David Orkin
Overview
David Orkin [David Aaron Orkin] founded a chapter of an anti-Israel activist group and has demonized Zionists and Israel.Orkin has also opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, which includes equating Israel with Nazi Germany.
As of March 2024, Orkin’s LinkedIn profile said he founded the Tucson, Arizona chapter of the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). His LinkedIn also said he was a part-time volunteer with the chapter in 2014-2015 and that the chapter was “focused on local” Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement campaigns.
Orkin was a member of the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law (CUNY Law) chapter of the Jewish Law Students Association (CUNY JLSA) during the 2020-2021 academic year. CUNY JLSA is also an anti-Israel organization.
Orkin also expressed support for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in February 2020.
As of March 2024, Orkin was listed as a “Workers’ Rights Advocate” for Make the Road New York. His LinkedIn said he had been a staff attorney there since August 2023 and that he was located in New York, New York.
However, as of the same date, Orkin’s LinkedIn said he was a “Staff Attorney, Workplace Justice Project,” an organization located in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Orkin was listed as having passed the New York State bar exam in July 2022.
Also as of March 2024, Orkin’s LinkedIn said he graduated from CUNY Law with a JD in 2022. He graduated from Vassar College (Vassar) with a bachelor’s degree in geography in 2013.
Demonizing Zionists and Israel
In February 2020, Orkin signed a letter titled: “CUNY Law Student groups, Students, Alumni and Faculty stand with SJP and Palestinian students.”The letter claimed: “A subset of Zionist activists choose to weaponize the genuine threats of anti-Semitism elsewhere in our society as a tactic to repress activism and harass and threaten Palestinian students and Muslim students more broadly.”
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
On January 20, 2017, Orkin was quoted in an article covering protests in San Francisco, California, titled: “SF protesters take to the streets after Trump’s inauguration.”
In the article, Orkin said: “This is an ongoing resistance to the occupation of Palestine and the resistance to the policies that will be enabled by [U.S. President Donald] Trump and the people put in office by him.”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
In the article, Orkin wrote: “...Palestinians aren’t just human shields, terrorists, or suicide-bombers, but people – a fact that Zionist ideology disputes.”
Orkin also accused Israel of “occupation, racism, and Palestinian dispossession.”
In the same article, Orkin also wrote: “By teaching Israel by not teaching Palestine, we tell Jewish youth that Israel can exist without Palestine, that everything would be easier without Palestinians. That they deserve the violence Israel commits against them.”
Opposing the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism
In April 2021, Orkin signed an open letter titled: “Open Letter to the CUNY Community Re: USS IHRA resolution.”The letter stated: “We, the Jewish Law Students Association (JLSA) at CUNY Law, and our allies, write to convey our concern and alarm over the recent introduction on 3/14/21 of the University Student Senate (USS) Resolution ‘Condemning Anti-Semitism and Supporting the CUNY Jewish Community.’ We respectfully oppose this resolution, and urge the USS and our CUNY community to do the same. This resolution adopts a definition of antisemitism put forth by the the [sic] International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).”
The IHRA also highlights another form of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
On April 11, 2021, The CUNY University Student Senate (USS) posted a Zoom meeting on Facebook where they debated adopting two different definitions of anti-Semitism.
Orkin claimed [00:34:50] in a video comment: “several people commenting in support of IHRA are being paid by Zionist political groups, yet deny the ‘political’ character of this conversation
.”Orkin also commented [01:47:16]: “some of the people in support of IHRA should try out for the olympics, these mental gymnastics are impressive!”
At one point during meeting, a Jewish student commented on the video, writing: “So many countries support the IHRA definition.”
Natasha Bynum, an anti-Israel activist responded: “So many countries also support colonialism, imperialism, and warmongering. I don’t see how this validates IHRA in any way.”
Orkin responded [01:01:25] to Bynum’s comment: “exactly.”
The JLSA definition of anti-Semitism was presented to the CUNY USS as part of a larger resolution submitted by CUNY JLSA and CUNY Law SJP. The resolution claimed [p. 3]: “antisemitism is not an exceptional form of bigotry.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/david.orkin.5 [Deleted]Twitter:https://twitter.com/_davidorkin
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-orkin-09926b19a
