Judging from Trump’s appointments so far – hard core Zionists like Elise Stefanik for ambassador to the United Nations and Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel – combined with the fact that he will have control of the House and Senate, and with the collusion of most Democrats, it’s going to be a committed Zionist administration.  It’s going to be brutal.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Central Ohio is attempting to assess the impact of the election results on our efforts to promote to a world where all people – from the U.S. to Palestine — live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity. We recently held a zoom program to address this. The recording can be accessed here. https://youtu.be/l9AMT2U4y6Y. At the national level, JVP is networking with Adalah Justice Project, US Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Arab Resource Organizing Center, Movement for Black Lives, and Rising Majority to develop a strategy for confronting these challenges.

As a chapter we remain committed to organizing to promote Palestinian human rights, ending U.S. complicity with the ongoing genocide in Gaza, and creating a safe environment in our community for all people.

These are a few immediate concerns:

1) Currently legislation just passed in the House of Representatives that would enable the revocation of tax-exempt groups. The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, also known as H.R. 9495, grants the secretary of the Treasury Department unilateral authority to revoke the tax- exempt status of any nonprofit deemed to be a “terrorist supporting organization. It basically empowers the Treasury secretary to target any group it wants to call them a terror supporter and block their ability to be a nonprofit.

This power could easily be abused to punish any groups that oppose the president or others in government. Palestinian rights groups would likely be the first targets, but any other organizations could be next. Tell your representative: Don’t let politicians silence rights groups!  

2) We will continue to advocate blocking the $20 billion in additional military aid Israel. For the first time in U.S. history, there will be a vote in Congress to block weapons to Israel. Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, and Jeff Merkley have introduced Joint Resolutions of Disapproval to stop a $20 billion weapons shipment approved by the Biden administration.  Call and email your senators to demand they block weapons to Israel: jvp.org/stopweapons and https://uscpr.org/jrd 

3) An ongoing concern is the possible legislative codification of IHRA definition of anti-semitism that conflates criticism of the state of state of Israel with anti-semitism and possibly tying it to enforcement mechanisms like firing critics of Israel for organizations and schools getting government funding.

5) We remain concerned that radical extremist groups will be emboldened. We have already seen evidence of this in Columbus. We need to be prepared for an increase in Islamophobia, antisemitism, racism, and attacks on immigrants.

You can join JVP! Join JVP on the website JVP.org and sign up for their newsletter, The Wire. Email us at centralohio@jvp.org to join our chapter. We are a diverse group of Jews and allies – ALL are welcome. We will add you to our Gmail contacts and send information about how to connect with committees Action, Community Education, Communications, Havurah, Legislative Advocacy, and Membership – that you can join.