To JVP: This is what Palestinian "resistance " looks like

Adele Biton spent her third birthday in the hospital, yet another victim of  JVP-sanctioned "Palestinian resistance".  Her mother, Adva Biton, 40, and her two sisters, Avigail and Naama - ages four and five - sustained moderate injuries in this horrific crash, brought on by Palestinians throwing stones.

Palestinian "resistance" looks like this

Leave it to Jewish Voice for Peace to co-sponsor a talk by someone proud of this act of terror that left a toddler in the ICU fighting for her life  On Sunday, June 16, JVP and the American Friends Service Committee are co-sponsoring  Abir Kopty, who infamously tweeted  "We are all proud terrorists " following the  terror attack that left Adele hospitalized for nearly 3 months.

JVP Bay Area co-sponsored event:

“Overcoming Challenges to Resistance in Palestine” 

with Abir Kopty, activist on the front lines of popular protest movement in Occupied Palestine

Sunday, June 16th, 5 -7 pm

Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts

2868 Mission St San Francisco, C A 94110

Event is Free, Donations Welcomed

Abir Kopty is a feminist and political activist, born in Nazareth and  currently based in Ramallah. She is a former Nazareth City Councilwoman and today works as a media analyst and consultant, holding a Master's in Political Communication from the City University of London.

Abir Kopty is well known for being a key organizer of the Bab al-Shams protest village that garnered significant international attention earlier this year, a culminating moment of the weekly protests across the West Bank and East Jerusalem

JVP likes to pretend its all about the " Occupation", while they work side by side with those who deny Israel's right to exist within any borders.  

JVP is comfortably at home in their niche, aiding and abetting those who seek the elimination of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people and Jew-washing terror sympathizers.

Jewish Voice for Peace. Enabling Extremism and Intolerance

The surprises continue, according to the  latest email from Jewish Voice for Peace.  Or maybe not. Its not a surprise that JVP stands hand in hand with the most extremist anti-Israel groups out there, supporting their work, co-sponsoring their events and enabling a hate filled agenda geared to the destruction of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people

We've seen JVP  stand shoulder to shoulder with conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites for years.

Jewish Voice for Peace in San Francisco. Photo by Zombie

In this weeks mailing, JVP promotes an Al-Awda event, Jew-washing the some of the language and sanitizing it for their constituencies.   JVP apparently echoes Al-Awda's belief that Israel  is somehow "structurally unsteady, morally corrupt, and legally culpable" , and leaves in that statement, along with a call for eternal violence until Israel's destruction  "No Return = No Justice = No Peace!".  Their self-selected editing only goes so far.  Psst. Anyone want to tell "Jewish" Voice for peace that this event is scheduled for our holy festival of Shauvout?

From JVP's email:

Nakba Demonstration Los Angeles

Wednesday 5/15/2013 

No Return = No Justice = No Peace!
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 states, without any ambiguity whatsoever, that "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."

The Nakba ("Catastrophe" in Arabic) of 1948 refers to the planned ethnic cleansing of Palestine when the vast majority of Palestinians were violently attacked, massacred and driven from their homes, lands and villages into refugee camps by Zionist terror groups; and never allowed to return in violation of international law. This is the foundation upon which "Israel" was established and upon which its existence is built.  And it is why Israel remains structurally unsteady, morally corrupt, and legally culpable.

Please join Al-Awda's Chapters in Southern California and Palestinian Solidarity activists of Los Angles as they mark the 65th year of Al-Nakba:

Location: Israeli Consulate, 11766 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025
Date: Wednesday 5/15/2012

Time: 4:00 pm-7:00 pm

Until Return

For organizational co-sponsorship and further information, contact:
mazenalmoukdad@hotmail.com

Here's the original event alert from Al-Awda

Zahi Damuni

Nakba Demonstration Los Angeles: Wednesday 5/15/2013 

No Return = No Justice = No Peace!

Of all Zionist war crimes, none was as massive as that committed in the 1948 era with the wholesale expulsion of the Palestinian Arab people from their homes, towns and villages, as part of a calculated plan to uproot an entire population and empty the land of its indigenous inhabitants.

The Nakba ("Catastrophe" in Arabic) of 1948 refers to this planned ethnic cleansing when the vast majority of Palestinians were ruthlessly attacked, massacred and driven from their homes into refugee camps by Zionist terror groups, and never allowed to return in violation of international law. This is the foundation upon which "Israel" was established and upon which its entire existence is built and remains structurally unsteady, morally corrupt, and legally culpable.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 states, without any ambiguity whatsoever, that "Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive."

Please join Al-Awda's Chapters in Southern California as we mark the 65th year of Al-Nakba:

Location: Zionist Consulate, 11766 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90025

Date: Wednesday 5/15/2012

Time: 4:00 pm-7:00 pm

Until Return

For organizational co-sponsorship and further information, contact:

mazenalmoukdad@hotmail.com

****************

Enabling the worst anti-Semitism, promoting endless violence, intolerance and the destruction of Israel.  JVP needs a reminder that these are not Jewish values.

JVP BDS Boot Camp Offers Ramadan Accommodations, but not kosher meals

Jewish Voice for Peace is offering Ramadan meal accommodations in their BDS boot camp.  How sensitive of them. However, I couldn't help but notice that a kosher alternative isn't being offered. Presumably, this is because the organizers know their target audience. After all,  Paul Larudee, the son of a Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary wife is a proud member of JVP.

JVP.  "Jewish" optional.  "Peace" optional.

Of the Jewish figureheads who provide the public face of JVP:  Is there any part of their Judaism they happily embrace, or are their Jewish genetics simply taken out of cold storage when needed to provide cover for Israel bashing?

This phenomenon has been referred to as "Jew-washing"

From “On Jew-Washing” and BDS", written by Yitzhak Santis and Gerald M. Steinberg

...Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is far from the Jewish mainstream. It is a fringe of a fringe – a small anti-Zionist group, whose finances are unclear, but are almost always found at events where Jew-washing is used, particularly when boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns (BDS) are at stake. Their motivations, like their financing, are unclear and irrelevant – the fact that they provide a useful cover for non-Jews to justify gratuitous Israel-bashing is what counts.

JVP Summer camp

If your idea of an idyllic summer camp experience is playing guitar around a campfire, making lanyards and sleeping under the stars,  JVP BDS boot camp is not going to be your first choice.  But  if you're looking for self-congratulatory affirmations of personal and collective victim hood  and self righteous indignation, JVP BDS boot camp might be a good match.  Hurry. The application is due on Monday.

AIPAC attracts Over 13,000 to 2013 Conference

Today is the opening day of AIPAC's National Policy Conference in Washington DC.  There are well over 13,000 people attending from all aspects of American life -Democrats and Republicans, activists and academics.  Its a widely diverse and multi- generational group.  They are all united by their love of Israel, and their desire for a strong American/ Israel relationship that transcends conventional political divides

Student Check-in line at AIPAC 2013

 
Whats an anti-Israel activists to do, when faced with such a huge collective display of support for the Zionist entity?  Code Pink did what Code Pink always does. 

 Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)had a diiferent strategy.  JVP has bought ad space in the Washington metro, and issued press releases. This was printed in the Palestinian News and Info Agency website ( http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=21796) ,  WAFA being on the rather short list of media that might take JVP's claims seriously.

 American Jewish groups will unveil on Sunday 100 billboard ads in the Washington Metro that say: “AIPAC Does Not Speak for Me,” according to a statement by the groups, Jewish Voice for Peace and Avaaz. The ads, it said, highlight “the gap between AIPAC’s (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), peace-killing policy positions and most Jewish Americans.”

The billboard ads that will appear in major subway stations across downtown Washington, DC, showcase the faces of Jewish Americans saying boldly: 'AIPAC does not speak for me. Most Jewish Americans are pro-peace. AIPAC is not.”

The ad campaign coincides with the annual AIPAC policy conference and “is designed to challenge the lobbying group’s influence on US foreign policy in the Middle East,” said the statement.

Rebecca Vilkomerson, executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, said: “AIPAC is the NRA (pro-guns National Rifle Association) of foreign policy lobbies, pushing a right-wing agenda that does not represent the majority of Jewish Americans: Its support for military build-up and endless settlement expansion makes peace impossible. It cannot claim to speak for all American Jews.”

Hundreds of lawmakers and Vice President Joe Biden are expected to attend AIPAC’s annual gala this week.

 JVP has long given up any pretense of being a  Jewish organization.. In their Mission Statement they say they are "inspired by Jewish tradition".  Jewish Voice for Peace counts among its members Paul Larudee and Deppen Webber, local organizers of the "Global March to Jerusalem", an assault Israel's sovereignty motivated by a desire to prevent the "Judaization of Jerusalem."  And yet Jewish voice for peace has the audacity to claim they speak for the Jewish people?

The JVP annual conference will be held in Berkeley next month- in a hotel with just over 300 rooms (as of this week, there were still plenty of vacancies). When 13,000 people fly thousands of miles to stand in line for a JVP conference, maybe JVP can claim to speak to be anything other than a fringe group, whose sole reason for existence is to "Jew-wash"  the demonization of Israel.   That day isn't coming any time soon.

Anti-Israel Rabbis for Obama

Ok, Mike L. - this one's for you.

Seven members of the Rabbinical Council of the extremist anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace have endorsed the candidacy of Pres. Barack Obama and have appeared on his Rabbis for Obama list

Does Obama really want the endorsement of these seven?

•Rabbi Chava Bahle, Suttons Bay, MI
•Rabbi Rachel Evelyne Barenblat, Lanesboro, MA
•Rabbi Haim Beliak, Los Angeles, CA
•Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Berkeley, CA
•Rabbi Linda Holtzman, Philadelphia, PA
•Rabbi Rebecca Lillian, Chicago, IL
•Rabbi Brant Rosen, Evanston, IL

JVP is at the forefront of the boycott, sanctions and divestment campaign, and is currently targeting financial services giant TIAA-CREF. They have also been spearheading a drive to have a report on campus anti-Semitism issued by the UC Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion tabled. JVP is a member of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, which calls for a halt to all US aid to Israel. Locally, JVP stands side by side with the worst haters in the community and pickets our annual Jewish Community Celebration.

Yitzak Santis and Gerald Steinberg from NGO Monitor , label this activity “Jew-washing” , providing a Jewish cover for the isolation and demonization of Israel.

From their article: On ‘Jew-Washing’ And BDS.

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is far from the Jewish mainstream. It is a fringe of a fringe – a small anti-Zionist group, whose finances are unclear, but are almost always found at events where Jew-washing is used, particularly when boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns (BDS) are at stake. Their motivations, like their financing, are unclear and irrelevant – the fact that they provide a useful cover for non-Jews to justify gratuitous Israel-bashing is what counts.

Pres. Obama, at AIPAC, not that long ago, you stated "When there are efforts to boycott or divest from Israel, we will stand against them. And whenever an effort is made to delegitimize the state of Israel, my administration has opposed them.". Stand by your words. Reject the endorsements of those that would just as soon see Israel destroyed.

Romney Camp Slights JVP

Poor ignored JVP must be feeling particularly self-righteous now. The "As a Jew" cru at Jewish Voice for Peace found themselves ignored at the door of the Boston headquarters of Mitt Romney when they attempted to deliver a petition, critical of Romney.

From the JVP email promoting their petition:

Romney declared that "cultural differences" were the reason the Palestinian economy is not doing as well as Israel's, without even acknowledging the Occupation.

Perhaps (gasp) JVP has a point, and the role of the "occupation" should be acknowledged.

What was life like for the Palestinians under Israel's "occupation"? From Efraim Karsh:

The larger part, still untold in all its detail, is of the astounding social and economic progress made by the Palestinian Arabs under Israeli "oppression." At the inception of the occupation, conditions in the territories were quite dire. Life expectancy was low; malnutrition, infectious diseases, and child mortality were rife; and the level of education was very poor. Prior to the 1967 war, fewer than 60 percent of all male adults had been employed, with unemployment among refugees running as high as 83 percent. Within a brief period after the war, Israeli occupation had led to dramatic improvements in general well-being, placing the population of the territories ahead of most of their Arab neighbors.
In the economic sphere, most of this progress was the result of access to the far larger and more advanced Israeli economy: the number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35 percent of the employed population of the West Bank and 45 percent in Gaza. Close to 2,000 industrial plants, employing almost half of the work force, were established in the territories under Israeli rule.

During the 1970's, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world -- ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself. Although GNP per capita grew somewhat more slowly, the rate was still high by international standards, with per-capita GNP expanding tenfold between 1968 and 1991 from $165 to $1,715 (compared with Jordan's $1,050, Egypt's $600, Turkey's $1,630, and Tunisia's $1,440). By 1999, Palestinian per-capita income was nearly double Syria's, more than four times Yemen's, and 10 percent higher than Jordan's (one of the better off Arab states). Only the oil-rich Gulf states and Lebanon were more affluent.

But JVP, the near miraculous economic growth of the territories is only part of the story. Efraim Karsh continues (please read the full article here)

No less remarkable were advances in the Palestinians' standard of living. By 1986, 92.8 percent of the population in the West Bank and Gaza had electricity around the clock, as compared to 20.5 percent in 1967; 85 percent had running water in dwellings, as compared to 16 percent in 1967; 83.5 percent had electric or gas ranges for cooking, as compared to 4 percent in 1967; and so on for refrigerators, televisions, and cars.

Finally, and perhaps most strikingly, during the two decades preceding the intifada of the late 1980's, the number of schoolchildren in the territories grew by 102 percent, and the number of classes by 99 percent, though the population itself had grown by only 28 percent. Even more dramatic was the progress in higher education. At the time of the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, not a single university existed in these territories. By the early 1990's, there were seven such institutions, boasting some 16,500 students. Illiteracy rates dropped to 14 percent of adults over age 15, compared with 69 percent in Morocco, 61 percent in Egypt, 45 percent in Tunisia, and 44 percent in Syria

.


Why did the Romney camp chose to ignore JVP? Maybe, just maybe, their reputation for providing cover for the worst anti-Semites in the neighborhood has finally caught up with them.


"Occupation" is simply a weak and long discredited straw man - the "activists" that JVP provides cover for are not willing to accept the existence of a Jewish state within any borders.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network: Beyond Chutzpah

Like many anti-Israel groups the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network is little more than a website and an email list, providing anonymity and a "Jewish" cover to their actual financiers and handlers. In the case of the IJAN, their primary purpose appears to be "Jew-washing" events that cross the line into anti-Semitism. Yes, as hard to imagine as it might be- there are events that even Jewish voice for Peace won't touch. Locally, the IJAN works closely with the Arab Resource Organizing Center and uses their facilities to host events. The IJAN has co-sponsored a talk accusing Israel of deliberately irradiating Mizrachi refugees. They have hosted notorious anti-Semite and Global march to Jerusalem organizer Feroze Mithaborwala. Most recently the IJAN recently paraded Hajo Meyer, a long time anti-Israel activist and Holocaust survivor on a widely discredited 12 city tour "Never again is for Everyone"

Hajo Meyer carries the endorsement of ex-KKK leader David Duke, and Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley faculty member with a lengthy resume of anti-Israel activities. At the IJAN sponsored tour at Rutgers University New Jersey, event organizers led by Sara Kershnar (Shown below, shortly before her arrest for interrupting a talk at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center) suddenly instituted an admission fee (in violation of university policy) to discourage Jewish pro-Israel students from entering the event.



At the IJAN "Never again" talk at DePaul University in Chicago , attendees reported:

"The organizers created an intimidating atmosphere. One attendee likened it to a Ku Klux Klan rally. No audience members were allowed to record, film, or photograph the speakers. Members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which sponsored the event, patrolled the aisles looking for “contraband” recording devices. This created a tense atmosphere, which one audience member described as fascist."

"The speakers vilified current peace efforts and praised the terrorist group Hamas. They repeatedly attacked the moderate Palestinian Authority for “collaborating” with Israel by engaging in peace talks and extolled Hamas as “the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people." They attacked Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, with Bazian claiming that the treaties were simply an Israeli plot to “extend its strategic borders all the way up to Iraq.”"

"Hajo Meyer made the Nazi-Israeli equation more explicit. Exploiting his status as a Holocaust survivor, he compared IDF soldiers to Auschwitz guards. He denigrated Jews and Judaism. “The Jewish people are not a civilization,” he charged. The only religion that pro-Israel Jews share is the Holocaust religion. . . . They cannot claim they are Jewish, so therefore they had to invent the Holocaust religion, that is, with its high priest Elie Wiesel,” he said.

From the ADL:
"The tour is the latest effort by anti-Israel activists to exploit the sacred memory of the Holocaust for the purpose of painting its victim, the Jewish people, as the "new" oppressor in the form of Israel. Anti-Israel activists have regularly used Holocaust language to demonize and vilify Israel, including referring to Israeli soldiers as Nazis and comparing Israel's blockade of Gaza to a "concentration camp" or "ghetto."

Exploiting the holocaust? Why would anything from the IJAN surprise us?

From their website:

We pledge to: Oppose Zionism and the State of Israel

Zionism is racist. It demands political, legal and economic power for Jews and European people and cultures over indigenous people and cultures. Zionism is not just racist but anti-Semitic. It endorses the sexist European anti-Semitic imagery of the effeminate and weak “diaspora Jew” and counters it with a violent and militarist “new Jew,” one who is a perpetrator rather than a victim of racialized violence. Zionism thus seeks to make Jews white through the adopting of white racism against Palestinian people…

And now in an act of staggering and mind-blowing hubris, those nefarious holocaust exploiters at the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network, are, wait for it... accusing The Horowitz Freedom center of exploiting the Holocaust.

The story:

The David Horowitz Freedom Center paid for a full page advertisement in the New York Times on April 24 of this year



The ad begins:

"The Holocaust began with Boycotts of Jewish stores and ended with death camps. The calls for a new Holocaust can be heard throughout the Middle east and in Europe as well. In the wake of the murders of a rabbi and three Jewish children in Toulouse, it is time for supporters of the boycott, divestment and Sanction Israel Movement (BDS) to ask themselves what they did to contribute to the atmosphere of hate that spawned these and the murder of Jews"

And the IJAN responds (accompanied by a ubiquitous petition and request for money):
Take Action against Slander and Misuse of the Nazi Holocaust

"On April 24th, the New York Times published a dangerous and slanderous ad paid for by the David Horowitz Freedom Foundation. The ad invokes the Nazi holocaust in order to attack supporters of BDS including several professors (see William Thompson’s powerful response here). It is incumbent upon Jews of conscience and others who share our commitment to justice to speak out in defense of those who bravely promote justice for Palestinians and against the egregious misuse of the legacy of the holocaust."

The IJAN - a group that paraded a decrepit anti-Israel activist though 12 cities to exploit his status as a holocaust survivor is complaining about the "misuse of the Holocaust" It is, to paraphrase Norman Finklestein "Beyond Chutzpah"