RALLY INFORMATION ON FACEBOOK
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ISRAELI-AMERICAN LEADERS TO STAGE RALLY IN WASHINGTON DC AGAINST ISRAEL’S MINISTER OF FINANCE, BEZALEL SMOTRICH, TO PROTEST HIS PARTICIPATION AT THE ISRAEL BONDS CONFERENCE
RALLY FEATURING SUSIE GELMAN, THE HEAD OF THE ISRAEL POLICY FORUM, WILL FOCUS ON SMOTRICH’S LEADERSHIP OF THE CURRENT ISRAELI GOVERNMENT’S ATTEMPT TO UNDERMINE ISRAEL’S RULE OF LAW AND THE INDEPENDENCE OF ITS COURT SYSTEM, THREATENING ISRAEL BEING A JEWISH AND DEMOCRATIC STATE AND ITS FINANCIAL STABILITY OF THE COUNTRY
March 7, 2023 - Washington, DC - Unxeptable, a grassroots group launched by Israeli-Americans with chapters across 15 cities around the country, announced today that it will hold a rally on Sunday, March 12, to protest Israel’s Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who is attending the annual Israel Bonds meeting in Washington, DC, that day. The protest will include leading Jewish-Americans such as Susie Gelman of the Morningstar Foundation and the Israel Policy Forum, and Israeli-American tech leaders, such as Offir Gutelzon, serial entrepreneur and investor, and will be held to coincide with Minister Smotrich’s participation in the dinner.
Smotrich’s party is advancing what many worldwide – including in the Biden Administration – consider a legislative blitz to undermine the independence of Israel’s judicial system. This blitz threatens the continued status of the State of Israel as a liberal democracy, as well as the stability of Israel’s economy. Hundreds of prominent economists share concerns about this initiative. Nobel Prize winners, business leaders, and financial experts from Israel and around the globe have warned that the cost of the judicial “reforms” advanced by Minister Smotrich will be economically devastating – undoing the work of the Israel Bonds organization and threatening the returns expected by bond holders.
Moreover, Minister Smotrich, who for allegedly planning terrorist attacks to stop the Likud-led Israeli disengagement from the Gaza Strip, has publicly and regularly expressed his racist, homophobic, and misogynistic views, igniting waves of protest in Israel and around the world. Some choice quotes of Smotrich include: “Arabs are citizens of Israel ‘for now at least’,” “My voters don’t care if I’m a homophobe or fascist;” “I may be a far-right person, a homophobe, racist, fascist, but my word is my bond.” Just last week, only hours after an Israeli settler revenge rampage through the Palestinian village of Huwara, a violent act called nothing less than a Pogrom by Maj. Gen. Yehuda Fuchs, Minister Smotrich told a live audience that he believes the village of Huwara “needs to be wiped out.”
These statements have led 120 mainstream Jewish leaders to publish a letter decrying his participation in the Bonds meeting, a letter organized by Susie Gelman and the Israel Policy Forum, and signed by including former Presidents and Executive Directors of the ADL, AIPAC, AJCommittee, the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, as well as the current heads of the Conservative and Reform movements, and US Ambassadors to Israel Indyk and Kurtzer.
From the letter: “As American Jews committed to Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, and democratic state; to a robust US-Israel relationship; and to Jewish peoplehood that fully encompasses Israeli and Diaspora Jewish communities, we are opposed to Bezalel Smotrich visiting the United States later this month in his capacity as Israel’s finance minister, and we call on all pro-Israel Americans to understand that welcoming Smotrich here will harm, rather than help, support for Israel.”
About the protest organizers: UnXeptable is a grassroots group launched by Israeli-Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area. We are a global movement, planning and running events across nearly 30 cities, including London, Basel, Munich, Madrid, Sofia, Oslo, New York, Boston, Seattle, San Francisco, Washington D.C, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Toronto, Chicago, Miami, Austin, Philadelphia. We decry the current Israeli administration's attempts to “institutionalize discrimination and racism,” its attacks on the judicial system, its attempts to undermine the free press, its handover of law enforcement powers to extremist politicians, and its plan to change the Law of Return.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Offir Gutelzon, offirg@gmail.com, 415-990-2855
Yoni Charash, yoni@jumbomail.me, 202-957-2811