Sunday, July 21, 2013

JVP Coordinator David L. Mandel on NGO monitor report: "factual descriptions of JVP’s activities are accurate".

Jewish Voice for Peace Sacramento Coordinator  David L. Mandel  has substantiated NGO Monitor's  report on  JVP, writing " factual descriptions of JVP’s activities are accurate".

Here's the context:

From the J weekly, the Jewish newsweekly of Northern California

Report rips Jewish Voice for Peace and its tactics

 A report from the pro-Israel watchdog organization NGO Monitor accuses Bay Area–based Jewish Voice for Peace of masquerading as a mainstream Jewish organization when its true purpose is to create an anti-Israel “wedge within the American Jewish community.”

 Examining JVP’s financial data, strategies, membership, programs and partners, the report, issued July 8, concludes that JVP has “actively promoted the central dimensions of the political warfare strategy against Israel.”....

 The J continues: 

(Yitzhak)Santis, who used to work for the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council, said pro-BDS and anti-Zionist activists use JVP as a “Jewish shield” to deflect suspicions of anti-Semitism and as a way of “deflecting the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community that strongly supports Israel.”

“They present a Jewish face and give permission,” he said. “They try to convince Christians [JVP is] part of the mainstream Jewish community and should be listened to. They reach out to college-age Jews in the process of forming identities to present a simplistic picture of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, taking advantage of their idealism.”

Moreover, he added, the organization supports or has partnered with groups such as Sabeel, Electronic Intifada, Al-Awda, International ANSWER Coalition, the International Solidarity Movement and Students for Justice in Palestine, all of which label Israel a racist apartheid state, support BDS and, in some cases, support violence against Israelis.

 Jewish Voice for Peace refused to be interviewed for the J weekly, yet several active members of the organization have commented on the article, including Lincoln Shlensky, one of the co-founders of JVP, and  David L. Mandel, Sacramento coordinator for JVP.  David wrote  "Of course much of the factual descriptions of JVP’s activities are accurate; that’s not the point.", before launching into a tirade directed against the NGO watchdog.

David Mandel's admission regarding the accuracy of NGO monitor report (read the report in its entirety, here)  goes a long way in explaining JVP's  uncharacteristic silence on this damning exposure. When faced with incontrovertible evidence regarding the lack of transparency in their organization,  they issue not a ' mea culpa' nor an explanation, but  a childish "Nah Nah Nah.  I can't hear you"

It doesn't surprise me. JVP has been ignoring accuracy, truth and history since their inception.

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