IRmep Stream's video: Randi Weingarten Continues AFT Presidents Practice Of Coopting The Union For Israel

A short documentary of Randi Weingarten video clips from 2015 and 2017, American Federation of Teachers leadership, resolutions offering unconditional support for Israel, and inclusion of the ADL (Anti-Defamation League) in AFT crisis response programs. Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, continues the practice of past presidents in coopting the union to advocate for Israel.... Clips from Weingarten's 3/23/2015 J Street (an Israel advocacy organization) speech called "Speaking from the heart about Israel's future" For Weingarten, the nonviolent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement lies along a spectrum that ends at "violence" and "terrorism." Do union members believe BDS is on that spectrum? Do they agree with Weingarten that advancing Israel is an appropriate role for the AFT? Are they consulted in any valid way? AFT Presidents Albert Shanker (1974-1997) Sandra Feldman (1997-2004) Edward J. McElroy (2004-2008) Randi Weingarten (2008-Present) Under the leadership of these past presidents the AFT adopted: A 1974 resolution railing against the UN for voting to allow Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat to address the General Assembly. A 1976 resolution calling Israel “our only remaining sister democracy in the Middle East” and “a cornerstone of America’s defense against the spread of totalitarian movements and military dictatorship into the Mediterranean and the Middle East.” 2003 support for the Bush administration's justifications to invade Iraq. A 2006 resolution fully supporting that year’s invasion of Lebanon, during which Israel killed more than 1,200 civilians and deliberately destroyed much of the country’s infrastructure. Clip from Weingarten's 9/1/2017 interview on C-SPAN's "Newsmakers" Should the ADL, an Israel advocacy organization with a checkered past, be a resource for the American educational system? Facts: The ADL lacks transparency and fields many infiltration and influence operations via secret programs. The ADL has attempted to form an improper partnership with the FBI, through political pressure, since the 1940s, asking for access to the FBI's investigation files to avoid "duplication of effort." In the 1940s the ADL secretly supported the internment of Japanese Americans. Today, ADL provides education and police training using internment as a case study of intolerance. ADL operatives infiltrated and attempted to break up a mass rally of an antiwar group opposed to involving the US in WWII. In 1947 a congressional investigative committee characterized the ADL as "smear artists" for circulating "hearsay" and seeking to include ADL reports in civil service records about individuals it opposed. In 1951 the ADL provided information to the FBI about Saudi Arabian and Egyptian covert operations in the US. The FBI found ADL's information "absolutely unreliable." In 1968 the ADL warned the FBI that a Minnesota professor was involved with the "Negro integration movement in the Twin Cities area." In 1969 ADL undercover operatives infiltrated conferences to shut down the Organization of Arab Students over its activities opposing Israel's human rights abuses. In the 1990s ADL operative Roy Bullock was discovered planting Holocaust denial literature at Arab conferences. Bullock worked with apartheid South African intelligence agents to compile a database of pro-Palestinian, anti- Apartheid groups in California. As a result of the incident, and ADL's unlawful possession of private information on US citizens and classified US government information, the ADL was investigated for espionage in 1993. The investigation was dropped only after immense pressure on the Department of Justice by visiting Israeli government officials. The ADL is not an entity that should be allowed to infiltrate US law enforcement or serve as resource within the American education system. Have Randi Weingarten and past AFT presidents abused their positions as leaders to co-opt the largest US teachers union into advancing the interests of a foreign country? Additional Sources: https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali- abunimah/why-american-federation- teachers-promoting-israeli-apartheid IRmep.org/ADLespionage IsraelLobbyArchive.org/ADL IsraelLobbyArchive.org/ADL-CA