Roey Gilad, Israel’s Consul General in Chicago, was scheduled to appear at an interfaith dialogue event hosted by the Niagara Foundation to discuss whether religions can build peace in the Middle East.

But after appeals by the anti-Israel US Palestinian Community Network and American Muslims for Palestine, the Niagara Foundation announced that it was canceling the planned peace event with Gilad.

Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee, Chicago Board of Rabbis, Jewish Community Relations Council and Jewish United Fund met with Niagara representatives to try and clarify the reasoning behind the cancellation. Apparently, Niagara Foundation was not forthcoming in its response so the Jewish organizations wrote a letter:

“In a statement, Niagara – a Midwest organization that describes itself as bringing together people to celebrate diversity in a shared society – said it had canceled the event because it determined that it was ill-suited to the organization’s ‘stated mission of fostering positive interfaith dialogue in an apolitical environment free from contentiousness.’ This fear of contentiousness was due to threats of disruption by extreme anti-Israel groups, which oppose ‘normalization’ with Israel and seek to de-legitimize the Jewish state.”

This is unacceptable. Niagara caved to anti-Israel groups and in doing so, compromised its own stated mission “to promote social cohesion.”