Ben Lorber
Overview
Ben Lorber [Benjamin Jared Lorber] has promoted anti-Semitism, supported terrorists, defended a violent agitator and demonized Israel and Zionism.Lorber is the campus coordinator for the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and has been a leading promoter of the #returnthebirthright campaign, launched by JVP against the Birthright Jewish heritage tour.
An active organizer for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, Lorber has disrupted a counter-BDS synagogue event, tokenized anti-Zionist Jews to denounce Israel and spread anti-Zionist propaganda.
Lorber attended the 2017 National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) conference. NSJP 2017 was held October 27-29, 2017 at the University of Houston (UH). The conference was themed “A Reimagined World: Dismantling Walls from Palestine to the Rio Grande.” Per the 2017 National SJP Conference website, the conference aimed to strengthen “collaborative efforts within all regions to pass BDS” and envision “pathways to achieving sanctions in the future.”
According to his LinkedIn page as of September 26, 2017, Lorber worked with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) as an “activist” from July to December of 2011. Lorber stated that he worked in the West Bank and used his “status as an international observer to strategically disrupt the Israeli occupation and stand in solidarity with Palestinian popular resistance.”
Lorber is also affiliated with IfNotNow (INN), an organization that has demonized Israel and seeks to drive a wedge between American Jewry and Israel.
Lorber has worked as a journalist in the West bank and East Jerusalem, publishing articles in various anti-Israel and occasionally anti-Semitic publications like: Mondoweiss, +972mag, Electronic Intifada, Palestine Chronicle and more.
As of December 2017, Lorber’s Linkedin page lists him as a 2013 graduate of CUNY Murphy Institute for Labor studies, where he received a graduate certificate in Labor Studies. He is also a 2010 graduate of Bard College (Bard), where he majored in Politics.
Promoting Anti-Semitism
In a July 2012 article, titled “Israel’s environmental colonialism and eco-apartheid,” Lorber resurrected a notorious medieval anti-Semitic blood libel — accusing Israel of “polluting the Palestinian earth and water supply” and claiming that “settlers” “deliberately poison the water, land and livestock of nearby Palestinian villages.”Lorber went on to demonize the Jewish National Fund (JNF) because, among other things, it “bought large tracts of land from absentee landowners.”
In a September 22, 2011 blog post, Lorber condemned Jews living in the ancient Judean city of Hebron and reported on a Palestinian protest — designed for the media — that called for Hebron’s Shuhada Street to be renamed “Apartheid Street.”
Shuhada Street — also known as King David Street — is the main road leading to the Tomb of the Patriarchs. Parts of the street were closed to Palestinians due to the violence of the second intifada.
In a September 5, 2011 blog post, Lorber blamed the “settlers” in Hebron for Arab hostility towards them, saying, “they are hated here because they bring an occupation that chokes the life of the city, and they are a symbol of a larger occupation that has choked the life of all Palestine.”
In the same post, Lorber conjured classical anti-Semitic images of Jews worshipping money, when he mentioned telling an Israeli soldier he was American. Lorber wrote: “His tone becomes the slightest bit nicer when he hears the holy name of Israel’s daddy-with-the-checkbook.”
Supporting Terrorists
Lorber has numerous tweets describing his strong support for terrorist Rasmea Odeh.Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated her as the mastermind.
In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.
On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud was stripped of her U.S. citizenship and ordered deported to Jordan.
On September 18, 2012, Lorber expressed solidarity with Zakaria Zubeidi — whom he referred to as a “freedom fighter.”
Zubeidi was a bomb-maker with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, designated a terrorist organization by both the United States and the European Union. On July 11, 2004, Zubeidi claimed responsibility for an Tel Aviv bus bombing attack, which he praised as an “excellent heroic act.”
When Zubeidi was held in a Palestinian Authority prison in 2012, Lorber signed a petition for his release and wrote on Facebook: “As a Jewish activist I stand in solidarity with freedom fighters… I urge the immediate release of Zubeidi.”
Defending Violent Agitator
On September 9, 2017, Lorber tweeted support for violent agitator Issa Amro: “.@Issaamro leads his community with love, & faces evil of occupation w/power of nonviolent resistance. He should be free. #StandWithIssa.”Amro — the head of Youth Against Settlements — is known for vandalism and attacking Israeli soldiers. Amro was charged with numerous acts of violence against Israeli civilians and security forces.
Demonizing Israel and Zionism
On July 7, 2014, Lorber addressed an anti-Israel demonstration, condemning Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE).Israel commenced OPEin July 2014 in order to destroy Hamas attack tunnels and stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians.
Lorber accused Israel of “racism,” “apartheid,” “colonialism” and “strengthening U.S. Imperialism.” He also implied that the Israeli government engaged in vengeance, rather than self defense, shouting: “As Jews we say... ‘No More!’ to Netanyahu’s calls for revenge; we say ‘No More!’ to the cold-hearted murder of Palestinian youth.”
On August 29, 2017, Lorber tweeted that he: “ hope[s] the next hundred years have something better in store for our people than Zionism.”
Lorber’s tweet also featured a comic of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl accusing Israel of allying itself with movements “whose ultimate objective is the eradication of the world’s Jews!”
In an August 29, 2011 blog post, Lorber demonized Jews for returning to their ancestral homeland and condemned Zionism as an “oppressor” for what he called “imperialism” and “its process of colonization and displacement of the 1000-year native Palestinian population.”
He also referred to the ancient Jewish presence in the Land of Israel as “a dead letter.”
Vilifying Birthright
Lorber has tweeted and retweeted support for the #returnthebirthright campaign launched by JVP on multiple occasions.On April 21, 2016, Lorber tweeted: “'Whose Birthright?'- new zine from Tufts @jvplive students shows how free trips brainwash Jews & erase Palestinians.”
The tweet linked to a publication, titled “Whose Birthright?” published by the then programming coordinator for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Tufts University (Tufts), Sophia Goodfriend.
The publication undermined the millennia-long Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, including ancient Jewish religious sites like the Western Wall in Jerusalem (pages 9 and 15). Goodfriend claimed that Jews were “creating their own origin stories, or claims to nativism” (page 18). She also claimed that Israel was established on “expropriated land” and that Israel continues to “evict, incarcerate or kill millions of Palestinians” (page 2).
On September 2, 2017, Lorber tweeted support for the #returnthebirthright campaign launched by JVP on Twitter.
Lorber tweeted: “Jewish students & young Jews #returnthebirthright! No @birthright for us while Palestinians can't return. @jvplive.”
On September 4, 2017, Lorber shared a #Return the Birthright graphic on Facebook and urged: “Take the pledge to boycott Birthright! www.jvp.org/returnthebirthright.”
Lorber was also interviewed in a September 2, 2017 Haaretz article, stating “By taking this trip, you are becoming complicit in Birthright’s public relations work and you are part of a trip that isn’t available to Palestinians.”
Return the Birthright Campaign
In September of 2017, JVP issued its #ReturntheBirthright campaign manifesto, calling on American Jews to boycott the Birthright Israel (Birthright) program. Birthright was founded by Jewish philanthropists “in 1999 to address the growing divide between young Diaspora Jewish adults and the land and people of Israel.”After decades of demographic decline in the American Jewish community, Birthright set out “to strengthen Jewish identity, build a lasting bond with the land and people of Israel, and reinforce the solidarity of Jewish people worldwide.” The program offers “the gift of a life-changing, 10-day trip to Israel to young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 26.”
JVP’s anti-Birthright campaign was launched precisely to coincide with “the very moment that college students across America are returning to campus and registration for Birthright winter visits are underway.”
The #returnthebirthright manifesto accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and alleged “the modern state of Israel is predicated on the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.”
The text claimed: “We reject the offer of a free trip to a state that does not represent us, a trip that is only ‘free’ because it has been paid for by the dispossession of Palestinians.”
The manifesto concluded: “And as we reject this, we commit to promoting the right to return of Palestinian refugees… Israel is not our Birthright… Return the Birthright.”
On June 22, 2017, just prior to the launch of JVP’s #returnthebirthright campaign, JVP received a $140,00 two-year grant for general support for its operations from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).
Since 2015, JVP has received $280,000 from RBF, which has a history of supporting anti-Jewish causes, including BDS campaigns and various organizations that promote BDS campaigns throughout the United States.
Pushing BDS
On March 9, 2016, Lorber tweeted: “I organize Jewish college students to support BDS & Palestine- can't wait to work w/u!”On March 3, 2016, Lorber reportedly participated with JVP Chicago Organizer Michael Deheeger and other JVP members in disrupting a counter-BDS event at Northbrook Synagogue.
Tokenizing Anti-Zionist Jews
On July 29, 2014, Lorber promoted on Facebook an article that called for a “new Jewish identity” that excluding Zionism.Lorber is also a strong proponent of the fringe, anti-Zionist Neturei Karta group.
On August 22, 2011 Lorber posted an article on his blog that he penned about the group entitled, “Neturei Karta and the Revolutionary Intelligentsia.”
On November 28, 2011, Lorber conducted an interview with Rabbi Meir Hirsch of the group for the anti-Israel Mondoweiss blog-site.
The leader of Neturei Karta, Yisroel Dovid Weiss, has attended a Holocaust denial conference and has been excommunicated from many mainstream Jewish groups.
On November 29, 2011, Lorber interviewed Jewish anti-Zionist Abraham Weizfeld — leading off the interview with, “Zionism formed in response to European persecution of the Jewish people. Where did it go wrong?”
Anti-Israel Propaganda
Lorber has tweeted and retweeted praise of anti-Zionist journalist Max Blumenthal.In June 2015, Lorber wrote a review lauding Blumenthal’s book “The 51 Day War,” which criticized OPE.
Blumenthal’s previous book, “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel,” was dubbed “The Israel Hater’s Handbook” by Eric Alterman and Reed Richardson of the progressive magazine, The Nation.
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish values.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
ISM
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was founded in 2001 and, according to the group’s website, is “resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles.”ISM has encouraged its volunteers to break curfew and disregard Israeli directives prohibiting access to closed military zones. This policy resulted in the death of ISM operative Rachel Corrie, who was killed by a bulldozer while interfering with an Israeli military operation in 2003.
A wrongful death suit brought by Corrie’s family was dismissed when the judge ruled that Corrie unreasonably chose to put her own life in danger and found there to be no intent or negligence on the part of any Israelis involved in the incident.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/33502335Twitter: https://twitter.com/BenLorber8
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-lorber/
- Status:
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- Bard
- Organizations:
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- Last Modified:
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