The decision came after activists alleged the organization was \u201cgreenwashing the conflict\u201d and \u201cproviding legitimacy to the Israeli state, which is engaged in apartheid against the Palestinian people,\u201d a volunteer leader with the nonprofit summarized in an email this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cGreenwashing,\u201d like \u201cpinkwashing\u201d which refers to LGBTQ rights, is a term used by critics of Israel to refer to the act of obscuring Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinians by focusing on the country\u2019s liberal environmental values or policies.<\/p>\n
News of the Sierra Club\u2019s decision came in a mass email obtained by J. that was sent out by Mary Owens, the chair of the Sierra Club\u2019s National Outings team, to hundreds of volunteers who lead part-recreational, part-educational, conservation-focused trips around the world.<\/p>\n
For years the Sierra Club, established in 1960, has offered trips to Israel to explore the country\u2019s biodiversity, bird migrations, desert landscape and ancient ruins. Last year\u2019s trip was called \u201cNatural and Historical Highlights of Israel,\u201d offered for two weeks in March for about $5,000 per person. It advertised a \u201ccomprehensive journey through this enduring land,\u201d with birdwatching, sea snorkeling, a visit to the Dead Sea and evenings on a kibbutz. Sierra Club outings are a major source of fundraising for the organization.<\/p>\n
The volunteer leader for that Israel trip was Shlomo Waser of Sunnyvale. Waser did not respond to a request for comment from J.<\/p>\n
On the Sierra Club\u2019s website more than 250 upcoming trips are listed, including more than 200 to sites in the U.S. and others to places like Malaysia, Nepal and Antarctica. A trip to China is planned for October. The website no longer lists a trip to Israel, and a number of webpages with information on past Israel trips were down on Friday afternoon. A notice appears at the top of the Middle East destinations landing page noting \u201cThere are currently no Middle East trips scheduled.\u201d<\/p>\n
The email from Owens, who said she was not authorized to speak to the press, described the Sierra Club\u2019s decision to cancel its trips \u2014 one scheduled for this month, and another for March 2023 \u2014 as the result of an advocacy push from one \u201cJewish American activist\u201d and a host of both progressive and anti-Zionist groups, including the pro-Palestinian Adalah Justice Project, the Indigenous rights group the NDN Collective, the Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, Jewish Voice for Peace, the Sunrise Movement and the Movement for Black Lives.<\/p>\n
An employee with the NDN Collective confirmed he was aware of his organization\u2019s efforts but was not authorized to say more. A request for comment from JVP, the Jewish anti-Zionist group, went unanswered.<\/p>\n
The email from Owens read: \u201cOn January 20, the board of directors received an email from a Jewish American activist urging us to cancel our upcoming trips to Israel (scheduled for March 15 and 29, 2022 and March 2023), saying that we are greenwashing the conflict there and providing legitimacy to the Israeli state, which is engaged in apartheid against the Palestinian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The board notified Owens and the National Outings team, which \u201csent our standard response which states that we don\u2019t restrict our trips due to regional conflicts or politics,\u201d Owens wrote. \u201cThe activist was not satisfied and said he planned to get additional activist groups involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn February 22, the board received an email from a coalition of activist organizations \u2026 threatening that if we did not cancel the upcoming trips within a week, they would go public that the organization was violating the organizational values it recently rolled out.\u201d
\nActing executive director Dan Chu, the email said, \u201cappointed a group to handle the response\u201d and notified Israel trip leaders.<\/p>\n
The special group appointed by Chu met with the progressive activists, the email said, \u201cwho insisted that there was no room for compromise and reiterated their demand that we cancel the trips by March 7.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group \u201cspent the next few days reviewing the pros and cons of each outcome,\u201d Owens wrote, adding: \u201cthe National Outings team did not want to cancel the trips.\u201d
\nIn the end, two members of the group appointed by Chu recommended that he cancel the trips, \u201cand he agreed,\u201d Owens wrote.<\/p>\n
The Sierra Club\u2019s national press office did not respond to a detailed list of questions from J.<\/p>\n
The decision comes as the Sierra Club, one of the oldest and most influential environmental nonprofit organizations in the United States, has made a push to fold progressive values and language more overtly into its mission, including rhetoric around social justice and anti-racism.<\/p>\n
A webpage linked in Owens\u2019 note includes a guide to \u201cpracticing anti-racism at Sierra Club,\u201d listing the need for \u201cfocused and sustained action,\u201d \u201cmaintaining accountability\u201d and \u201crejecting norms of internalized racial oppression,\u201d among other tenets.<\/p>\n
On June 17 of last year, the organization announced for the first time its support for reparations for Black Americans. \u201cIt is impossible to create a healthy, safe, and sustainable planet without acknowledging and materially addressing the past and present economic, cultural, psychological and spiritual impacts of racism,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n
Some longstanding members of the group see in the embrace of social justice concepts an ideological shift leftward within an organization that has historically been a big tent. Its decision on Israel has reinforced that view.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pendulum, and it\u2019s very much swung to the progressive side of things,\u201d said David Neumann of Oregon, a Jewish Sierra Club member since 1968 who leads outings in California and his home state.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, people who care about the environment aren\u2019t necessarily progressives,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can care about the environment and have different political views. We have Republicans among us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neumann said he strongly opposed the decision to cancel the Israel trips, calling it the result of an ideological \u201cpurity test\u201d and a capitulation to progressive groups who \u201cput the screws\u201d to Sierra Club leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew they were really into equity and justice, as am I, and that\u2019s all fine,\u201d he said. \u201cBut these groups that call Israel an apartheid state \u2014 that\u2019s so far out there,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s so not mainstream. That\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owens, the chair, wrote that she and the outings administrative committee were also \u201cvery disappointed with the decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA terrible precedent has been set,\u201d she wrote, that \u201ccan potentially put other international as well as domestic trips at risk of being subjected to the same treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
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