Black lawmakers should read the room and
stop accepting money from American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the
pro-Israel lobbying group that has supported 109
Jan. 6 insurrectionists for public office and has spent
millions to defeat progressive Black
Democratic candidates for Congress.
House Democratic leader Hakeem
Jeffries, D-N.Y., is receiving blowback for
allegedly caping for the ultranationalist and
ultrareligious government of Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and attending an AIPAC-funded
trip to Israel with a delegation of 24 Democratic
lawmakers. Netanyahu is gutting
his country’s Supreme Court, removing the court’s check
on government power in making appointments and cabinet
decisions and allowing far-right settlers to
take control of the government.
Like his fellow would-be dictator friend
Donald Trump, Netanyahu was indicted
for corruption and is moving for a judicial
overhaul that will neuter the power of the
Israeli court, cement authoritarian control by
the most extremist Israeli government ever and
help him skirt
justice.
The judicial overhaul plan — “largely an American
production,” according to the New York Times,
with support from right-wing Jewish American
billionaires who underwrite Israeli right-wing
extremism — has caused a governance
crisis in Israel, with a threat to the
rights of Israeli citizens, particularly women,
minority groups and LGBTQ+ people. This, in a country where Palestinian
citizens are second- or third-class citizens,
and Palestinians living under military
occupation have few rights, as the military
killings, vigilante violence, legal violence and home demolitions against them
have increased.
In recent months, thousands of Israelis have marched in the
streets across the country in protest against
the judicial overhaul. Over 1,600 academics
and public figures from Israel, the U.S. and
around the world have signed a letter titled “The Elephant in the
Room.” (In the interest of full
disclosure, I have signed that letter.) This
letter makes the link between the attacks on
the Israeli judiciary and the ethnic cleansing
of Palestinians.
“Without equal rights for all, whether in
one state, two states, or in some other
political framework, there is always a danger
of dictatorship,” says the letter. “There
cannot be democracy for Jews in Israel as long
as Palestinians live under a regime of apartheid, as Israeli legal experts have described
it.”
The letter calls for North American Jewish leaders to
support the Israeli protest movement, support
pro-Palestinian human rights groups, overhaul
Jewish education to provide an honest
assessment of Israel’s history and present,
and demand that American politicians help end
the occupation and restrict U.S. military aid
from being used in the Palestinian
territories.
Meanwhile, Black recipients of AIPAC
support would tell you there is nothing to see
here, as they fail to see any sense of urgency
with the protests over recent events in
Israel. Rather, they seem content to prop up
the government of Netanyahu, who once called
African migrants in his country “infiltrators” and a “flood” worse than
“severe attacks by Sinai terrorists.”
Rep. Jeffries, who met with Netanyahu on
the Democratic delegation trip, said the
judicial overhaul would not impact military
aid to Israel, even if the court system is
weakened. “At the end of the day, the two
things that bind our countries together relate
both to our shared democratic values and our
shared strategic interests,” Jeffries
said. “The Democratic Party in the House of
Representatives will continue to stand with
Israel and lift up the special relationship
between our two countries and in support of
Israel’s right to exist as a homeland for the
Jewish people, and as a Jewish democratic
state, period, full stop,” he added.
During 2021-2022, Jeffries received
$439,790 from pro-Israel
PACs such as AIPAC and the AIPAC
affiliate Pro-Israel America — his second
largest campaign funding source after
securities and investment.
Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., another
Black member of Congress, is a strong supporter
of Israel who calls the nation a multiracial
democracy with a story of “progress rather than
perfection” and where everyone enjoys equal
protection under the law. “I, for one, am
skeptical that the hyperbolic and hysterical
hatred for Israel, reinforced by decades of
demonization, would magically disappear with
the end of U.S. foreign aid,” Torres
said. In the 2021-2022 period, AIPAC was
Torres’ highest
contributor at $141,008.
As some Congressional Black Caucus
members accept AIPAC contributions, AIPAC spends
millions to bring down Black candidates in
primary and general elections, particularly
progressive women of color who could align
with “the Squad.” This is happening even in
predominantly Black districts where Israel is
not an issue. AIPAC ally Democratic
Majority for Israel (DMFI) has been weaponized by
Democratic centrists to beat back progressives
and prevent a progressive surge in the party,
as The Intercept reported.
In the 2021 race for Ohio’s 11th
Congressional District, AIPAC,
Republican Party donors and cryptocurrency
bros poured money into Shontel Brown’s
campaign to beat Nina Turner. Most recently,
AIPAC and its affiliates are funding
challengers to unseat Minnesota Rep.
Ilhan Omar, a Somali-American Muslim woman who has
been critical of Israeli human
rights.
The pro-Israel group came for former Rep.
Donna Edwards of Maryland during her recent
attempted comeback to reclaim her seat in
Congress. AIPAC attacked Edwards in the
primaries for not
being pro-Israel enough, never mentioning Israel but criticizing
her for poor constituent services. Even House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, an AIPAC beneficiary,
came to her defense.
And AIPAC spent over $1 million in an
attempt to stop Summer
Lee, a Democratic Socialist and the first
Black woman in Congress from Pennsylvania.
AIPAC — which painted Lee as a bad
and disloyal Democrat, even as it supported GOP politicians
who refused to certify Joe
Biden as president — continues to attack
Lee for boycotting the speech by Israeli
President Isaac Herzog before a joint session of Congress.
AIPAC also attacked Lee for receiving support
from the liberal pro-Israel group J
Street.
If AIPAC does not support the Black community or Black
interests, supports insurrectionists, arguably
does not support democracy in America or in
Israel and derails progressive Black
candidates who fight for Black lives at home
and human rights abroad, why are Black
politicians still taking their money?
This commentary is also posted on The
Grio.
