Jewish Voice for Peace members across the country have helped organize a multifaceted campaign to encourage members of Congress to skip Prime Minister Netanyahu’s inappropriate and destructive speech to Congress tomorrow. Speaking to reporters as he departed for Washington, Prime Minister Netanyahu once again asserted that he would speak as an emissary of “the entire Jewish people.”
A campaign launched with partner groups US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, RootsAction, CodePink and American Muslims for Palestine to encourage members to #SkiptheSpeech produced over 110,000 letters and an additional 20,000 petition signatures which were delivered to 75 offices on the Hill and 30 local district offices. To date, 42+ members of Congress have pledged to skip the speech.
JVP executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson, who wrote a piece published in The Washington Post last week, stated, “The outpouring of outrage at the grassroots level shows that Americans and American Jews are deeply disturbed by Prime Minister Netanyahu’s attempt to sabotage US efforts at diplomacy with Iran and strongly oppose the outrageous assertion that he speaks for all Jews.”
JVP members wrote op-eds published in papers across the country:
The Detroit News: “Congress needs to cancel Netanyahu’s speech” (February 17, 2015)
The Chicago Sun-Times: “Durbin and all the Dems should boycott Netanyahu’s speech” (February 25, 2015)
The Santa Barbara Independent: “Bibi Go Home” (February 25, 2015)
The Durham Herald-Sun: “Netanyahu not a man Congress should applaud and cheer” (February 28, 2015)
The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: “Israel is not always right” (February 28, 2015)
The New Haven Register: “Connecticut’s members of Congress should join move to ‘Skip the Speech’” (March 1, 2015)
