AJC Criticizes Knesset for Holding Hearings on J Street

["Ari Gordon" <gordona@ajc.org>]

AJC Criticizes Knesset for Holding Hearings on J Street

March 24, 2011 - Jerusalem - AJC has criticized an Israeli parliamentary
committee for interfering in the internal affairs of the organized American
Jewish community. The Knesset Absorption and Diaspora Affairs Committee held
hearings yesterday on the J Street organization to determine if it is "pro
Israel," as its tagline asserts.

"In holding hearings on whether a voluntary American Jewish organization is
indeed a pro-Israel lobby, the Knesset committee has interfered in an
entirely inappropriate way in the internal affairs of the American Jewish
community," Ed Rettig, director of AJC's Jerusalem Office, said in prepared
remarks on behalf of the global organization. Although Rettig was scheduled
to speak at the hearing, AJC was advised that time was too limited.

"We are a voluntary community in a democratic country and we settle our
differences, of which there are many, in the only proper forum -- the arena
of open debate within the Jewish community. Israeli parliamentary committees
have no proper role in such a discussion," Rettig said.

AJC's disappointment with the hearings is unrelated to whether "we agree or
not with J Street in its views or its tactics," said Rettig. "We do this
solely because of our understanding of the nature of Israeli and American
democracy, and to protect the Israeli - American link that is so crucial to
the success of the global Jewish community."

AJC has been a steadfast advocate for Israel's quest for peace and security
around the world and was the first American Jewish group, five decades ago,
to open an office in Jerusalem.

Shortly after Israel's independence, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and
then AJC President Jacob Blaustein signed an historic agreement that
established the foundation and understanding of the relationship between the
sovereign state of Israel and the American Jewish community. The very
holding of the hearings on J Street "violate the Ben Gurion-Blaustein
understandings," said Rettig.

>Posted by:

>Ari M. Gordon
>Special Advisor 
>Interreligious and Intergroup Relations
>American Jewish Committee
>165 E56th Street
>New York, NY 10022
>(212) 891-6717