Gap Year Graduates Against Annexation

Gap Year Graduates Against Annexation

Sign the letter here

We, the over 210 undersigned graduates of Israeli gap year programs, mechinot, yeshivot, and midrashot, call upon our elected representatives and American Jewish leaders to unequivocally condemn illegal unilateral Israeli annexation of the West Bank.

Though we came for a variety of reasons, we all decided that spending a year of our lives in Israel was an important step in strengthening our connection to the Jewish State. For many of us, the time we spent in Israel was the most formative year of our life. Across the country, we volunteered in local communities, learned Hebrew, and hiked with our Israeli peers. Our years’ abroad inspired us to take positions of leadership within our local Jewish communities. As American and Israeli Jews, we are concerned for the safety, security, and future of the state of Israel. As leaders of America’s Jewish youth, we see it as our obligation to object to the dangerous steps toward annexation being pursued by the current Israeli government.

On April 20th, 2020, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and political rival Benny Gantz signed an agreement for a unity government that endorsed the process of unilateral annexation of large parts of the West Bank to begin July 1st.^[1] President Trump’s administration has given its support to this plan.^[2] As American and Israeli Jews who took gap years in Israel, we oppose this decision in the strongest possible terms.

During our gap years, we were inspired by the vision of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state. However, we know that this can only be maintained through a mutually agreed-upon resolution between Israelis and Palestinians. Only when Palestinians’ human and political rights are secured, will Israel’s democratic and Jewish character be preserved. However, unilateral annexation seriously endangers the possibility for this peaceful solution. Palestinians annexed into Israel will be denied the rights of full citizenship^[3], permanently entrenching over 50 years of second class status. The piecemeal cutting away of West Bank land will destroy its territorial continuity, making the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state impossible. In effect, Israel will be forced to decide whether it will be a Jewish, non-democratic state which denies political rights to millions of Palestinians or a democratic state which loses its Jewish character. That’s why a majority of Israeli Jews oppose this dangerous plan.^[4] For the sake of the irrevocable rights of Jewish and Palestinian self-determination, this plan must be condemned.

Furthermore, our time in Israel gave many of us a deep appreciation of the need for Israeli security. However, we know that in the long run, Israel’s security can only be truly secure through negotiation and cooperation with Palestinian and regional partners. Former Israeli military leaders have already pointed out that unilateral annexation will threaten regional security cooperation with Jordan, strengthen Hamas, and cost Israel billions of dollars annually.^[5] For the sake of our friends and families who would be directly affected by renewed violence, we condemn this dire threat to Israeli security.

Finally, as young Jews deeply invested in both Israel and America, we fear that unilateral annexation threatens to irreparably damage the relationship between these two allies. The cornerstone of the US-Israel relationship is American Jewry’s strong bipartisan support for Israel^[6] and most American Jews back a two-state solution.^[7] As leaders of America’s Jewish youth, we feel that it is especially important for us to emphasize our generation’s expectation that Israel live up to the commitment envisioned in its declaration of independence — to be a state “based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel”^[8]. However, unilateral annexation is antithetical to these values and threatens to erode over seven decades of bipartisan support. If it is enacted, we know that much of American Jewry, and our generation especially will become disillusioned with Israel. Support for Israel cannot be sustained as a partisan issue. Without broad, bipartisan American-Jewish support, the Israeli-American relationship will never recover.

As young American Jews, who spent a formative year of our lives in Israel, we unequivocally condemn the threat of unilateral annexation. We know that this plan undermines the dream of Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state, threatens Palestinian human rights, and endangers Israeli security. If enacted, it will irreparably harm the strength of the US-Israel relationship. Therefore, we believe it is our obligation to oppose this plan. We demand that our elected officials and leaders of American Jewish organizations stand with us, and issue public statements condemning annexation.

Sign the letter here.