Bethany Zaiman

Overview

Bethany Zaiman is an anti-Israel activist with IfNotNow (INN) who staged a walk-off of a Birthright Jewish Heritage tour to Israel in June 2018 to join a tour with the anti-Israel organization, Breaking the Silence (BtS). 

In February 2019, Zaiman appeared on Al Jazeera English - The Stream, a YouTube show, discussing her Birthright walk-out, alongside Taher Herzallah, Associate Director of Outreach for American Muslims in Palestine (AMP).

Zaiman has also expressed support for violent protesters, attempted to ban Jewish symbols at the 2019 D.C. Dyke March, glorified an anti-Israel agitator and opposed the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

She has reportedly also “been involved with” the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

As of July 2018, Zaiman graduated Mary Baldwin University (Mary Baldwin) in 2015 with a degree in Anthropology and Sociology. As of the same date, Zaiman was reportedly a doctoral student, studying Anthropology at American University (AU), in Washington, D.C.

Walking Off Birthright

In June 2018, Zaiman was one of multiple INN activists who participated and walked off of a Taglit-Birthright trip. 

On June 28, 2018, the activists videotaped a pre-planned walk-off on the last day of the Birthright trip. As the group exited the Birthright tour bus, Zaiman announced [00:00:53] “there’s a group of us on this trip who’ve been asking questions and trying to engage and we have not been able to do that.”

Zaiman continued: “... as a result, the five of us will be leaving. As we get off the bus, we’ll be going on a trip with Breaking the Silence to learn about the Occupation from the perspectives of Palestinians and IDF soldiers.”

In July 2016, Breaking the Silence (BTS) was discredited by Israel’s investigative Channel 10 TV show, HaMakor (The Source). HaMakor presented a report revealing that a substantial number of BTS testimonies are untrue or distorted.  

In a July 2, 2018 interview with theoutline.com, Zaiman explained that she had hoped to use the trip “to discuss the Israeli-Palestine conflict with others in the Jewish community.” The article also noted that before the trip Zaiman “had attended events for IfNotNow.”

On July 5, 2018, INN posted a graphic on their Facebook page quoting “-Bethany [Zaiman], one of the Birthright participants who walked off their trip last week.”

The post quoted Zaiman as saying: “If you are already signed up for a Birthright trip- I know there are tens of thousands of you out there- please, please, please push, ask questions, make Birthright uncomfortable.”

On July 15, 2018, Zaiman gave an interview to Americans for Peace Now (Peace Now), speaking about her Birthright walk-off. Zaiman complained [00:02:33] that Birthright was not “apolitical” and that “I don’t think you can have an apolitical program.”

Zaiman said [00:03:30] she “had come planning to ask questions...especially about the recent violence in Gaza” and revealed that she and the other activists “hosted...a conversation about the occupation” on their free day (Shabbat) and that most of the other participants weren’t interested, commenting: “It’s not the time or place.”

Zaiman lamented of her Birthright trip: [00:12:07] “I want a trip where we engage with Palestinians, where we really sit and talk and learn from Palestinians.” and explained that “what connects me to my Jewish identity is the legacy of Jewish resistance and solidarity.” 

In a Washington Jewish Week interview, published July 24, 2018, Zaiman reportedly said: “she knew Birthright did not include encounters with Palestinians in its itinerary before the trip started on June 18.” 

Zaiman was asked if she would discourage other young Jews from going on Birthright and said: “If you haven’t signed up for Birthright, I don’t know that I would.” Zaiman also reportedly said that she and her fellow walk-offs are: “members of IfNotNow.” 

In December 2018, Zaiman wrote an article for Protocols, again discussing her walk-off.Zaiman recounted making her widely circulated speech on the bus: “I wanted to tell them that my own Jewishness...demanded I no longer participate in a trip that blatantly ignored and tacitly endorsed military apartheid.”

Zaiman admitted: “my ideas about Birthright as an inherently political institution upholding a violent occupation did not change” and that “Organizations and activists I respect have called for a boycott of Birthright for years.” 

Zaiman noted that JVP’s #ReturnTheBirthright campaign “triggered some of my own political awakening around Birthright and Israel/Palestine.” Zaiman then stated: “ I understand and agree with calls to forego Birthright.”

Zaiman revealed her purpose in taking a Birthright trip: “I wanted my persistent questions about the occupation, Israeli settlements, and violence in Gaza to encourage curiosity and maybe even outrage in my fellow participants” but lamented, “I failed to meaningfully engage my community in a dialog about the atrocities committed in our name.”

On February 25, 2019, Zaiman appeared as an “IfNotNow Spokeswoman,” on a panel assembled by Al Jazeera English to discuss Birthright, where she accused [00:12:25] her Birthright staff of using “old, Islamophobic tropes.”

When asked [00:16:37] if, as a member of INN from before the trip, Zaiman went on Birthright deliberately in order to walk off and create a “protest and be as disruptive as possible,“ Zaiman responded [00:16:57]: “I went on the trip very critical, so I did go on the trip to...potentially make people uncomfortable,” but stated [00:17:02] “I did not know I would be walking off.” 

When the interviewer played [00:17:26] a clip of Zaiman reading a prepared statement before walking off, Zaiman claimed she wrote the statement at 2 AM the night before the walk-off, “about halfway through the trip.”

Supporting Violent Protesters

On August 20, 2018, Zaiman wrote an article for the Nation, discussing walking off from her Birthright trip. 

Zaiman explained her reasoning for going on Birthright and said: “Israeli soldiers killed more than a hundred nonviolent Palestinian protesters and injured some 17,000, it felt crucial to engage with my own community about Gaza, the occupation, and other complexities surrounding Israel.” 

Zaiman noted her confusion while on the trip, and lamented: “Birthright was not open to conversation about the recent violence or the ongoing occupation.”



Zaiman recounted: “our bus drove for miles alongside the separation wall that locks Palestinians in an open-air prison” and then blamed the US embassy move to Jerusalem “which has effectively foreclosed the peace process.”

In the article, Zaiman said that after leaving their trip, the activists received “support” from INN and: “Little did we know that we would inspire eight more Birthrighters to leave their trips to meet with Palestinians a few weeks later.” Six of the eight participants who left their trips the next month were also INN activists.

Banning Jewish Symbols

On June 6, 2019, Zaiman retweeted two videos where she was interviewed about her involvement in the DC Dyke March. In the first video, Zaiman referred [00:00:06] to herself as an “anti-Zionist organizer here in DC.”

Zaiman revealed [00:00:20]: “The Dyke March has taken an anti-Zionist stance...we’ve asked that people not bring signs of any nationalist identification that overtly oppresses other people.” Zaimain maintained [00:00:35] that “it’s important to us that our identity as Jews is celebrated in a way that makes space for others, especially Palestinian dykes.”

In the second video, Zaiman and the interviewer referred to the Jewish pride flag as the “Israeli pride flag” and Zaiman was asked why she saw it as a “Zionist symbol.” Zaiman responded [00:00:52] that “It’s a symbol of the Israeli state, not of all Jews everywhere...the Israeli state is involved in military apartheid and occupying Palestinian land.”

Zaiman was last asked about “Pinkwashing” to which she replied [00:01:15]: “Pinkwashing is something that Israel has been famously a part of...it erases the existence of violence of state regimes that they’re also a part of and actually isn’t for queer liberation.”

“Pinkwashing” is a claim that Israel advocates manipulate the LGBTQ community in order to garner support for Israel.  

Also on June 6, 2019, Zaiman shared an article written by Yael Horowitz and Rae Gaines on Twitter and wrote: “Hi! if you’re here because of the DC Dyke March I’m going point you to this lovely op-Ed by two Dykes who have been far more committed to this than me. We don’t have to chose (sic) between being Jewish, being Dykes, and being anti-Zionist. We are all three.”

On May 19, 2019, Zaiman was featured in a photo posted on Facebook by INN with INN leader Jill Raney. In the photo, Zaiman is wearing a baseball cap with the INN logo and holding a pamphlet titled: “Jewish Dykes, Antisemitism and Anti-Zionism. Some brief FAQs by If Not Now DC”

Raney was also an INN leader “involved in organizing” the INN co-sponsored the June 7, 2019, D.C. Dyke March. Raney reportedly crafted the policy to ban the Jewish pride flag - a rainbow flag with the Star of David in the center.

Raney blocked a group of demonstrators carrying Jewish Pride flags from joining the Dyke March and said [00:00:15] “In order to have the Jewish pride flag not be about Zionism, all you gotta do is just move the star.”