Eden Vitoff

Overview

Eden Vitoff co-sponsored an anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution at George Washington University (GWU), while serving as a senator in the GWU Student Association (SA), in 2018.

Vitoff has also demonized Israel as an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU). The group’s activists led the 2018 BDS campaign at GWU called “#DivestThisTime,” which was capped by the BDS resolution Vitoff co-sponsored.

As of June 2018, Vitoff was the vice chairperson of the SA Student Life Committee which “advocates for improvements to on-campus issues outside of the classroom,” and has worked on projects dedicated to “improving school spirit.”

As of May 2018, Vitoff’s LinkedIn page said he was slated to graduate from GWU in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government.

Vitoff’s LinkedIn page also said he is the co-founder and executive director of the Green LYFE Network. He has also been a barista at Sacred Grounds Cafe since August 2015.

In February 2018, Vitoff’s posted on Facebook that he started a job as a community organizer with Clean Water Action, in Washington, D.C.

On May 31, 2018, Vitoff’s posted on Facebook that he left his job at Clean Water Action.

Promoting BDS

On April 23, 2018, Vitoff spoke [01:51:21] before the GWU SA, where he promoted a BDS resolution he co-sponsored as a GWU SA Senator.

Vitoff accused [01:52:55] Israel of having “policies of apartheid in the West Bank and Gaza Strip” and of carrying out [01:53:12] “racially motivated violence.”

Vitoff implied [01:53:01] that Israeli policy is to pollute Palestinian water, destroy villages and kill “children and other civilians.” He then claimed that Israel maintains “segregation” and “racist checkpoints.”

Israeli checkpoints were built to prevent terror attacks, such as suicide bombings, against Israel's civilian population.

Vitoff was also one of three resolution cosponsors who voted against [00:09:59] a proposed amendment [00:07:15] acknowledging that “Israel is a state and has the right to exist” and that Israelis have the “right to safety, security and self-determination.”

On March 28, 2018, Vitoff shared a #DivestThisTime video on Facebook, in which he featured [00:04:10]. The video also depicted [00:03:03] Israel’s security barrier as the “Israeli Apartheid Wall.”

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

Enabling BDS

On April 24, 2018, Vitoff voted [00:11:14] for a secret ballot that allowed SA senators to vote on a BDS resolution titled “The Protection of Palestinian Human Rights Act,” without transparency or accountability to their electorate.

Twenty eight senators voted for the secret ballot, while one voted against and none abstained. The BDS resolution passed [00:21:53] with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions.

The resolution implied that “Israel is the worst apartheid regime” and that Israel imposes “forced labour” on Palestinians. It also implied that Israel divides “its population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups.”

The resolution portrayed Israeli military campaigns against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as deliberate attempts to kill children and civilians. It also singled out Israel for alleged violations of the Geneva Convention and war crimes.

Israel commenced Operations Cast Lead (OCL), Pillar of Defense (OPD) and Protective Edge (OPE) in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014, respectively, in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Instigated by SJP at GWU

On March 24, 2018, student groups at GWU launched the second BDS campaign in two years; both were titled “#DivestThisTime.” Activists with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU) led both campaigns.

On the campaign launch day, #DivestThisTime released a Facebook promotional video, in which activists alleged [00:01:23] that Israel has committed “crimes against humanity.” They also claimed [00:03:34] that Palestinians are “bombed every day” and blamed Israel [00:02:06] for police violence against black Americans in Ferguson, Missouri.

SJP at GWU held five events leading up to the launch of #DivestThisTime, which formed part of its 2018 Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). IAW is presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the BDS movement.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Demonizing Israel

On April 23-24, 2018, the GWU Student Association (SA) held a hearing and vote on the BDS resolution. At least 18 SJP at GWU activists and affiliates addressed [01:07:50] the SA in defense of the resolution, where it passed [00:21:53] via [00:11:14] a secret ballot with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions.

During the hearing, many Jewish students said [01:09:05] they experienced [01:24:45] anti-Semitism related to #DivestThisTime. One student spoke [00:50:40] about the Jewish community’s pain when “this hateful and divisive resolution was proposed over Passover.” One Jewish Israeli-American student said [00:48:05] it “creates an environment where I am made to feel that my identity is taboo” at GWU.

One black Jewish student said [01:39:24] that an SJP activist told him he was “weaponizing” his identity when he asked why a clause mentioning the “discriminatory conditions black people face in the Gaza Strip under Palestinian leadership” was omitted from the resolution.

SJP at GWU activists mocked [00:52:48] or dismissed [00:39:50] concerns over anti-Semitism. Other resolution supporters voiced agreement [00:45:40] with the SJP at GWU activists, including one who claimed [01:04:13] that resolution opponents were stoking “racial fears and sowing the divisions.”

A number of Jewish students walked out [00:35:19] of the hearing to protest [00:33:21] the resolution and to protest the SA’s inaction to combat anti-Semitism within its own ranks.

On April 24, 2018, three of the four resolution co-sponsors — Joshua Gomez, Eden Vitoff and Shaheera Jalil Albasit — voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] that said: “Palestinians and Israelis, like all people, have the right to safety, security, and self-determination” and “Israel is a state and has the right to exist.” Jessica Martinez, the other co-sponsor, abstained [00:10:06].

On May 10, 2018, Al Jazeera published a report on Youtube about #DivestThisTime. SJP at GWU activists spoke [00:01:47] to passers-by on campus and stood next to a display [00:01:43] labeled the “Israeli Apartheid Wall” that demonized Israel’s security barrier.

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.