JVP’s Funders: Promoting an Anti-Israel Narrative

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants every year from various funds and foundations for its purported mission of “peace and justice for all peoples of the Middle East.” However, in reality, JVP’s funding sources and fellow grant recipients reveal them to be part of a network that is aggressively one-sided and anti-Israel.

JVP claimed in its 5778 Annual Report that “84% of our funding comes from individual donors” and the average gift is $84. The report also claimed that as of June 2017, $2,921,196 came from “contributions, gifts & grants.” However, JVP also receives large amounts of funding from both private and public foundations.

JVP’s largest grant comes from the Schwab Charitable Fund, which gave JVP $244,600 in 2016. Schwab is “one of the largest national providers of donor-advised funds and other philanthropic services” and “facilitated more than $1.6 billion in grants to 71,000 charities in 2017.”

Noteworthy Schwab 2016 recipients included anti-Israel organizations CodePink, IfNotNow (INN), and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).

CodePink aggressively promotes BDS and has been criticized for maintaining close ties to the Hamas regime in Gaza.

INN is an anti-Israel organization whose actions demonize Israel, harass the American Jewish establishment and decrease support for Israel among young Jewish adults.

PCRF has been financially linked with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, Global Relief Foundation and the International [Islamic] Relief Organization — all of which were shut down by the United States government for funneling donations to terrorist organizations.

JVP’s second-largest grant comes from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), which gave JVP $140,000 in 2017 in order to “Advance just and durable peace.”

In 2014, RBF reportedly accelerated funding to a myriad of anti-Israel groups and organizations. Included are INN, Zochrot, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) and Breaking the Silence (BtS) with grants ranging from $20,000 to $120,000.

Zochrot is an Israeli organization that works “to promote Israeli Jewish society’s acknowledgment of and accountability for the ongoing injustices of the Nakba and reconceptualization of Return.”

BtS is a group of former Israeli soldiers who provide “testimonials” that aim “to generate opposition to the occupation through meaningful public debate on the significant moral price paid by Israeli society for entrenching the ongoing regime of occupation.” In 2016, BtS was discredited in a report revealing that a substantial number of BTS testimonies are untrue or distorted.

USPCR is a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations that lobby the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and end government support for Israel.

AFSC is an anti-Israel, Quaker organization that promotes the BDS movement.

Another JVP donor is the Firedoll Foundation, which listed JVP as one of their “current grantees,” as of October 2018. Firedoll last gave JVP $25,000 in 2015 and 2014. The Firedoll Foundation also lists the Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) as a current grantee. MECA supports BDS and often works with JVP.

In 2016 MECA and JVP promoted a BDS campaign urging musician Carlos Santana to cancel his concert in Israel, and MECA and JVP were two co-sponsors of Bassem Tamimi’s 2015 speaking tour.

Bassem Tamimi has exploited young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers. In 2011, he was jailed for organizing violent rallies and inciting minors to commit violent crimes such as rock-throwing.

Tamimi’s United States visa was revoked in 2015 after he encouraged third graders in Ithaca, New York to become “freedom fighters for Palestine.”

The Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) also lists JVP as a 2018 Grantee. Other anti-Israel organizations listed as FMEP’s 2018 Grantees are: BtS, INN, the New Israel Fund (NIF) and Yesh Din.

While JVP’s stated mission is “peace and justice for all,” it is hard to believe given their funding network consists of organizations that push such a biased and virulently anti-Israel agenda.