palestine can’t wait another 50 years for people to get on board. As Hanan Ashrawi said at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs conference on Friday, Palestinians shouldn’t have to “prove that they deserve human rights.”