Alyosha Goldstein

Promoting Hatred of Israel

As of August 2020, Goldstein was a signatory to a petition titled: “Breaking the Law of Return,” a petition of “Jews from the United States” declaring their intention to “renounce this ‘right’ to ‘return’ offered to us by Israeli law.”

Signatories of the petition aligned themselves with the BDS movement, stating that “as part of this campaign, we pledge to boycott the ‘law of return.’ As an act of political and ideological divestment, we repudiate the claims the State of Israel makes on us as potential citizens.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. 

The petition went on to state: “We protest Israel’s colonial policies and discriminatory laws toward the Palestinian people, as well as the U.S. government’s political and financial support of these policies.”

On March 31, 2020, Goldstein tweeted: “Amid Coronavirus Fears, Israeli Warplanes, Artillery Attack Locations in Gaza” and included a link to a Palestine Chronicle article headlined with that text.

Goldstein’s tweet referred to an incident a few days earlier, when Gaza militants fired a rocket into Israel and Israel responded by attacking three Hamas military sites.

On October 5, 2017, Goldstein tweeted: “Setting the Stage to Commit a Massacre in Gaza - excerpt from book by Ilan Pappé” and included a link to the excerpt that alleged: “the militarization of Israeli policy towards Gaza leading up to the massacre of 2008-2009 known in Israel as Operation Cast Lead.”

Israel commenced Operation Cast Lead (OCL)in 2008-09 in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians. In 2010, Hamas admitted that nearly 700 of the Palestinian casualties in OCL were combatants.

On February 28, 2016, Goldstein promoted on Twitter an anti-Israel speech by Trinity College professor Vijay Prashad.

Prashad’s speech demonized [00:05:55] Israeli security personnel combatting deadly stabbing attacks during the “Knife Intifada” and suggested that controversial statements by then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon showed the “Israeli Occupation” was the root cause of the stabbings. Prashad went on [00:07:09] to whitewash the stabbing attacks as “resistance, whether directed [00:34:12] against military or civilian targets.”

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

Prashad continued to blame [00:30:20] Israel for the violence of the “Knife Intifada,” claiming that young Palestinians have no options because Israel has jailed their leaders including advocates of “non-violent resistance” like Marwan Barghouti.

On August 10, 2014, Goldstein tweeted out a Mondoweiss article by Robin D. G. Kelley, that called Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) a “massacre” and suggested that Israel waged an “illegal, genocidal war on the people of Gaza.”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Hamas fired over 4,564 missiles and rockets at Israeli population centers during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014.  

The article Goldstein tweeted said OPE was “state violence at warp speed” that targeted “children and adult civilians, hospitals, schools, shelters, markets, and neighborhoods.”

Throughout the summer of 2014 — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Hamas's deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged Gazans to act as human shields to frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. 

On July 18, 2014, Goldstein posted to Facebook a graphic that said: “STOP ISRAEL’S WAR CRIMES IN GAZA.”

Defending Anti-Israel Agitators

On December 1, 2018, Goldstein tweeted: “Stand with Marc Lamont Hill! The chair of @TempleUniv board of trustees has joined the Zionist smear campaign against professor @marclamonthill & wants to see him fired for speaking in solidarity with Palestine. #istandwithmarc #IStandWithMLH.” 

Goldstein also embedded a tweet in support of Hill from the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

 
On August 6, 2014, Goldstein tweeted a call to action in support of University of Illinois professor Steven Salaita, who had published a series of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel tweets.

Goldstein also signed a petition published by the BDS movement on August 21, 2014, and titled:“A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic.] the Contract to Hire Professor Steven Salaita.” 

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

On September 11, 2014, Goldstein tweeted: “Prof Salaita & His Attorneys Respond to UIUC Trustee Vote to Terminate His Tenured Position Over Gaza Tweets” and included a link to the statement.

Goldstein also signed a petition, published by Mondoweiss on November 13, 2015, which charged that Salaita “was illegally terminated in retaliation for his comments in connection with the Israeli war on Gaza, and that UIUC [University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign] officials’ decision to terminate Professor Salaita was motivated, at least in part, by pressure they received from large donors.”

Support for Anti-Israel Professors

On March 19, 2016, Goldstein tweeted: “Speaking of Palestine: Solidarity and Its Censors - by Jasbir Puar” and included a link to an article by anti-Israel professor Jasbir Puar.

Puar has penned dozens of anti-Israel articles and spoken against Israel across numerous forums. At a lecture at Vassar College in February 2016, Puar called for armed struggle against Israel.

She went on to demonize Israel, suggesting that Israelis harvest the organs of dead Palestinians. Puar also claimed that Israel was maiming and “stunting” Palestinians via food restrictions.

Puar also opined that the reason Israeli Jews have not killed Palestinians is “[t]hey need the Palestinians alive in order to keep the kind of rationalization for their victimhood and their militarized economy.

Goldstein signed a letter published on July 1, 2014, by “members of Jewish communities” to San Francisco State University (SFSU) President Leslie Wong, condemning actions taken against professor Rabab Abdulhadi and her anti-Israel activism on campus. 

The letter specifically defended actions by Abdulhadi, including leading a controversial “delegation to Palestine that highlighted the plain reality of Israeli occupation and settler-colonialism.”

Professor Rabab Abdulhadi has, since 2014, sought to cultivate alliances between SFSU and two Hamas-dominated Palestinian universities.

The letter signed by Goldstein also condemned pro-Israel organizations and activists, alleging that they had weaponized the term “anti-Semitism” in order to “to target Palestinian students and professors and their supporters.”

Goldstein also signed “An Open Letter from Native American and Indigenous Studies Scholars in defense of UCLA Professor David Shorter and other scholars who support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel,” published by Mondoweiss on April 30, 2012. 

Signatories of the letter, writing in support of anti-Israel professor, David Shorter, stated: “We strongly support Shorter’s academic freedom and support all scholarly efforts that enable critical analysis of every sort, including consideration of the Palestinian people’s resistance to Israeli occupation, settler colonialism, and apartheid.”

Shorter, an associate professor at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), was at the center of controversy after using this classroom to promote the BDS movement.

Supporting BDS

As of February 2020, Goldstein was a signatory to a list of endorsers of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). 

On January 30, 2018, Goldstein tweeted: “Laws Targeting Israel Boycotts Fail First Legal Test” and included a link to an article criticizing efforts against anti-BDS legislation.

On September 30, 2014, Goldstein tweeted: “Statement by Scholar Ann Laura Stoler Endorsing BDS against Israel” and included a link to an article with the same title.

The article Goldstein tweeted called Israel a “colonial” state, accused it of “past and ongoing illegal seizure of Palestinian land” and the “destruction of livelihoods, and efforts to destroy the social and family fabric.” Stoler stated that for these reasons she confirmed her “support for the BDS international boycott” against Israel.

On July 12, 2014, during OPE, Goldstein tweeted: “Urgent call from Gaza civil society: Act now!” and included a link to an Electronic Intifada article that called on “people all over the world to act, protest and intensify the boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israel until it ends this murderous attack on our people and is held to account.”

Goldstein also signed “An Open Letter on the Anti-Boycott Bills.” 

The letter, published on February 4, 2014, condemned anti-BDS legislation and, specifically efforts made in opposition to a BDS resolution proposed to the American Studies Association (ASA).