On April 16, 2018, the Durham North Carolina City Council passed the “Israel Resolution” making Durham the first city in the United States to boycott police trainings specifically with Israel.
The Durham City Council relied upon lies and false information when passing their boycott. Anti-Israel petitioners falsely alleged to the Durham Mayor and City Council that the training of police in Israel “helps the police terrorize Black and Brown communities here in the U.S.” Rather than seek input from mainstream Jewish organization such as the Jewish Federations and local synagogues, the mayor and city council sided with those who single out and attack Israel and the Jewish people.
Read more about this “punch in the gut” to the Jewish community here: Durham Singles Out Israel: A History in Articles.
The Truth Comes Out
On January 12, 2020 at the Durham JCC, over a hundred people (see photo above) heard first-hand accounts of two senior law enforcement officers tell the true story of police exchanges between Israel and the United States. This event was sponsored by Voice4Israel and The Jewish Federations of Durham-Chapel Hill and Raleigh-Carey. Not a single member of the Durham City Council accepted an invitation and attended this event to learn the truth.
Thanks to the support of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE), we were able to hear the reports of these two fine officers. The videos below make it clear that nothing that was claimed by the petitioners and accepted by the Council is true.