#Students with DU chapter of #JewishVoiceForPeace speak on DU’s “failure to consider the entire student body, only prioritizing the voices of the #Zionist sect of #Judaism on campus” & how #JewishStudents who support the encampment are “continually being overlooked & misrepresented by upper administration & peers,” according to the encampment’s media representatives.
Jewish Voice for Peace Criticizes Biden’s Antisemitism Speech at U.S. Holocaust Museum (Democracy Now!, 2024-05-08)
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“The group Jewish Voice for Peace criticized Biden’s speech, saying he «disgraced the memory of the Holocaust by using our history of persecution to justify the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians.»”
Naomi Klein: Jews Must Raise Their Voices for Palestine, Oppose the “False Idol of Zionism” (Democracy Now!, 2024-04-24)
Zionism as another golden calf. A strong message from Naomi Klein.
(Video with transcript)
"Thousands of Jewish Americans and allies gathered in Brooklyn on Tuesday for a «Seder in the Streets to Stop Arming Israel» on the second night of Passover..."
"What I want to say to you this evening at this revolutionary and historic Seder in the Streets is that too many of our people are worshiping a false idol once again... And that false idol is called Zionism."
"Gathered around a banner emblazoned with the words «stop arming Israel,» thousands of protesters joined with Jewish-led peace groups in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday evening to attend a Passover protest that recalls the «Freedom Seder» held in the tumultuous year of 1969."
"The event was organized by the left-leaning Jewish Voices for Peace and the If Not Now movement, who said they saw the Seder protests as part of Jewish tradition that they traced back to Rabbi Arthur Waskow, who held the first Freedom Seder."
"Hundreds of protesters were reported arrested while blocking the streets of Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza."
Statement on Columbia University’s discriminatory and repressive treatment of Jewish students (Jewish Voice for Peace, 2024-04-22)
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“… in shutting down public protest and suspending students, the actions of the University of #Columbia are not ensuring safety for Jewish students — or any students — on campus.”
“Yesterday’s statement by the White House, like the administrators of Columbia University, dangerously and inaccurately presumes that all Jewish students support the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians. This assumption is actively harming Palestinian and Jewish students.
The administration has not only harassed Jewish students and failed to ensure their safety and well-being, it has also obstructed their religious observances during Shabbat and prevented them from accessing their Jewish community on the eve of Passover…”
Jewish Voice for Peace‘s call for action - Tell Congress: Stop funding the Israeli military.
“While Biden continues his support for Israel's genocide, broader political support for U.S. complicity in these atrocities is cracking and buckling under the pressure of our movements. More and more Senators and Representatives are starting to call for accountability. We need action now. Call your members of Congress and demand an end to the flow of U.S. military funding and weapons to Israel.”
"Schnoll explained to Bollag that, in the wake of the October 7 attack on Israel and subsequent war on the Gaza Strip, there had been a policy change, and donors were no longer allowed to support JVP."
Protesters hold hands locked together during a Jewish Voice for Peace rally for a ceasefire in Gaza on November 3, 2023, in Seattle, US [File: Lindsey Wasson/AP Photo]
Jewish Voice for Peace – A Sinister Extension of the Zionist Occupation Regime
Since May 2021 and The Unity Uprising, the public eye has majorly shifted towards the Palestinian cause with pro-Palestinian organizations taking the spotlight. Among the multitude of NGOs that managed to spearhead the narrative, Jewish Voice for Peace maintained a prominent and consistent leading position throughout. It still does. Perhaps it’s time to take a deeper look into JVP’s loyalties, code of conduct and purpose. Does it abide by the Thawabet (principles)?
What Is Jewish Voice for Peace?
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a zionist-funded and facilitated organization with a knack for furthering dubious sentiments and uplifting zionist voices. It was founded by UC Berkeley students Julia Caplan, Rachel Eisner, and Julie Iny in 1996 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Since its initiation JVP has nurtured and sustained policies, ideologies, and objectives that wholly support the fascist colonial state of “israel” and its continued imperialist existence on indigenous Palestinian land.
In particular, JVP’s role has been to “normalize” the existence of israel while simultaneously reducing the Palestinian struggle for National Liberation to an abstract “human rights” based campaign that poses no threat to the zionist entity.
The author collective (bc at the end of the essay quoted above reads "We at Al Thawabet...") states their 'Mission' as follows:
What is Our Mission?
To fulfil the vision of every Palestinian martyr, pick up where they left off and continue the plight towards a free Palestine. Liberation will be achieved only when the land is cleansed of every single settler alongside the traitors and the spies. We operate to undo the workings of the settler colony that’s built on lies and bolstered by pretentious sentiments of bravery and legitimacy.
I believe the Satmars and Chabad both did this with Neturei Karta.
Obviously, this is a 'not-to-be-taken-seriously' proposal from a typically over the top media/policy personality. But the overt declarations of ostracism he includes probably will play out somewhat in the real world, at least socially, in terms of shul and holidays.
Which creates lots of problems. The more isolated and ostracized the #Jewish community makes them, the less the connection they'll have to the Jewish community and the weirder shit will get over time. We create pariahs at our own risk.
And even as I say that, I couldn't possibly see myself chatting over kiddush or hosting them at my seder. 🤷♂️
Rabbi David Mivasair mivasair reminds people that there are many Jewish people in Canada, the US and elsewhere around the world who are doing everything they can to support and help Palestinians.
"Connect with us, we'll do this together. We've got to!"
There is an important distinction to be made in the US between #antisemitism and #anti-Palestinian actions. Antisemitism is universally condemned--even if if we can't agree on what it is in many cases-- but anti-Palestinian repression is an official doctrine in much of the US, from bans on advocacy of #BDS, to punishment of faculty, to the shutting down of #SJP and #jewishVoiceforPeace on campuses.
#CeasefireNow! There were hundreds of thousands of us across the US marching for Gaza today, with estimates of 25-50k in #SanFrancisco alone.
There were so many more Jewish people, parents with kids, and high school aged teenagers than I’ve seen at any Palestine solidarity protest before.
Across opinions and identities, one idea came through loud and clear: our deep collective disappointment with the Biden administration. We expected better.
“Yesterday, hundreds of Jews and allies took over the Statue of Liberty…Hundreds of us — young people and elders, rabbis, descendants of Holocaust survivors, elected officials…carried banners that read 'The world is watching', 'Palestinians should be free', and 'Never again for anyone.'”