Story fans flames of Green Party dissent over Israel divestment resolution
By Deborah Moon Seldner
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A Jan. 15 article in the Jewish Review by special writer Hal Klopper apparently has ignited "a raging fire" within the U.S. Green Party over its recent Israel divestment and boycott resolution, according to both a Green Party founder and the party newcomer who was the subject of the Review article.
On Nov. 21, the Green Party's national coordinating committee passed Resolution 190, which states: "The Green Party of the United States publicly calls for divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized."
The resolution goes on to call for campus and international Greens to work for a "comprehensive divestment and boycott program."
"You (the Jewish Review) stirred things up to where it's a raging fire within the party where it was dormant before you ran that article," said
Gary Acheatel, the subject of the Jan. 15 article, which is available on the World Wide Web (www.jewishreview.org). "That news story was a catalyst."
Lorna Salzman, who founded the New York Green Party in 1984 and was a candidate to be the Green Party's presidential nominee in 2004, has taken an active role in combating the resolution. She said she is fanning the flames within the party while Acheatel is finding allies in the Jewish community to help rescind the resolution.
She agreed with Acheatel that debate within the party has heated up. "It's been very noticeable in the past two weeks," she said in a telephone interview with the Jewish Review on Feb. 14.
Over the past year Acheatel said he has been developing, with others, the vision for Advocates for Israel, a pro-Israel organization and Web site to educate the public about pro-Israel and anti-Israel activity and effective ways to respond to the latter.
"Because of the Green Party issue and your coverage, we rushed it to fruition prematurely," said Acheatel, noting he's not yet proud of the Web site (www.advocatesforisrael.org), which is still under construction. However, he noted the site does provide an online focus for combating the Green Party action and features a link to a Stand With Us petition calling on the Green Party to rescind 190.
Acheatel said his primary focus now is finding Zionists within the Green Party who are willing to bring the issue to their state parties. He said he developed that strategy after talking to Marnie Glickman, one of two Oregon delegates to the national committee. He said Glickman told him she abstained on the measure because she hadn't heard any feedback from Oregon Green Party members. Glickman is on vacation and unavailable for comment.
"I'll take that direction," said Acheatel.
Acheatel said some have questioned his extensive efforts to combat what many call an "insignificant" political party. As of May 2005, there were 304,796 people registered as Greens nationally according to web.green.org/stats.
But Acheatel said he sees the Greens' divestment resolution as a cancer on the tip of your finger. "You're thankful it's there and not on your lungs, but it's still cancer," he said.
"Why aren't the Jews doing more to counteract this cancer in society?" he asked.
Acheatel attributed much of the silence to a lack of hard knowledge among many who support Israel on an emotional level. He said the Palestinian community is well organized with its campaign to link Israel in the minds of the public with apartheid South Africa. Most American Jews don't have the facts to counter information put out by the Palestinians, he said.
He hopes Advocates for Israel can help counter that. He said as AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Council) works to educate government officials and leaders about Israel, AFI will attempt to educate the rank and file.
Though Salzman describes herself as neutral on the issue of Israel, she said she objects to the double moral standard of attacking Israel while turning a blind eye to human rights abuses, especially against women, in other countries. She said she is further appalled by the Green Party's acquiescence to an outside special interest and the lack of grassroots democracy in passing the resolution.
"The pressure for this clearly came from outside Muslim groups," said Salzman.
Resolution 190 was introduced by the Wisconsin Green Party and cosponsored by Wisconsin delegate Mohammed K. Abed, who is also a member of al-Awda (The Palestinian Right of Return).
Additionally, she said the national committee minutes on the subject mention a "memorandum of understanding with the American Muslim Association." She said party leaders have denied that the memo exists, but she said it is mentioned explicitly in the minutes.
"The party shouldn't submit to external special interests," she said. "It acquiesced to them."
Green Party resolutions can be introduced by any state party and delegates to the national coordinating committee debate and vote on the resolutions online. Resolution 190 was passed with 55 yes votes, seven no votes, 10 abstentions and more than 50 delegates not voting.
Salzman said there was "no broad debate within the party" before the resolution was passed and the Israel Green Party was not consulted. She said the poorly written, one-sided resolution "violated principles of open debate and grassroots democracy."
Salzman said she is in the Green Party's "institutional memory, but because I have taken a strong stand on this, I'm on the outs now. ? They've tried to intimidate me."
She said there is strong pressure within the party and among many liberal progressives "to be against Israel and for the Palestinians." She said many other Green Party members "don't want to stick their neck out," but she said she has had many requests for information and inquiries from states considering sponsoring a resolution to rescind 190.
Acheatel said that it's common that progressives who support Israel in their heart often won't speak out in support of Israel because "they get lashed and they don't have the facts and figures at hand."
He said he is trying to provide those facts both on the AFI Web site and by working with Jewish groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He said the ADL recently mailed fact packets on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to the entire Green Party national committee.
The committee also has been taken to task by two of the party's prominent members. In a joint letter to the Green Party national committee, a past and a present Green Party gubernatorial candidate took the committee for task for passing a resolution that "violates our (Green Party) Ten Key Values by failing to condemn violence on both sides, and by failing to observe the principle of grassroots democracy when it approved the resolution without a broad discussion within the state parties and without soliciting dissenting views."
"The credibility of the U.S. Green Party has been badly damaged," wrote Stanley Aronowitz, former New York state gubernatorial candidate, and Marakay Rogers, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate, in the letter sent to national committee members in late January.
Acheatel said he is optimistic the resolution will be rescinded. He said he hopes that one state will sponsor a resolution to rescind 190 within the next couple months. If not, both Acheatel and Salzman said they are gearing up to address the issue at the Green Party's next national meeting in Tucson in July.
