This Thursday, August 26, President Joe Biden will be meeting Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett for the first time ever, just months after Bennett became prime minister. This is a historic opportunity for Biden to challenge the status quo of the US's endless political and economic support of the Israeli government's human rights violations against Palestininians.
As American Jews, we demand that Biden put human rights at the center of his meeting with Bennett.
This year alone, the Israeli government brutally bombed Gaza, killing more than 250 people, including 67 children; it has killed a further 12 children in the West Bank; the government led a fierce crackdown campaign on Palestinian activism, arresting thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel; and while the Bennett-led coalition claims to be a “change government,” the budget passed earlier this month provides hundreds of thouands of shekels to build lasting settlement infrastructure on Palestinian land in the West Bank.
Just a month after Biden's inauguration, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken released a statement titled “Putting Human Rights at the Center of U.S. Foreign Policy.” In it, Blinken claims that the US will commit itself to protecting human rights across the world, including holding violators of those rights accountable.
The US has not only done next to nothing to hold Israel accountable. Instead the Biden administration has attempted to fast-track hundreds of millions of dollars in the same weapons that were used by the Israeli military to kill civilians in May.
Israel cannot be the exemption to the administration's commitment to human rights. Without consistency, there is no legitimacy.
American Jews cannot allow this to go on for any longer. This meeting provides an opportunity for President Biden to change course and stand up to Prime Minister Bennett.
It's time for Biden to put his words to action. If he's going to put human rights at the center of US foreign policy, then he cannot make an exception for Israel. Join other American Jews in demanding that Biden put human rights at the center of his meeting with Naftali Bennett.