Three Bay Area members of UnXeptable, a grassroots movement of Israeli expats who oppose the policies of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, flew to Washington to protest his July 24 speech to Congress, saying they felt compelled to do so.
They joined a rally of several hundred other Israelis, American Jews from at least 20 states, and families of hostages held in Gaza.
UnXeptable was founded in the Bay Area in 2020 by Israeli expats “in support of a democratic Israel,” but it caught fire in early 2023 amid Netanyahu’s efforts to rein in the power of Israel’s Supreme Court. UnXeptable’s focus shifted sharply after Oct. 7 to mobilize direct aid and demand the release of the hostages. But as the Israel-Hamas war has dragged on, the group has refocused its efforts against Netanyahu.
“Over time, more people understand that Netanyahu is extending the war on behalf of his own political survival,” Silicon Valley entrepreneur and UnXeptable co-founder Offir Gutelzon, who spoke in D.C., told J. “More and more people understand that this war needs to end.”
The UnXeptable rally was separate from an anti-war march that culminated in a clash with police. That march resulted in arrests for vandalism that included ripping down and burning an American flag and graffiti with messages such as “Free Gaza,” “All zionists are bastards” and “Hamas is comin’.”
Regardless of other protesters with different agendas, the UnXeptable group decided it needed to be there. “We knew that this would be a message to the rest of the world that we are here to fight for the values we believe in,” Gutelzon said.
Shimrit Braun Kamin of Burlingame, who moved from Israel in 2017 to work as associate director for the San Francisco region of the New Israel Fund, traveled to D.C. for the UnXeptable rally.
“I couldn’t imagine staying at home and not coming to scream ‘shame’ to Netanyahu, for neglecting the hostages and for sabotaging Israeli democracy and for maintaining the war and causing so much suffering and pain in Israel, in Gaza and for everyone,” Braun Kamin said.
Tech executive Gershon Diner of San Jose, who moved from Israel 11 years ago, said he decided to attend the rally to show that Israelis, both abroad and at home, oppose the government’s handling of the war and believe that Netanyahu’s visit to the U.S. was inappropriate.
It was Netanyahu’s fourth address to Congress, surpassing Winston Churchill’s record in number of addresses by a foreign leader.
“Doing a 54-minute speech doesn’t help anyone in Israel,” Diner said. “And we should say, ‘You’re not supposed to be here. You’re not welcome. Find a different time to come here and do all your PR, but this is not the right time. Right now, you’re supposed to serve your citizens. And this is not serving us.’”
Diner stressed that the actions of the Israeli government do not accurately represent the views of the Israeli people.
“We should support Israelis and Israel unconditionally, but we should not support the government — very similar to how you can support Americans, but you don’t need to support the president of the U.S.,” said Diner. “That’s what we’re trying to say here, that these guys are not representing us.”
Two Israeli news outlets, the Kan public broadcaster and Channel 12, published surveys in April that found over 70% of citizens wanted Netanyahu to resign.
Gutelzon and Diner said that too often the nuances of the conflict are overlooked in favor of a binary narrative, where being pro-Israel is conflated with being pro-Netanyahu, and being pro-Palestinian is conflated with being pro-Hamas.
Gutelzon acknowledged the difficulty of holding a nuanced position, especially for Jews and Israelis who are sympathetic to the plight of Palestinians but have valid worries about Israel’s security.
“The reality is more complex, especially for all of us [who lived] in Israel for so many years,” said Gutelzon. “We know that it’s never black and white, it’s always complex. But even when it’s complex, you need to stand up, you need to be in the right place at the right time and say very clearly what you’re against and what you’re supporting.”
Also joining the UnXeptable rally was Alana Zeitchik of Brooklyn, who is executive director of The Narrow Bridge Project, a nonprofit that brings Jewish youths with different views together for dialogue. Six of Zeitchik’s family members were taken hostage from Kibbutz Nir Oz. Five of them were released during the temporary cease-fire in November, but her cousin’s husband is still in Gaza. Zeitchik has been vocal about her criticism of Netanyahu and calls to strike a deal to end the war.
“It was the first time since Oct. 7 that I’ve been in a pro-Israel space in America that understood me, that could hold all my complex grief — a space with people who love Israel the way I love her,” Zeitchik wrote on Instagram about the rally. “The last time I was in D.C. I spoke at the march against antisemitism to a sea of Israeli flags, yet I felt utterly alone and confused. But here in this space, I looked around at the Israeli flags and I was home.”
Braun Kamin said it is more important than ever to stand up against the government’s actions.
“This is not the Israel we believe in,” she said. “We believe in a just and peaceful Israel, and we believe it can be achieved. We must end the war and the bloodshed immediately.” Hezbollah’s missile attack on Israel that killed 12 children and teens on a soccer field on July 27 “has shown us how this war has nothing but more pain and more grief, and we can’t sacrifice any more children from both sides.”