Americans for Peace Now (APN) and 22 Young Israel synagogues are denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, citing his suspected malfeasance after Israel’s attorney general on Feb. 28 announced his intention to indict Netanyahu on corruption charges, and also cited Netanyahu’s striking a political deal with a far-right party, Otzma Yehudit, on Feb. 24.
Netanyahu had helped make a deal in a bid to boost right-wing partners ahead of April elections. Otzma Yehudit’s leaders call themselves Kahanists, after American-born, anti-Arab activist Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was outlawed in Israel. Kahane was assassinated in 1990 in New York.
APN launched a petition Feb. 27, calling on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to “condemn and disinvite” Netanyahu from its conference in March.
“AIPAC’s condemnation of Otzma Yehudit was important — but equally notable for what it failed to say. If AIPAC wants to stand against Kahanists being mainstreamed into Israeli political life, it will need to repudiate the man responsible for bringing them in,” the petition said. “Don’t let Netanyahu use AIPAC’s podium to send a pre-election message to Israelis that pro-Israel Americans tolerate normalizing racists.”
The petition was sent out the day before Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced his intention to indict the prime minister for bribery, pending a hearing.
Although it doesn’t indicate the exact number of people who signed, the Jewish Press reported that more than 1,000 individuals had signed the petition as of Feb. 28.
APN wasn’t the only organization upset by Netanyahu’s actions. More than 20 synagogues belonging to the national Orthodox Young Israel movement have condemned the National Council of Young Israel’s (NCYI) defense of Netanyahu’s political deal.
“In recognition of the current, highly divisive political environment in the United States, Israel, and beyond, we … call upon NCYI leadership to immediately cease making all political pronouncements,” the synagogues’ statement said March 1. “… all past statements issued by NCYI leadership about political matters — including but not limited to its recent statement about Otzma Yehudit and the Israeli political process — do not represent the diverse views within our individual synagogue communities.”
Thirty-eight religious Zionist American rabbis also signed a statement March 1, condemning the condemning the deal between Otzma Yehudit and Netanyahu’s Likud party. “This violent, racist party has no place in the Religious Zionist movement,” the rabbis’ petition, organized by clergy at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun in New York, read.
