NGO Monitor report: Driving a Wedge: JVP’s Strategy to Weaken U.S. Support for Israel by Dividing the Jewish Community

In a speech given to Arab diplomats in Stockholm on January 30, 1996. Yasser Arafat revealed his true intentions: "We of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps..."  

Some of us have long believed that Jewish Voice for Peace is the result of that strategy.

From Jon at Divest this!

"You see, Jewish Voice for Peace (or JVP - an organization we have seen before) is committed first and foremost to being the Jewish face of the BDS movement. The trouble is, the Jewish Community (notably the Jewish Federations), in addition to running the Heroes campaign, have unanimously decided that BDS advocates are one of the few groups of people who have placed themselves outside of the “big tent.”

Now to most of us, the obvious answer is for JVP to continue to feel free to do what it wants (including advocating for BDS, for a cutoff of US aid to Israel, for interrupting Israelis at speaking events, and other things the wider community finds noxious) with an understand that in doing so they represent themselves and not the Jewish community as a whole. Ah, but you see JVP desperately wants to claim they represent more than a small minority. And thus they endlessly rail against Jewish organizations which they claim conspire to exclude them."

Who is JVP? Who are their allies? Who funds them?  Finally, these issues are addressed in an extensive report by NGO Monitor,  an organization that provides information and analysis, promotes accountability,  on non-governmental organizations claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas.

From NGO Monitor:  Driving a Wedge: JVP’s Strategy to Weaken U.S. Support for Israel by Dividing the Jewish Community

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a U.S.-based organization, which views itself as the “Jewish wing” of the Palestinian solidarity movement.  Though JVP regards the organized Jewish community as its “enemy” and “opponent,” it nonetheless demands a seat at the communal table.  The strategy, as stated by JVP’s executive director Rebecca Vilkomerson, is to create “a wedge” within the American Jewish community to generate the impression of polarization over Israel.  The tactic is to dilute support for Israel in the Jewish community, toward the goal of reducing or eliminating the United States government’s economic, military, and political support for Israel.

In this role, JVP has actively promoted the central dimensions of the political warfare strategy against Israel, which was adopted at the 2001 Durban NGO Forum.  This “Durban strategy” includes the tactics of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), a sustained campaign of demonization such as accusations of “apartheid” and “racism,” support for a Palestinian claim to a “right of return,” with the ultimate goal of dismantling Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.  To these ends, JVP promotes divestment campaigns on U.S. campuses, in mainline churches, and in corporate stockholder meetings by deploying the language of demonization and delegitimization.

JVP works closely with other organizations that promote the Durban strategy, such as Electronic Intifada, American Muslims for Palestine, Adalah-NY, Code Pink, Sabeel, International Solidarity Movement, and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (of which JVP is an official member).

JVP amplifies the radical anti-Israel agenda through its Rabbinical Council, a youth section called “Young, Jewish and Proud,” and activism within the LGBT community.  It also hosts the “Muzzlewatch” website, purporting to expose “McCarthyism” in the Jewish community.  Yet, JVP has engaged in the disruption of the programs of organizations with whom JVP disagrees.

JVP’s funding sources are not transparent.  Its website carries no information on its donors.  Limited financial information on JVP is only available through public IRS documents (990s) and databases, which report a total budget of $876, 529 for 2011. 

These sources reveal that JVP has received funding from an Arab-American foundation  that also supports Electronic Intifada (the Violet Jabara Charitable trust), the Firedoll Foundation, and the Wallace Global Fund, which all contribute to numerous anti-Israel groups.  

Please read the whole report at NGO Monitor

JVP signage ."Jewish community Israel Demeans Your Religion"  Taken in San Francisco by our friend Zombie