Reasonable people can question whether fiduciary responsibility allows cities, like Northampton, to pass resolutions to divest from companies “complicit in violating international law.” But let’s be clear. The lawsuit filed by the National Jewish Advocacy Center challenging Northampton’s resolution uses clever legal maneuvering to disguise its central intention. Indeed, that intention emerges clearly in the comments by the NJAC CEO, Mark Goldfeder, who claims “the resolution… singles out the Jewish state in a way that stigmatizes Jewish residents.” Shorthand: Don’t criticize Israel or we’ll cry antisemitism.
Whether a tactic used by Donald Trump, APAIC, or the NJAC, aligning criticism of Israel with antisemitism is a ploy designed to undercut the outrage we should all feel at Israel’s ongoing genocidal destruction of Gaza and the brutality state-supported Israeli settlers deploy daily to destroy Palestinian lives. Whether cities and towns should use funding to make political statements is worth discussing. But it makes perfect sense, given the forces arrayed against calling out Israel, that Northampton would want to take a stand.
Charles Morgan
Northampton