Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Romney Campaign Rebuffs Jewish Voice for Peace

Jewish Voice for Peace members said its members were rebuffed as they attempted to deliver a letter to the Boston headquarters of Mitt Romney.

A half-dozen members of the group attempted to deliver the letter on Monday calling on Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, to apologize for saying in Jerusalem that the differences between the Israeli and Palestinian economies were due to cultural differences.

The group said it collected slightly more than 17,000 signatures on the letter, which claimed that Romney’s statements on the growth of the Palestinian and Israeli economies “were inaccurate and misleading.”

“Essentially they refused to send someone out,” said Rabbi Joshua Berman, who chairs the Boston Jewish Voice for Peace chapter. “We wanted to deliver the petition and they refused to talk to us.”

The petition says that “Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian land makes it impossible for the Palestinian economy to succeed, not ‘cultural differences.’ Your comments were not a reflection of the values Jews, Americans, and our allies hold dear. We call on you to apologize to the Palestinian people for your willful lack of understanding of the facts on the ground and the racist assumptions behind them.”

In a prepared statement, Berman said that “Governor Romney is ignoring the elephant in the room, which is Israel’s 45-year-old military occupation of Palestinian lands.”

The group’s website says it opposes anti-Jewish, anti-Muslim, and anti-Arab bigotry and oppression.

The Anti-Defamation League has included Jewish Voice for Peace on its list of top 10 anti-Israel groups.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.