Open Letter to the Center for American Progress

Initiated by the Arab American Institute and Jewish Voice for Peace
Press release here.

“I know what America is… America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in [the] way.” –Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, 2001‬

The Center for American Progress (CAP) has made a mistake.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s entire political career has been focused on demonstrating to Israelis that he could “move [America] very easily”. Having courted Republicans as his natural allies, he has, on three occasions, addressed joint sessions of Congress, using all of them to turn “peace negotiations” into a blank check for ever more expansionist policies of Occupation.

In his speech to Congress in 1996, he called for an end to the “Oslo Accords”. In 2011, he rebuked President Obama’s call for an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on “the 1967 borders, with mutually agreed land swaps”. And just this year, Netanyahu used his appearance to call on Congress to block the Administration’s support for the Iran Deal.

Netanyahu knows that he has created a deep partisan divide in the US over Israeli policies and is attempting to repackage his increasingly far-right agenda as bi-partisan consensus.

As progressive leaders across a broad spectrum of social movements, we are dismayed that CAP will sponsor an address by Netanyahu on November 10th. CAP should not be providing him with this opportunity.

Signatories:

Organizational Endorsements
American Muslims for Palestine
Avaaz
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Media Justice
Episcopal Peace Fellowship Palestine Israel Network
Friends of Sabeel North America
Grassroots International
Jadaliyya.org
Jews Say No!
Network of Arab American Professionals
Muslim Foundation of America
Muslim Public Affairs Council
RootsAction.org
Pax Christi
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
Veterans For Peace
Washington Peace Center

Individual Endorsements (affiliations for identification only)
Leora Abelson, Rabbinical Student, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council
Karen Ackerman, former political director, AFL-CIO
Anthony Alessandrini, Professor of English at Kingsborough Colllege-CUNY and Jadaliyya Co-Editor
Walter Barger, Veterans for Peace Chapter 49, Indianapolis, IN
Christa Bell, Founding Member, HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?
Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink
Phyllis Bennis, Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
Jennifer Bush, Independent Australian Jewish Voices
P Adem Carroll, Program Director, Justice for All
Jeff Cohen, cofounder RootsAction Education Fund
Cat Cunningham, University of Washington Q Center
Amir Darwish, President, Coalition of Palestinian American Organizations
Marie Dennis, Co-President, Pax Christi International
Karen Dolan, Institute for Policy Studies
Lisa Duggan, Professor of American Studies, NYU
Michael Eisenscher, National Coordinator Emeritus, U.S. Labor Against the War
Noura Erakat, Jadaliyya
Matt Ewing, former Field Director, MoveOn.org
Natalie Foster, former Deputy Organizing Director, MoveOn.org
Cynthia Franklin, Professor, University of Hawai’i
Dr. Linda Gaither, Chair Emeritus, Episcopal Peace Fellowship
Nada Ghandour-Demiri, Jadaliyya
Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Director of Shomeret Shalom Rabbinic School & Learning Center
John Fussell, Tree of Life Foundation
Robin D.G. Kelley, Professor of History, UCLA
Shelby Handler, Member Organizer w/ the Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites
Ainul Haque, Artistic Director, Diversity Productions
Rabbi Linda Holtzman, Tikkun Olam Chavyrah
Zaid Jilani, former ThinkProgress blogger
Spenta Kandawalla, Generative Somatics
Kehaulani Kauanui, Wesleyan University and US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI)
Ali Kazak, Managing Editor, Palestine Publications
Samer Khalaf, President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Marwan Kreidie, Executive Director, Philadelphia Arab-American Development Corps
Eddie Kurtz, Courage Campaign
Andrea Lee, Mujeres Unidas y Activas
Rev. Jason M. Lydon, National Director, Black and Pink
Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director, The Oakland Institute
Maya Mikdashi, Jadaliyya
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Distinguished Professor, Syracuse University
Mary Morris, Chair of the Task Force for Palestinian Human Rights, Episcopal Diocese of Oregon. Member of the Steering Committee of Palestine Israel Network
Yousef Munayyer, Executive Director, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
Nadine Naber, University of Illinois, Chicago
Robert Naiman, Policy Director, Just Foreign Policy
Dr. Rima Najjar, Al-Quds University, Abu Dis, Palestine (retired)
Donna Nevel, Jewish Voice for Peace Board Member
Khury Petersen-Smith, Co-organizer of the 2015 Black-Palestine Solidarity Statement
Chandan Reddy, Associate Professor, University of Washington
Rabbi Brant Rosen, Tzedek Chicago
Jessica Rosenberg, Rabbinical Student, Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council
Josh Ruebner, Policy Director of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation and author of Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace.
Hesham Sallam, Jadaliyya co-editor
Nadya Sbaiti, Jadaliyya
T.M. Scruggs, Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa
Jay Schaffner, moderator, Portside
Setsu Shigematsu, Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of California, Riverside
Sarah Shulman, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, CUNY
Dara Silverman, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)
Gareth W R Smith, Byron Friends of Palestine
Norman Solomon, Executive Director, Institute for Public Accuracy
Dean Spade, Professor, Seattle University School of Law
David Spett, former employee (2008-2012), Center for American Progress
Kristin Szremski, American Muslims for Palestine
Dr Vacy Vlazna; Coordinator, Justice for Palestine Matters, Australia
Jeremy Wershoven,President, Students for Justice in Palestine at FAU
Craig Wilse, George Mason University
Noah T. Winer, MoveOn.org founding staff
Emrah Yildiz, Co-Editor, Jadaliyya Turkey Page, PhD Candidate, Harvard University

Individuals
Lisa Adler
Rebecca Alpert
Gabriel Arkles
Jordan Ash, strategic researcher
Rabbi David Dunn Bauer
Alice Beauchamp
Linda Bench
Terry Boggis
Richard Blum
Ben Brandzel
Sarah Brown, Educator
Gene Bruskin, trade unionist
Calvin Burnap
Tito Crafts
Rabbi Meryl Crean
Hilmi Dabbagh
Eve Ensler, playwright and activist
Danielle M. Feris
Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari
Rabbi Borukh Goldberg
Professor Beverly Guy-Sheftall
Barbara Harvey, attorney
Joseph Huff-Hannon
Maheen Kaleem
Naomi Klein
Rabbi Alan LaPayover
Jonathan Learning
Patricia Maguire
Tom Matzzie, entrepreneur and activist
Cheikh Ahmed Mbareck, PhD
Larry Ottinger
Tayyab Mahmud
Lenore Palladino
Ari Pomerantz
Zead Ramadan
Dr. Barbara Ransby, historian and author, Chicago, IL
Kyle Rapiñan
Collin Rees
Jarad Ringer
Ken Rosenstein, Rabbinic Student
Linda Sarsour, Arab American Activist
Sherene Siekaly
Mr. Henry di Suvero, playwright
Hannah Sassaman
Jessie Spector
Barry Trachtenberg
Nancy Treviño
Yue Teng
Alok Vaid-Menon
Sandra Wechsler
Billy Wimsatt, author and organizer
Cecil Whitney
Dr. Ron Witton
Brandon K Yeong

If you are a progressive leader who would like to add your name, please go here.