Over the weekend of Oct. 26, presidential candidates including Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, as well as party leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, addressed the J Street National Conference in Washington, D.C. The main topic of discussion was the political relationship between the United States and Israel, and how American progressives can support a strong, secure and democratic Israel while opposing Israel’s 52-year military occupation of the West Bank. The presence of many of the Democratic party’s most influential leaders is a testament to the salience of Israeli politics in American political discourse ahead of the 2020 elections.

The longstanding consensus in American politics has been support for a two-state solution and an eventual end to the occupation. But today, that future looks further away than ever. Netanyahu’s promise to annex settlements in the West Bank if reelected imperils prospects of a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine and is a violation of international law. Annexation would make the occupation permanent. For millions of Americans who view Israel as a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, these moves are troubling and require further attention, especially as it relates to U.S. involvement with the Netanyahu administration.

But none of this is new. For decades, Israeli policy has promoted settlement expansion, demolished Palestinian villages, and disrupted Palestinian civil society. All of this has undermined the two-state solution and entrenched the occupation. And through it all we were silent. Jewish leaders, American politicians looked the other way. With de jure annexation on the horizon, this has to change.

This is why this year, J Street U, the college organizing arm of J Street, is working on a campaign to have the 2020 Democratic Party platform include language that opposes the Israeli occupation, annexation and settlement expansion. Democrats cannot ignore this crucial issue anymore. Our support for the two-state solution cannot be merely rhetorical, especially as right wing forces move to make it impossible. The inclusion of such language in the platform would be a first for the party and would help signal that Democrats are serious about a more nuanced relationship with Israel that doesn’t ignore the rights of Palestinians under Israeli rule or the reality of occupation.

Democrats are beginning to listen. While American aid to Israel has long been an essential and largely unquestioned piece of the relationship between the two countries, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren proposed the idea of leveraging such aid if Netanyahu were to follow through on his promise to annex the West Bank. Bernie Sanders called on Israel to “fundamentally change [its] relationship to the people of Gaza,” and floated diverting some portion of the nearly $4 billion dollars in aid to Gaza. Such ideas are representative of a major shift in the mainstream discussion of Israel and Palestine. This is the first time major candidates of either party have proposed imposing penalties on the continued Israeli occupation and on the threat of annexation. Democrats are finally following through on their support for two states and their opposition to the status quo.

One group that has been particularly outspoken about the occupation are the soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories. Since 2004, over 1,000 former soldiers have spoken out about their time in the military and had their accounts verified by Breaking the Silence, a group working to “expose the public to the daily reality of the occupation and Israeli military rule over the Palestinian civilian population in the territories, a reality we witnessed firsthand during our military service.” Members of Breaking the Silence travel internationally and share stories from their service. Their stated belief is that “in order to formulate a solution to a certain problem, one must first understand and acknowledge the problem itself.” The Washington University chapter of J Street U is lucky to host speakers from Breaking the Silence on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 6 p.m. in Seigel 208. We understand that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be overwhelming and seemingly impossible to navigate, yet we hope that students will take this opportunity to come to hear from those who care deeply about the safety and security of Israel and those who have risked their lives to defend it but also understand the nuances of the situation on the ground in the Occupied Territories. These soldiers fought for Israel, but they can’t remain silent anymore. If we care about Israel, none of us can.