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The Washington, D.C., chapter of the Sunrise Movement, an activist organization focused on climate change, announced in a tweet that it would no longer take part in a voting rights march from West Virginia to Washington planned to start today due to what it referred to as the “participation of Zionist organizations.” More below.
Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a memorandum of understanding for several joint space projects on Wednesday. Israel’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology Orit Farkash HaCohen and Emirati Minister of State for Advanced Technology and chairwoman of UAESA Sarah bint Yousef Al Amiri agreed on the joint projects, including a shared lunar mission to plant both countries’ flags on the moon.
The agreements aim to support education and tackle pressing regional challenges such as desertification and climate change. They also include the two countries working together on “Beresheet 2,” Israel’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on the lunar surface, after its first ship crashed-landed on the moon in 2019. The UAE has seen some success with its space program. In February 2021, its Hope Probe was successfully inserted into orbit around Mars.
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Sunrise Movement’s DC chapter boycotts event due to ‘participation of Zionist organizations’

Sunrise Movement activists participate in a protest in Northern California on Dec. 6th, 2019.
A large voting rights rally set to take place on Capitol Hill this weekend has become steeped in controversy after the Washington chapter of the Sunrise Movement — an influential progressive environmental advocacy group — released a statement on Tuesday announcing it would not take part in the event “due to the participation of a number of Zionist organizations.” The statement also announced that the movement would no longer join coalitions with Zionist organizations, naming the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) and the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA), Jewish Insider’s Gabby Deutch reports.
Not democratic: “This idea that you are told that you have to reject your support for Israel to participate in American public life on issues that you care about, that is what’s antisemitic and anti-democratic,” said Joel Rubin, the executive director of American Jewish Congress who previously served as Bernie Sanders’s Jewish liaison during his 2020 presidential run.
Standing by it: Sunrise DC rooted its reasoning in its support for Washington, D.C., statehood. “We will continue to fight for statehood for DC in the United States and for the liberation of Palestine,” the chapter’s statement said. Sunrise Movement DC has stood by its statement in the face of criticism from Jewish activists and organizations that it is antisemitic. The national staff of the Sunrise Movement did not respond to multiple requests for comment to clarify whether they support the Washington chapter’s position.
Elephant in the room: In separate statements to Jewish Insider, senior leaders at the RAC, NCJW and JCPA expressed commitments to dialogue and coalition-building but did not criticize the Sunrise Movement by name nor call the group’s stance antisemitic. When asked specifically what they thought about the Sunrise Movement statement and its language about Zionism, all three declined to elaborate.
Congressional quiet: JI reached out to the offices of all the current members of Congress endorsed by the Sunrise Movement, asking whether they agree with Sunrise Movement DC’s position. None of those members of Congress — Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Cori Bush (D-MO), Marie Newman (D-IL), Mike Levin (D-CA), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), Mondaire Jones (D-NY) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY); and Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — responded to JI’s requests for comment.