With Trump in office we feel that organizing against Zionism is more important than ever. His administration reveals that antisemitism and Zionism feed off of each other and far from being a solution to anti-Semitism, Zionism leverages and needs it. We anticipate that the anti-Semitism of Trump’s administration will only give power to Zionism; supporting Israel will be a way for his administration to deflect antisemitism. With what’s happening in the region, Israel will continue to be a crucial ally and proxy for the United States. The new ambassador will push for Israel to take things as far as it wants to.
At home, we are preparing to defend our close partners facing deportation and threats of a registry. We also anticipate a lot of collaboration between Zionist organizations and his administration in fueling Islamophobia.
While continuing our long term work of challenging Zionist organizations like the Jewish National Fund, participating in campaigns against the training of police by the Israeli military, defending BDS, and exposing the money and interests behind Zionist backlash, we are planning the following projects for 2017:
- The release of an anti-Zionist primer that describes terms and makes clear the difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism and orients towards ending the full colonial project and not just the occupation of the West Bank.
- The release of a series that shows the relationship between Zionism, white supremacy, Islamophobia and antisemitism thru mapping relationships between donors to Trump, Zionist organizations and the incoming administration as well as a series on the relationship between Christian fundamentalism, Zionism and antisemitism.
- Organize forums in New Orleans, the Bay Area, New York City, Twin Cities, Chicago and Detroit to release the series and discuss the implications of those connections for organizing.
- Organize a national strategy session of anti-racist organizations that have a commitment to internationalism to develop community and movement self-defense practices, protocol, trainings and rapid response as well as to identify local alternatives to what will be coming down from the incoming administration that can be replicated across locales, and international struggles to support.
- Support regional meetings to share out from the national gathering and support the ongoing work of the above network.
- Participate in the defense of targeted communities and movements in the places we organize.
We have no doubt that the political moment will require us to keep shifting and adapting our work in response to changing needs, but we also think it’s important to continue the long-term work of exposing Zionism and the role it plays in Palestine, in the United States and internationally.
We wish you a good 2017 in the midst of what might be some chaos but also a lot of opportunity for powerful organizing and a growing number of people who want to and are involved in making change.
