27-03-2025
Tacoma mayor accepted paid trip to Israel from advocacy group American Jewish Committee
Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards joined a delegation of U.S. mayors in Israel for seven days last week, with expenses for the trip paid for by the American Jewish Committee, city officials say.
She was the only mayor from Washington state to attend, AJC said. The advocacy group 'stands up for Israel's right to exist in peace and security; confronts antisemitism, no matter the source; and upholds the democratic values that unite Jews and our allies,' according to the organization's website.
Woodards visited Israel from March 16 through March 23 for the annual AJC Project Interchange in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said city spokesperson Maria Lee.
The mayor told The News Tribune Wednesday she went to better understand the conflict and for spiritual reasons as a Christian.
A member of the local Jewish Voice for Peace chapter called Woodards' trip 'a disgusting and shameful act of support for the Israeli apartheid regime' that 'flies in the face of not just the ceasefire resolution that Mayor Woodards signed onto, but just every standard of human morality.'
Expenses for the trip paid for by the AJC Project Interchange included round-trip airfare to and from Tel Aviv, private hotel accommodations and most meals, according to the invitation Woodards received from AJC and the United States Conference of Mayors on Dec. 12, which was obtained by the News Tribune. The city of Tacoma said The News Tribune would have to ask AJC for the cost of the trip. AJC said in an email Tuesday, 'AJC does not disclose expenses for these delegations' and did not explain why.
An itinerary shared with The News Tribune noted that Woodards stayed in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem for two days (where standard rooms have a going rate of $600/night, according to the hotel's website) and the Dan Tel Aviv Hotel for three days (where standard rates are $300-$600/night, according to the hotel) before departing March 22. Woodards confirmed she was paid her salary by the city while she was there and 'was never shown a bill' from AJC.
According to Woodards' itinerary, she attended 14 lectures over the course of her trip on topics including Israeli politics, Jerusalem, Israel-U.S. relations and Israeli society. She met with families and survivors of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack and toured historic sites like Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, South Tel Aviv, Carmel Market, Hostages Square and Tel Aviv-Jaffa. She also visited the ANU Museum of Jewish People, according to the itinerary and met with Palestinian activist Samer Sinijlawi, who led a discussion on Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Woodards told The News Tribune on Wednesday she had been invited to go on the trip last year but declined because she wanted to be sensitive to how people in Tacoma would feel about her visiting Israel because the city council was drafting a ceasefire resolution at that time.
'Then got the invitation to go this year, and I absolutely said yes,' Woodards said. 'One, because I wanted to be more educated about what was happening. And secondly, I am a Christian, and I was excited about the opportunity to visit a place that I've only read about in my Bible, you know, kind of all of the religious and spiritual reasons that people go to Jerusalem and travel to Israel.'
Woodards was one of nine U.S. mayors who attended the trip, she said. Woodards said she wanted to better understand the conflict 'from the perspective of those who are living it every day.'
'I will tell you that this issue is way more complex than I think we think about,' she said. 'It's so much more complex than I understood before I went.'
Woodards was among other members of the Tacoma City Council last year who approved a resolution supporting 'an immediate and permanent ceasefire, the protection of humanitarian aid workers and the provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza' after mounting public pressure.
While Woodards was in Israel on March 18, Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza that killed more than 400 Palestinians, breaking a ceasefire that had remained in place since January, as reported by the Associated Press. Israel has prevented humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, and on March 2 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again halted 'the entry of all goods and supplies' in an attempt to pressure Hamas into accepting a new ceasefire proposal, as reported by news outlet Al Jazeera.
Since the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas launched an attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, some 62,614 Palestinians and 1,139 people in Israel have been killed with more than 127,000 people injured, according to a live tracker by Al Jazeera.
AJC said in an article published about the annual Mayor Delegation to Israel on Monday that the intensive program 'enabled the mayors to gain first-hand knowledge of the situation in Israel at a time when the nation continues to confront ongoing terror attacks and threats from the Iranian regime and its proxies on multiple fronts and grapples with the fate of the 59 hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas.'
'These are powerful experiences that expose mayors to the deep complexity of Israel and the region while also providing insight into how their counterparts navigate challenges often under difficult conditions,' said AJC chief field operations officer Melanie Maron Pell in the article. 'They also get to see how diverse Israeli society really is and draw their own conclusions about life in Israel. Invariably, they come away impressed. This year was no exception.'
Woodards said she supports a ceasefire and is in favor of protecting humanitarian aid in Gaza and didn't think her visit to Israel was at odds with the resolution she signed.
'I went on the trip with the idea that we were in a ceasefire, right? So let's be super clear about that. I would imagine that if we had not been in ceasefire, that maybe they would have canceled. I don't know what they would have done,' she said, noting her daily itinerary changed March 18 when Israel broke the ceasefire.
Zev Cook is co-founder of Tacoma for All and member of Jewish Voice for Peace. Cook called Woodard's trip a 'disgusting and horrible thing to do.'
'The AJC, American Jewish Committee, is a Zionist organization that explicitly exists to maintain support for the Zionist and genocidal project in Palestine,' she said Tuesday. 'This isn't some normal educational nonprofit … this is against every Jewish value that I was brought up with.
'I think that through going on lobbyist-funded trip like this Woodards is, you know, showing pretty clearly and demonstrating her support for the occupation and genocide in Palestine. I think that actions speak louder than words, and when you take acts of support like this, it renders any resolution meaningless.'
Woodards said it was not her intention to offend people by going on this trip and said her heart goes out to innocent people 'on both sides [who] are being affected by this war.'
'I'm sorry if some people found it offensive, but I think it helps me better understand,' she said. 'One of the things [AJC] said, and I'll just be honest with you, 'You're going to leave more confused than you were when you got here,' because by hearing so many different perspectives, there's no monolith of opinions and thoughts and feelings, much like there is right here in my very own city.'
