Democracy protests give expat Israelis a new identity

Once derided as selling out the Zionist dream, the Israeli Diaspora is developing a powerful political sense of purpose.

A group of Israeli expats recently demonstrated outside the Philadelphia home and office of a key funder of the Kohelet Policy Forum, a Jerusalem-based think tank that has been a catalyst for Israel’s proposed judicial reform.

Kohelet generated the conceptual foundation for the barrage of new laws and amendments, particularly those aimed at weakening the authority of the Supreme Court. Kohelet was not known to most Israelis. When it became evident that most of its funding came from a single American donor, the billionaire Arthur Dantchik, a group of Israelis living in Philadelphia took their protest his door.

In Ha’aretz earlier this month, Kim Legziel described in detail how the group conducted a relentless campaign over weeks using all the tools that American democracy offers, and succeeded in persuading him to stop funding Kohelet.

“For a few times a week (in) the past few months, about 30 Israelis who live in the Philadelphia area have been protesting outside Dantchik’s home and office”, she reported. The group was mixed. Protesters ranged from academics spending a few years in the US to those who have been there for many years. At times, they were joined by American Jews with ties to Israel.

The Philadelphia operation was not a unique occurrence. All over the US and in many locations around the globe, Israelis flocked to city squares and other symbolic sites to voice their objection to the proposed judicial reforms. When members of the Israeli government travelled abroad, they were met with Israeli protesters in front of their hotels and the sites they were visiting.