Deadly Exchange

Exchange programs that bring together police, ICE, border patrol, and FBI from the US with soldiers, police, and border agents from Israel are toxic. In these programs, “worst practices” are shared to promote and extend discriminatory and repressive policing in both countries including extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders, racial profiling, massive spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, and attacks on human rights defenders.
Real safety never comes at the point of the gun. The deadly falsehood that violence against some communities will create security for others is perpetuated by the policies of both the U.S. and Israeli government. As a Jewish organization dedicated to safety and justice for all peoples, Jewish Voice for Peace sees it as a duty to draw the line at these exchanges.
From the US to Israel, the path to safety for all is in building joint struggles for justice and showing up to protect and defend one another. That’s the exchange–between people’s movements rather than policing–that we must grow.
Who is sponsoring the exchange?
Thousands of the highest ranking police officials and law enforcement executives across the country have participated in the exchange programs, which are primarily billed as opportunities for U.S. law enforcement to learn counterterrorism tactics from the Israeli military and police. The organizers of the exchanges are predominantly U.S.-based Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and AIPAC, among others. Civil rights organizations and Jewish communal institutions have no business participating in further endangering those in Trump’s crosshairs by dispatching police, ICE and FBI agents to learn from an occupying army. All our cities must end their participation in these programs.
Are there other recent examples of this type of exchange?
The U.S. has not just been the client of exchange of militarized and repressive policing practices; it has also been the supplier. It has trained armed forces and para-militaries around the world, most notably through the School of the Americas (SOA, now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)), in counterinsurgency, torture techniques, and political repression. These trainings led directly to murders, rape, torture, and disappearances perpetrated by “graduates” of SOA in El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, and other countries in Latin America. See http://www.soaw.org for more.
What are the threats when “worst practices” are used?
The threats are many. In our country and in Israel, some of the most threatened are the victims of and resistors to oppressive systems.
In Ferguson, MO: Thomas Jackson, chief of the police department that violently repressed protests after the killing of unarmed Michael Brown by a police officer, was a participant in the Anti-Defamation League’s National Counter-Terrorism Seminar (NCTS) program three years prior.
In New York City: In more than six years of spying on Muslim
neighborhoods, eavesdropping on conversations and cataloguing mosques, the NYPD’s secret Demographics Unit never generated a lead or triggered a
terrorism investigation. Instead, it has terrorized communities. The NYPD is a frequent participant in trainings with Israeli police and military.
In Hebron, Palestine: Issa Amro, a Palestinian human rights defender, has been imprisoned and is facing 18 charges in military court. See Amnesty International at http://tinyurl.com/y7b9u6hf for more.
In Maryland: “Oh man, you guys are bad asses. You know how to silence ones that oppose you.” This, a remark by a Maryland police officer, upon learning that the man he was giving a ride to (after a vehicle mishap) is Israeli. And upon question from the Israeli visitor about why he said that: “We just got back from training with your military and your police.” See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93hqlmrZKd8 for more.
In Jerusalem: The executive director of B’tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, has been threatened with revoked citizenship for resisting the occupation.
Ending these police exchange programs broadens and amplifies ongoing efforts for justice in local communities. Fighting for real safety for all people must include calling for an end to these deadly exchanges between the U.S. and Israel.