A collection of groups calling itself the “Expose AIPAC Coalition” claimed credit for persuading several members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to forgo attending an AIPAC dinner this week. However, two supervisors told J. the group’s appeals had nothing to do with their absence from the Dec. 14 event at the Westin St. Francis.
“It’s entirely false,” Supervisor Scott Wiener said of the claims in an Expose AIPAC Coalition press release. “I’m really disgusted that they would put that statement out. I had an event for my campaign that directly conflicted. I go to AIPAC every year and would have been there had I not had a direct conflict.”
Iris Wong, press aide to Supervisor London Breed, told J. that Breed did not attend “because of scheduling conflicts.” She also said the Expose AIPAC Coalition had “not been directly in touch” with Breed’s office prior to the event.
The coalition’s Dec. 14 press release touted “weeks of organizing against AIPAC and its yearly S.F. gala,” citing Supervisor John Avalos as having turned down an AIPAC invitation “in solidarity with community concerns.”
It went on to name Wiener, Breed and fellow supervisors David Campos, Jane Kim and Eric Mar as confirmed “no-shows,” and also mentioned a petition with “nearly 1,000 signatures” delivered to City Hall calling on Mayor Ed Lee to “publically reject AIPAC’s invitation.”
The mayor didn’t attend; his office, and those of Kim, Campos and Mar, did not return calls to J. seeking comment.
The Expose AIPAC Coalition is made up of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network and other groups.
JVP member Carol Sanders told J. the coalition’s campaign “consisted of having people call the supervisors and request they don’t attend. Avalos explicitly did not attend in response to community concerns about the role AIPAC plays in the Israel-Palestine situation.”
Wiener said he received around a dozen emails, some from the coalition and some from constituents, asking him not to attend the dinner because of AIPAC’s support for “Israeli abuse of Palestinians, the building of illegal settlements and the massive transfer of U.S. money and weapons to Israel” (as one email read).
“I did receive an email from a constituent asking if I was going, and I said I was not going solely because of a conflict and not due to any boycott,” Wiener said. “It’s just a patent lie. If you look at how they phrase it [as a ‘no-show’] it’s really pretty unethical.”
Wiener went on to write a sharply worded letter to the coalition’s organizers, explicitly stating his support for Israel and AIPAC. “It is unethical, at best, for you to suggest otherwise in your misleading release,” he wrote. “Your organizations consistently work to undermine the State of Israel.”
AIPAC’s 2015 San Francisco and East Bay club membership event featured speakers such as Andy David, S.F.-based consul general of Israel; the Rev. Kenneth Flowers, pastor of the Greater New Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit; and David Makovsky, Ziegler distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
An anti-AIPAC demonstration outside the hotel drew more than 200 people, according to several attendees. A smaller pro-Israel side was also present. Sanders of JVP called it a “spirited, peaceful” protest. “There were many Jews in attendance,” she said, “with signs proclaiming that as Jews they are against what Israel is doing to the Palestinian people, and what AIPAC is doing.”