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Jewish Voice for Peace Increases Anti-Israel Radicalism
I
n recent months, Jewish
Voice for Peace, the largest
and most influential Jewish
pro-BDS group in the United
States, has taken increas-
ingly radical positions and has
employed questionable tactics
in pursuit of its mission to
diminish support for Israel. The
following are some of ADL’s
main concerns with the group’s
ideology and tactics.
HARASSING LGBTQ GROUPS
One of JVP’s longtime tactics
has been to allege that Israel’s
proud record of support for
LGBTQ rights is merely a way of
directing attention away from
its mistreatment of Palestinians.
Recently JVP has taken this
tactic to the next level, target-
ing a pro-Israel LGBTQ youth
group with harassment at the
Celebrate Israel Parade in NYC
on June 4. According to reports,
JVP members disrupted the
LGBTQ contingent, cutting
their microphones and blocking
them from marching. JVP also
supported the expulsion of the
Jewish group, A Wider Bridge,
from the Chicago Dyke March
on the grounds that they carried
rainbow flags that resembled
Israeli flags, stating after the
incident that Zionism is the
equivalent of supporting “racism
and violence.”
SHUTTING DOWN DIALOGUE
Although JVP pays lip service
to the importance of dialogue
and discussion of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict, in practice,
JVP members have shouted
down and interrupted campus
speeches by guests whom they
consider too Zionist.
CELEBRATING PALESTINIANS
CONVICTED OF TERRORISM
In its zeal to condemn Israel at
every opportunity, JVP has cel-
ebrated figures who have been
convicted of engaging in terror-
ism, including Rasmea Odeh
and Marwan Barghouti.
JVP feted Odeh at its 2017
conference, describing her as “a
feminist leader … [who has] sur-
vived decades of Israeli and U.S.
government persecution and
oppression.” In fact, Odeh was
sentenced to life in prison by
an Israeli military court in 1970
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for her membership in an illegal
terrorist organization and for
planting the explosives used in
two 1969 Jerusalem bombings.
On June 2, JVP ran a paid
advertisement in the Jewish
newspaper The Forward, which
featured an extended quote
from Barghouti alleging that
Israel has purposely inflicted
suffering on Palestinians who
are incarcerated in Israeli pris-
ons. Bizarrely, JVP described
Barghouti as the leader of a
Palestinian prisoner hunger
strike, omitting the fact that he
is a terrorist convicted of mur-
dering five Israelis.
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UNDERMINING U.S.-ISRAEL
SECURITY COOPERATION
JVP has ramped up efforts to
break longstanding programs
that allow members of the U.S.
and Israeli police and defense
communities to train together
and share best practices for
fighting terrorism. Under
the project name “Deadly
Exchange,” JVP asserts that joint
training and exchange programs
are responsible for rising levels
of police brutality and racism
against minorities in the U.S.
because the American law
enforcement are inculcated with
disrespect for minorities and a
cavalier attitude toward violence
by their Israeli counterparts.
A recent promotional video
from JVP implicitly blames U.S.
Jewish organizations, who run
many of the exchange programs,
for rising levels of racism and
violence in the U.S. The video
demonizes both Israelis and
American Jews and blames
them for some of the worst
problems in society.
Israel has strengths and
weaknesses, things to teach
and things to learn, like any
country in the world. It is per-
fectly legitimate to criticize
Israeli policies. But JVP’s single-
minded desire to paint Israel as
a source of racism and violence
has led it far beyond legitimate
criticism of Israel. JVP has also
turned on American Jews who
are not deemed supportive
enough of JVP’s agenda.
JVP has always used its sta-
tus as a Jewish organization to
shield it and other anti-Israel
groups from criticism and to
impart a veneer of legitimacy to
the BDS movement. Over time,
it became more confrontational,
protesting and disrupting office
buildings belonging to U.S.
Jewish institutions and organi-
zations.
Now JVP has set itself outside
even the broadest conception
of American Jewry’s big tent,
attacking the liberal bona fides
of pro-Zionist American Jews
and using language to describe
American Jewish organizations
that veers uncomfortably close
to age-old anti-Semitic canards
about Jews using their influence
to undermine the societies of
countries in which they live. •
For additional ADL research on Jewish
Voice for Pea ce, visit adl.org.
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