Dear Steve Hunegs and JCRC board,

We are writing to you as Jews in Minnesota and the Dakotas to demand that you:

1. Release a statement against annexation and the continual human rights abuses against Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government

2. Go beyond words and take action against annexation by putting support behind Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s letter proposing a conditioning of military aid to Israel

3. End ties with the police and any form of law enforcement, and invest in alternative forms of community safety for sacred Jewish spaces

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to annex parts of the west bank this month, a move enabled by Trump and backed by the right wing in the US and in Israel. Annexation is a unilateral action in which a state incorporates territory into its domain by proclaiming sovereignty over it. It is illegal by international law. Netenyahu’s plan for annexation formalizes what the Israeli government has been working towards for decades: permanent Israeli control over all the land and total dispossession and oppression of the Palestinian people.

For decades, Israel, supported by the American political and Jewish establishments, has been terrorizing Palestinians on a daily basis. We know annexation will increase what is already happening on the ground. It will enable increased home demolitions. It will strip thousands of Palestinians of their land, enable more human rights abuses, and further restrict freedom of movement and access to resources. Annexation would heighten and continue to entrench the already morally indefensible occupation

As an organization that claims to release statements on behalf of the Jewish community in Minnesota and the Dakotas, we see your silence on the issue of annexation, and we demand a statement against annexation.

We also know that statements aren’t enough. Statements will not stop annexation. The Jewish community in Minnesota must and take action against the occupation. We support the conditioning of the $3.8 billion a year that the US gives Israel in military aid in the event of unilateral annexation. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, supported by 12 other legislators including Ilhan Omar and Betty McCullom have signed a letter supporting the conditioning of military aid. We ask that you take steps to support the conditioning of military aid.

We also know that ending militarization in our communities means ending all relationships with the police. We stand with the movement for Black lives, and demand that our institutions, including the JCRC, cut off all ties with law enforcement.

We recognize the long history of the MPD terrorizing black communities and communities of color, and we firmly stand against police in any of our Jewish spaces. The JCRC holds relationships with law enforcement, and claims to bring “community safety” to the Jewish community in Minnesota and the Dakotas. According to their website, the JCRC serves “as local liaison for the Jewish community” they “interact with federal, state and local law enforcement.”

We stand with the movement to defund the police here in the Twin Cities and across the world. Local institutions, are cutting ties with the police in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. We are demanding that the JCRC cut off all ties with law enforcement and hold Mayor Jacob Frey accountable for his upholding of the MPD, our elected mayor who relies on jewish institutional support for his campaign Police have no place in our sacred community spaces, and they further marginalize Jews of Color in our communities. We must go beyond statements as a community.

The police, militarization, and occupation will not bring us safety. Solidarity will.

As a group of Jews from Minnesota and North Dakota, we ask that you take our voices into account. If you claim to be a representative of our Jewish community, you must incorporate our voices.

Signed,