No solidarity with da Joooos!

Via Sacramento Bee:

Supporters of the Palestinian cause plan to parade Tuesday before the City Council to stop Ashkelon in Israel from becoming Sacramento’s 10th sister city.

There are two major problems with their case.

First off, we need to remember the bargain struck when council members unanimously made Bethlehem, which is under the Palestinian Authority, a sister city in December 2009. In doing so, they passed a resolution stating their intent to find a sister city in Israel. Everyone knew that was the deal. To go back on it now would be wrong.

The other problem is that the entire mission of the Sister Cities program, which has a half-century history in Sacramento, is to get past political differences and build bridges between people.

Obviously, that is extremely difficult when it comes to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

The primary objection of those opposing Ashkelon is that Palestinians from Sacramento who might want to visit would need special permission if they hold Israeli-issued IDs, even if they are U.S. citizens.

By endorsing a sister city relationship, the city would be “sanctioning discrimination,” Adeeb Alzanoon, the local representative for the Palestinian American Congress, told The Bee’s editorial board.

Alzanoon also expresses concerns about the hundreds of Palestinians displaced from Ashkelon, including some of his own relatives. He describes it as “ethnic cleansing.” Those who remain are treated as second-class citizens, he says.

He has been joined in the effort by some of the same activists who led the misguided, ultimately unsuccessful, effort last year to ban Israeli-made products from the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op.

HT: Blaze