WASHINGTON, DC (Dispatches) – Prominent progressive organizations in the United States are joining together to push back against the political and electoral influence of the country’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
More than 20 advocacy groups launched on Monday a formal coalition dubbed “Reject AIPAC” to organize against what they called AIPAC’s campaign to silence the “growing dissent in Congress” against Zionist regime’s war on Gaza.
The newly formed coalition cited reports that AIPAC is readying a $100mn offensive through its electoral arms – AIPAC PAC and the United Democracy Project (UDP) – to take on a handful of progressives in Congress who called for a ceasefire in Gaza early in the war.
“Rejecting AIPAC is a crucial step in putting voters back at the center of our democracy,” the coalition said in a statement.
While individual candidates and organizations have previously criticized AIPAC’s involvement in U.S. election campaigns, the coalition marks a collective and focused effort against the pro-Zionist group.
Reject AIPAC includes mainstream left-wing groups, such as Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party, as well as organizations focused on Palestinian rights, including the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Action and the IfNotNow Movement.
AIPAC, which is officially non-partisan, advocates unconditional U.S. support for Israel and pushes back against any criticism of the Zionist regime and its human rights record. The group’s uncompromising advocacy for Israel has also persisted unabashedly as Israeli politics tilted further to the right, with the current regime waging the war on Gaza often described as the most far-right cabinet in Israeli history.
In the U.S., progressives say AIPAC’s targeting of left-wing candidates often advances right-wing priorities at home.
The anti-AIPAC coalition’s strategy, as outlined by its launch statement, is to back progressives targeted by AIPAC with an ad campaign, lobby against the group’s agenda in Congress and call on Democrats to renounce it.