On the City Council’s Monday agenda is a call for Cambridge to divest from companies involved in Israel’s genocide and with its apartheid regime, covering at least $28 million of contracts and investments. As someone who grew up in Israel, I support this policy, both to stop the harm to Palestinians, and because I want my Israeli nieces and nephew to grow up in a better society.
 
Some might say we should wait and see if Netanyahu loses in the upcoming election. I believe it will make no difference if Netanyahu’s rival, Gadi Eisenkot, becomes the new prime minister. Eisenkot was previously a general in the Israeli Defense Forces. In 2008, he articulated Israel’s military doctrine:

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“We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases.”
 
This was the doctrine later applied to Gaza: disproportionate retaliation and mass destruction of civilian infrastructure and killing of civilians.
 
Eisenkot was also part of the five-person War Cabinet that led the genocide in Gaza. By the time he left the cabinet in 2024, Israel had killed 37,000 Palestinians. Further, polling in Israel indicates around 80% of members of parliament after the election will support Israel’s apartheid and illegal settlements, including Eisenkot’s party.
 
There is no meaningful opposition in Israel to genocide or apartheid. Only external pressure can make a difference. And here in Cambridge, we have an opportunity to help kickstart that process.

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Itamar Turner-Trauring / Oxford Street, Cambridge