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ZOA ‘pleased’ as Beinart resigns World Zionist Congress position

The ZOA celebrated Beinart’s decision to step down as an alternate to the World Zionist Congress.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

The Zionist Organization of America, led by Morton Klein, expressed its approval on Monday of U.S. journalist Peter Beinart’s decision to resign as an alternate to the World Zionist Congress.

“The ZOA is pleased that anti-Israel activist Peter Beinart, who opposes Israel’s existence as a Jewish State and is an anti-Israel propagandist, has taken the right and honorable action,” the ZOA said in a statement.

“Beinart was a member of the far leftwing ‘Hatikvah’ slate, which includes the Israel-bashing group J Street,” it added.

The organization noted that its slate at the World Zionist Congress has brought a case against Beinart, “Hatikvah,” and others who promoted partial boycotts of Israel. It said the Eretz HaKodesh slate had brought a separate case as well. The cases were brought internally before Zionist judicial tribunals.

It’s not clear if the cases played a part in Beinart’s decision to resign his position.

Beinart has been in the headlines for an article he wrote for Jewish Currents on July 8 titled, “Yavne: A Jewish Case for Equality in Israel-Palestine,” in which he argued for abandoning the idea of a Jewish state.

However, the ZOA focused on Beinart’s advocacy for boycotts against Israel as a pressure tactic on Israel’s government.

“Peter Beinart is notorious for leading and co-signing a public call in 2016 for a ‘targeted boycott of all goods and services from all Israeli settlements’ in areas to which the Jewish people have the sole sovereign rights (which Beinart falsely and wrongly calls ‘the Occupied Territories’),” the ZOA said.

“Beinart’s boycott call also targeted ‘any investments that promote the Occupation.’ (‘Occupation’ is the false and misleading term that Israel’s detractors use to refer to Israel and/or Israel’s lawful territories, over which no other country has had legal sovereignty),” the statement said.

“In October 2019, the WZC Zionist General Council passed a resolution initiated by the ZOA Coalition, which requires the exclusion of organizations, individual delegates, and alternates who directly or indirectly support full or ‘partial’ BDS,” it also said.

The ZOA mentioned Beinart’s new position. “In a horrific action, treasonous to the Jewish people, Beinart also recently called for the elimination of the Jewish State,” it said.