More than two weeks have passed since the above letter was sent to 120 members of the New Jersey legislature. JVP has received not a single response. The trip began on Sunday, January 21, and we understand that at least 22 legislators and community leaders are participating. We have yet to hear reports from those who took part.

As our letter points out, this trip is but the latest action taken by supporters of the State of Israel to distract from and cover up the genocide currently taking place in Gaza as well as the increasingly vicious attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. The large antiwar demonstrations organized by Israelis opposing their own government’s actions in Gaza since Oct 7th have been stifled. Our local attempts to present accurate information regarding the decades-long treatment of Palestinians in Israel have been thwarted by community groups and individuals, largely unidentified—but clearly, those groups have successfully persuaded churches, newspapers, and even a public library to take their demands seriously and in some cases even to accede to those demands.

In the past year or so, no fewer than four churches in Montclair and Maplewood warmly welcomed us as we discussed with their leaders the possibility of holding events at their sites. In each case, discussions were abruptly cut off and spaces we had already rented were cancelled, sometimes with as few as two days’ notice. All explained that they had been pressured by individuals and community groups. When Northern New Jersey Jewish Voice for Peace tried to place an ad in The Jersey Journal, the advertising staff accepted it without concern, but the publisher intervened, rejecting it as not being “a good fit”.