In a statement released yesterday, the controversial activist group J-Street called on the United States to label Israeli presence in the West Bank as illegal. Israel’s decision earlier this week to declare lands within the Etzion Bloc, which was settled by Jews until they were expelled by Jordanian forces in 1948, as state lands precipitated the statement. Under the Oslo Accords, the Etzion Bloc is defined as Area C, for which Israel has the “power of zoning and planning.”

The J-Street statement reads in part:

This decision is also a test of US seriousness in Mideast peace-making.The United States has protested settlement announcement after settlement announcement for decades – yet its opinion has been disregarded by successive Israeli governments to the point that US credibility has been called into question. How can the world expect US leadership in dealing with hostile actors across the Middle East when even its closest friend in the region flagrantly ignores its policies? It is time for the Administration to make clear to Israel that it means what it says and that US opposition to settlements is not just symbolic but real.

J Street urges the United States government to undertake a thorough review of its policy toward Israeli settlements and to announce the steps it will take if Israel goes forward with this decision. As a first step, it should declare now that it is the view of the United States that settlements are not merely “unhelpful” or “illegitimate” but illegal under international law as laid out in the Fourth Geneva Convention.

J-Street’s appeal to the Fourth Geneva Convention is highly controversial and disputed by numerous legal scholars including Morris Abram, Ambassador Alan Baker and Eugene Rostow.

This isn’t the first that J-Street has positioned itself in active opposition to the policies of the Israeli government.

Last month, while Israel was engaged in Operation Protective Edge, Congress passed a bill increasing funding for Iron Dome by a margin of 395-8. Of those 8 representatives who voted against increased funding for Iron Dome, 3 were supported by J-Street. Another 8 representatives supported by J-Street abstained from the vote. The failure of these representatives to support the defense system “prompted outrage in the pro-Israel community.”

Pushing for the administration to take an adversarial position towards Israel is consistent with the way J-Street operates. In The Anti-Zionism of J-Street, which appeared in the June 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine, assistant editor Aiden Pink explained:

But rather than hope for the best or wallow in loathing, some American Jews choose a third path, preferring to take actions into their own hands. Citing Hillel the Elder’s famous dictum, “If not now, when?” they want to repair our broken world by repairing Israel, spurring changes in Israeli policy by, for example, pressuring the United States government to pressure Israel by threatening its financial aid, or urging the White House not to veto one-sided, anti-Israel resolutions in the UN Security Council.
The problem with this prescriptive approach, however, is that it forgets another part of Hillel’s saying: “If I am only for myself, what am I?” This group, in its wisdom, believes it knows what is best for Israel, and going beyond mere verbal criticism, actively works to mold Israel in its own image for its own emotional benefit. It is in this group that J Street finds itself.

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