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Dear student AIPAC delegates,

You are a community leader on your campus and your peers look up to you. Your inuence is why AIPAC has invested so

much money in having you attend this convention.

This weekend is a grand eort to paint a rosy picture o Israel, one that ignores ongoing human rights violations. You willhear rom various important political players, all slated to speak about the good Israel does. They will give the impression

that Israels values and actions promote peace and security in the world, and that anyone who questions Israel is aligned

with terrorism and instability. Indeed, this AIPAC conerence puts all its eorts into dazzling youwhom they assume to

be an impressionable student with little knowledge o the Palestinian-Israeli conictwith its political inuence.

We, students and concerned citizens throughout the country, disagree with the AIPAC narrative that Israels values and

actions promote peace and security in the world. In act, we believe that the Israeli governments lengthy track record o

violating international law, ignoring the human rights o Palestinians, and using excessive military orce against civilians is

what promotes instability and violence.

We invite you to join with us, and the people o Israel and Palestine and throughout the worldincluding Jews, Christians,

Muslims and otherswho stand or peace, equality, sel-determination and democracy or all regardless o religion,

ethnicity, or the color o ones skin.

Wed like to bring a ew acts to your attention:

1. AIPAC says that Israel wants peace, and that it supports a two-state solution.

Who wants peace? AIPAC promotes Israeli policies that are in direct opposition to international law and are extremely

counterproductive to the peace process. These include the establishment o illegal Jewish-only settlements on

Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, and the conscation o Palestinian land in its construction o a 26-oot

high concrete separation wall running through the West Bank.

The continued expansion o settlements and the separation wall, which is being built illegally and deep within the WestBank, makes it more and more difcult to achieve a solution to the Israel/Palestine conict. Netanyahus calls or

direct talks without preconditionsmeaning without an Israeli obligation to stop taking Palestinian land-are a slap

in the ace o Palestinian West Bank residents who see their homes and lives encroached on every day by settlements

and have called or, at the very least, a stop to settlement expansion.

Worse, AIPAC pushed or the current war in Iraq, which has killed nearly 4,500 young Americans and well over

100,000 civilian Iraqis. That war is now widely considered by the American people to have been a misguided ailure.

Now AIPAC is essentially pushing or war on Iran. War is peace?

2. AIPAC calls Israel the only democracy in the Middle East, and says it stands or democracy.

Did you cheer when Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak ell rom power? AIPAC didnt. AIPAC looks at the entire Arab

world through the lens o Israel, not the democratic aspirations o the people who live there. It has supported corrupt,

repressive regimes that are riendly to Israel, such as Egypts Mubarak. AIPAC is not interested in the struggles or

democracy now unolding in the Middle East, and works to keep U.S. policy-makers rom ully supporting democratic

movements in the Arab world.

3. AIPAC says they want to empower your voice and help you build relationships.

What kinds o conversations or relationships are based on silencing dissent? AIPAC attempts to silence criticism o

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Israel by ueling an environment in which critics o Israeli policy are labeled anti-Semitic, de-legitimizers or sel-

hating Jews. Students, proessors, journalists, and think tanks, including many Jews, have been accused o anti-

Semitism or merely taking stands critical o Israeli policy.

Add in AIPACs ties to political donors capable o giving millions to elected ofcials, and you have Washington DCs

open secret: numerous Congressmen and women want Israel to be accountable to the law and human rights, butare too araid to say so publicly or ear o losing donations and ultimately, their jobs. Too many are close to AIPAC

because they are araid o AIPAC.

These attacks stie the critical discussions and debates that are at the heart o democratic policy-making. The recent

attacks on staers at the Center or American Progress initiated by a ormer AIPACer are but one example o AIPACs

eorts to crush all dissent. What can you not say, or not ask, at this conerence?

4. From the AIPAC website: AIPAC empowers students to be

condent advocates or Israel.

AIPAC to Campus: Well take over your student government! AIPAC

doesnt just try to inuence Congressthey want to control campuspolitics too. AIPAC pushes Hillels and Jewish organizations on campus

to shut down events or speakers that AIPAC doesnt support. In 2010 UC

Berkeleys student senate voted to divest rom Occupation proteers

companies that make money rom the Israeli occupation o the West

Bank. A week later, the vote was vetoed by the student senate president.

Why? AIPACs Leadership Development Jonathan Kessler predicted this

move and said, Were going to make sure that pro-Israel students take

over the student government and reverse the voteThis is how AIPAC

operates in our nations capital. This is how AIPAC must operate on our nations campuses. And indeed, in the ollowing

election, the new 201011 UC Berkeley student body president Noah Stern was a ormer AIPAC intern (who committed

well-documented voter raud to get elected). (see http://j.mp/yX7BD2).

We encourage you to nd out more.

AIPAC has brought you here to give you one set o pre-abricated perspectives. Dont let others script your opinions, or stop

you rom learning more, or tell you that its dangerous even to talk with other students and activists whose inormation

sounds dierent than yours. Explore other perspectives. Be critical o the world we share. We want to talk with youbut

AIPAC doesnt want you asking these questions.

Sincerely,

Members o Young Jewish Proud, the youth wing o Jewish Voice or Peace

Members o Students or Justice in Palestine Groups on Campuses throughout the United States

We encourage you to learnrom alternative sources:

OccupyAIPAC.org

JewishVoiceorPeace.org

YoungJewishProud.org

972mag.com

Mondoweiss.net

ElectronicIntiada.com