Reform Movement Leader Denounces Israel’s BDS Travel Ban

By Daniel J. Solomon April 26, 2017

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, leader of the Union for Reform Judaism, sent an open letter Wednesday to Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu protesting a new travel ban barring supporters of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the state and its West Bank settlements.

“I have been a fierce personal opponent of BDS and boycotts against Israel,” the Reform movement leader wrote, referring to the Palestinian campaign to isolate Israel on economic, political and cultural fronts.

But he described himself as “frustrated” with the ban, recently adopted by the Knesset, which he compared to having “posted a giant sign by the door of the Jewish state saying, ‘Don’t come unless you agree with everything we’re doing here.’”

He added that Jewish students participating in the movement’s Birthright trips to Israel “are worried that based on their opposition to settlement expansion, they will be stopped at the border when they land in Israel.”

Pushed by the Likud and its other right-wing partners, the travel ban has been denounced by numerous American Jewish groups, including JStreet, for its stifling of speech and protection of West Bank settlements. It is unclear whether it will hold in the Israeli courts.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO