Daniel Feder

JVP Philly also published a petition that claimed that U.S. participation in counter-terrorism seminars in Israel contributes to “the normalization of the Israel Defense Force’s daily brutality against the Palestinians.” The petition called for activists to “pledge to not participate in the Walk Against Hate...” 

Hatred ofIsrael

On June 3, 2018, Feder tweeted, accusing Israeli army of “massacring protesters” and “enforcing an apartheid system.” 

On May 14, 2018, Feder tweeted, referring to Israel as having “a murderous government” and accusing Israel of “ongoing occupation.” 

Feder’s tweet was in response to a tweet by a Philadelphia Council member Derek Green celebrating Israel’s 70th Independence Day and expressing solidarity with the Jewish community.

JVP Philly - Glorifying Violent Protesters 2018  

In May 2018, Feder participated [00:15:31] in two JVP Philly protests in support of the March of Return.On May 21, 2018, JVP Philly held a protest in support of the March of Return outside the office of U.S. Representative Brendan Boyle. JVP Philly posted to Facebook that they urged Boyle to “#standupforgaza.”

JVP Philly - Demonizing a Philadelphia Philanthropist 2021

In May 2021, Feder participated in a JVP Philly protest at the office of Philadelphia-based philanthropist Jeffrey Yass. The protest was part of a JVP Philly campaign of harassment against Yass.  On September 23, 2021, during the Jewish festival of Sukkot, JVP Philly activists erected a tent on the private lawn of Jeffrey Yass to protest his funding of various causes in the United States and Israel.

JVP Philly protesters gathered there with signs that said: “YASS FUNDS FASCISTS” and “YASS FUNDS ISRAELI APARTHEID,” as well as “YASS CASH HARMS OUR PLANET” and “YASS CASH HARMS OUR SCHOOLS.”JVP Swarthmore also participated in the protest. 

A JVP Philly Facebook post about the protest claimed: “...his money is making the world a more dangerous, violent, and unequal place…But we are watching…His neighbors are hearing about it. His employees are hearing about it. The word is out. #AllEyesOnYass 🧿.” 

JVP Philly passed out a flyer to Yass’s neighbors that claimed Yass was financing “Israeli apartheid policies which cause great harm to Palestinians and any possibility of peace in the region.” 

The flyer also said: “TIRED OF SEEING US HERE? TELL JEFF HIS CHOICES ARE NOT JUST HARMING THE WORLD, THEY’RE BUGGING HIS NEIGHBORS TOO. MAYBE THAT WILL MAKE HIM CHANGE HIS WAYS!”

The protest reportedly marked the launch of JVP Philly’s “All Eyes on Yass” campaign, following two other protests they had held earlier that year against Yass.

On June 4, 2021, JVP Philly held a protest with around 100 participants outside Yass’s home. JVP Philly accused Yass of funding “the displacement and murder of Palestinians” and demanded that he stop his support of pro-Israel initiatives.

Protesters stood in Yass’s front yard holding [00:00:24] a large sign that said: “ISRAELI APARTHEID FUNDED HERE” and shouted [00:01:30] “shame” while banging on tables.

In a Facebook live stream of the protest, Elana Baurer, a JVP organizer, said [00:00:35] the protesters were calling on Yass to “stop participating in the ongoing Nakba.” 

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

At the protest, Alissa Wise, a JVP leader, said [00:11:30] into a megaphone: “last week we were at his office…this week we’re at his house because his employees, his staff, his colleagues, his neighbors, they know what he’s doing,” and continued [00:12:20]: “we must build outrage in everyone in his community until we get what we want.”

Endorsing Anti-Israel Agitators

On March 6, 2019, Feder signed an open letter titled: “We Stand with Ilhan.” The letter claimed U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar had been “falsely accused of anti-Semitism.”

Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.  

On December 5, 2018, Feder tweeted: “@CNN you don't deserve him, but you should reverse your firing of #MarcLamontHill. #IStandWithMLH.”

In November 2018, Hill was fired from his contributor position at CNN (Cable News Network) after he gave an anti-Israel speech at the United Nations. He called [00:20:47] for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea,” a phrase associated with demands to dismantle the State of Israel. Hill also accused [00:16:19] Israel of “ethnic cleansing,” as well as [00:17:49] “white supremacy” and [00:17:56] “settler colonialism.”

On December 4, 2018, Feder featured in a group photo posted by JVP Philly to Facebook with a sign that said: “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free. JVP Philly stands with Marc Lamont Hill.”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

Anti-Israel Activism

On June 4, 2017, Feder participated in a JVP protest to disrupt the 69th Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City. Five JVP activists were arrested for third-degree trespassing and disorderly conduct. 

Protesters promoted the “Deadly Exchange” campaign and disrupted [00:01:05] a contingent of Jewish LGBTQ groups, chanting “no pride in apartheid.”

Supporting BDS

Feder retweeted a July 19, 2021 tweet that said: “victory.” The tweet included a link to another tweet by Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, announcing that they would “end sales of our ice cream in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

On July 19, 2021, ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop all product sales in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The BDS movement celebrated the decision, calling on the ice cream company to boycott the State of Israel in its entirety. However, company owner Unilever overrode the subsidiary’s decision after multiple US states decided to divest public funds from Unilever.  

Feder retweeted a July 18, 2019 tweet by the BDS movement that said: “On Nakba Day in May, a global campaign called on people to deactivate their @airbnb accounts. By continuing listings in Israel’s illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land, Airbnb enables an ongoing Nabka...”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

In November 2018, Airbnb announced it would remove 200 listings in Israel’s West Bank from the Airbnb platform, due to pressure from BDS activists. In April 2019, Airbnb reversed its decision and allocated profits from the region to non-profit organizations dedicated to humanitarian aid.

Feder retweeted a February 7, 2017 tweet by JVP promoting a JVP petition calling on the musical group Radiohead to cancel a scheduled concert in Tel Aviv.

English rock group, Radiohead, performed in Israel in 2017 despite calls from BDS activists to cancel.

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.

JVP Philly Chapter Overview  

JVP Philly whitewashes terrorism, shows support for terrorists, demonizes Jewish organizations and actively promotes the BDS movement. In 2021, JVP Philly led a campaign of harassment against a Philadelphia-based philanthropist Jeffrey Yass and organized a series of anti-Israel protests.

JVP Philly - Promoting BDS 2018  

On April 4, 2018, JVP Philly posted to Facebook a link to the campaign page to stop the Philadelphia Orchestra from playing in Israel. JVP Philly wrote in their Facebook post that they had “signed onto this coalitional effort to uphold the #culturalboycott. Tell the Philadelphia Orchestra to cancel their upcoming trip to Israel.”

On May 19, 2018, two protesters for the campaign disrupted a Philadelphia Orchestra performance by playing a pre-recorded message that accused [00:01:05] the orchestra of complicity in “carnage” by Israel and of collaboration [00:01:39] “with that murderous gangster state.”

JVP Philly - Promoting BDS 2021  

JVP Philly signed a May 19, 2021 statement by Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine (PAO) that called on the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to “divest from companies that profit from and/or are complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”

JVP Philly - Spreading Incitement 2021

On May 15, 2021, JVP Philly co-hosted an event with other anti-Israel groups, including Philly BDS and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters at Temple University and Drexel University in Philadelphia, titled: “PHILADELPHIA: #SaveSheikhJarrah.” 


Protesters held signs that said: “RESISTANCE IS JUSTIFIED” and “WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW… RESISTANCNCE (SIC) BECOMES A DUTY!!!” Other signs said “F**K ISRAEL,” claimed that “ZIONISM IS GENOCIDE” and called to “END ZIONISM.” 

Zionism is the belief in the right to self-determination and statehood of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, Israel. The word Zion originates in the Bible, where it refers to the land of Israel and Jerusalem.

Demonstrators also displayed signs that read: “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE” and “HANDS OFF OF OUR LAND.”

The chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. It is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel.

The cover photo on the Facebook page of the event JVP Philly co-hosted was a flyer featuring a graphic of Palestinians armed with rifles and text that read: “RESISTING COLONIALISM SINCE 1948.”

JVP Philly - Whitewashing Terrorism 2019  

On May 6, 2019, JVP Philly shared a Facebook post by anti-Israel agitator Linda Sarsour that said: “...Friday, Israel gunned down 4 Palestinians peacefully protesting. No condemnations. No one saying how immoral it is to kill Palestinians…”

On May 3, 2019, two Israeli soldiers, patrolling near the Gaza border, were shot and injured from sniper fire in Gaza. In response, the Israeli Air Force struck a Hamas base nearby, killing two members of Hamas’s armed wing. Two other Palestinians were killed while participating in riots along the Gaza border.  

On March 30, 2019, JVP Philly held a “GreatReturnMarch Memorial and Teach-In.” The Facebook event description claimed: “Since March 30th, 2018 tens of thousands of Palestinians have marched peacefully every Friday along the Gaza/Israel border…” A JVP Philly email promoting the event described it as “A Martyrology Inspired Memorial Teach-In.”

Approximately 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border on March 30, 2018 as part of the “March of Return,” which was organized and funded by Hamas. This was used as a campaign of violent protests to spotlight the Palestinian demand to “return” to Israel. 
JVP Philly retweeted a January 30, 2019 tweet by JVP that said: “Another day, another Palestinian child murdered Samah Mubarak was killed by the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] at a checkpoint for an alleged ‘knife attack’...”

JVP Philly - Demonizing Jewish Organizations 2018  

On June 3, 2018, JVP Philly held a protest against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as part of JVP’s “Deadly Exchange” campaign. 

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign in 2017. The campaign claimed that American Jewish organizations promoted human rights abuses. A video for the campaign by JVP accused American Jewish organizations of planning programs between American and Israeli security personnel, to advance“racist policies.”  

JVP Philly protested at the ADL’s annual “Walk Against Hate” event held to “celebrate diversity and challenge bigotry.” The ADL’s first Walk Against Hate took place in 2011 in Philadelphia.

As ADL representatives were speaking on stage at the event, JVP Philly activists stood [00:00:10] in front of the stage, holding a large banner that said: “ADL STOP THE HATE END POLICE XCHANGES W/ ISRAEL.”

JVP Philly - Expressing Support for Terrorists 2017  

On March 14, 2017, JVP Philly posted to Facebook a JVP press release titled: “JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE IS PROUD TO HOST PALESTINIAN ORGANIZER RASMEA ODEH.” JVP Philly commented: “A powerful, informative statement about the trials of Rasmea Odeh.”

Odeh was a military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.  

Social Media and Weblinks

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-feder-1450a915/