Citing rabbinic texts, T’ruah urges conference-goers to skip prime minister’s talk
NEW YORK, N.Y. ― T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, which represents more than 2,000 North American rabbis and cantors, has issued a statement detailing why Jews attending the AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. this week should sit out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, expected to take place on Tuesday.
The full statement can be read here or at https://www.truah.org/resources/netanyahuaipac/
On Tuesday, shortly before Netanyahu speaks, a group of T’ruah rabbis will lead a learning session at AIPAC on the sources cited in the statement. Please contact Julie Wiener at 917-655-4586 to arrange interviews with participating rabbis or to speak to T’ruah Executive Director Rabbi Jill Jacobs.
The statement argues that attending or listening to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at AIPAC this week is a likely violation of Jewish law prohibiting complicity in lashon hara (negative speech) because:
- Netanyahu has a long track record of speech that incites to violence, in particular against Israel’s human rights leaders and Palestinian citizens. This qualifies as lashon hara, “evil speech,” which Jewish law forbids us from hearing. Attending the speech while expressing one’s discomfort or disapproval does not change the basic fact of placing oneself in a situation where one will certainly hear lashon hara.
- Netanyahu has negotiated a deal that will likely result in a racist, violence-promoting, Kahanist political party entering the Knesset and joining his coalition. The rabbis enjoin us not to sit in the company of evil-doers.
- Netanyahu is in the process of being indicted for crimes of fraud and breach of public trust. Joining a supportive American crowd lends the impression of support and legitimacy to his leadership; in the context of his legal troubles, this amounts to attempting to sway the judges’ decision, which the rabbis equate with bribery.
“AIPAC attendees are committed to the State of Israel and to its future,” the T’ruah statement says. “Right now, the prime minister — who incites against his citizens, welcomes those embrace terrorism into his coalition, and faces indictment for bribery and breach of trust — is threatening the future of the country we love. Attending Netanyahu’s speech suggests approval of his hate mongering and of his alliance with a political party that advocates genocide.”
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights mobilizes a network of 2,000 rabbis and cantors from all streams of Judaism that, together with the Jewish community, act on the Jewish imperative to respect and advance the human rights of all people. Grounded in Torah and our Jewish historical experience and guided by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we call upon Jews to assert Jewish values by raising our voices and taking concrete steps to protect and expand human rights in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.