Eitan Peled

Overview

Eitan Peled was the programming director of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at (UCLA) and the president of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)at UCLA..

Peled is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Eitan Peled is a 2016 graduate of UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in Economics. He is a legal intern at the Law Offices of Brian Breiter, in Los Angeles.

Excusing Hamas Terrorism

On December 13, 2015, on the David Parkman Show, a national talk radio show, Peled argued for the BDS movement against international relations expert, Philippe Assouline.

In the debate, Peled stated that "militant actions by Hamas...were legitimate resistance." Peled also whitewashed Hamas suicide bombings and rockets launched at civilian populations — and argued for their inevitability — saying that “when you have a system of oppression...you are going to have the non-violent and you are going to have the violent resistance.”

Equating the U.S. and Israeli Military with Radical Islamic Terrorists

During the December 13, 2015 debate, Peled equated the actions of the U.S. military and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to terrorism perpetrated by Hamas.

Peled said — ‘Whether it is the US military in Iraq, whether it's the IDF in Gaza…or whether it's Hamas militants, that is terrorism… that violence, that attempt to kill is terrorism...by definition...as far as I'm concerned."

Peled went on to claim that "nobody in SJP walks around with a Hamas shirt...people in Bruins for Israel…walk around with shirts that say Israeli Defense Forces…that is defense for terrorism by definition."

However, members of SJP chapters routinely wear and promote clothing advocating violence as "resistance" and lionizing terrorists such as Leila Khaled — a leading member of the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) and a convicted airline hijacker. In a 2014 interview, Khaled opined that the Palestinian Intifada of 2000 failed because it was not violent enough.

Rejecting Negotiated Peace

In the December 13, 2015 debate with Assouline, Peled was asked what concessions he would support on the Palestinian side in an Israeli-Palestinian negotiated peace agreement. Peled responded by falsely accusing Israel of "racism and apartheid."

Parkman, the moderator, posed the question again, whereupon Peled requested "can you give me some examples of some concessions that you’d like there to be made?" When asked a third and fourth time by the moderator, Peled replied that he did not understand the question — which he called “the hypothetical.”

Whitewashing Calls for Israel’s Destruction

On February, 19, 2016, Peled co-wrote an article published in the student newspaper the Daily Bruin where he misrepresented a chant routinely shouted by SJP members "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

Peled wrote that — "The call for the entire region to be free is not a call for annihilation, but rather a call for everyone living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, be they Palestinian or Israeli, to live with the same freedoms."

The chant actually summarizes the extremist uncompromising stance of Hamas leader, Khaled Mashal, who said that — "Palestine, from the (Jordan) river to the (Mediterranean) sea, from its north to its south, is our land, our right and our homeland. There will be no relinquishing or forsaking even an inch or small part of it… Palestine was, continues to be, and will remain Arab and Islamic. It belongs to the Arab and Islamic world. Palestine belongs to us and nobody else....We must never recognize the legitimacy of the Israeli occupation of it… and therefore Israel is illegitimate."

Lying About Radical Influence on SJP Policy

On December 13, 2015, Peled falsely claimed that "there is no umbrella SJP that pumps into each SJP chapters, each chapter is its own." Peled also falsely denied “other ideas being pumped into SJP” from outside sources — although he admitted: “we do have our resources that we go to.”

Additionally, Peled propagated BDS' deception that the movement "does not take a stand on a one state versus a two-state solution." BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti has made clear that the goals of BDS are “non-negotiable” and designed to lead to Israel’s destruction as a Jewish state — a point that Assouline raised, objecting to Peled’s lie.

Delegitimizing Israel’s Defense

In Peled's February, 19, 2016 article, he falsely branded Israel’s OPE in Gaza in 2014 - a "massacre." Israel implemented OPE to destroy Hamas’ attack tunnels and stop Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians — that increased dramatically in the weeks prior to the Operation.

Peled falsely presented dubious Hamas casualty figures as fact. He wrote "1,462 Palestinian civilians, among them 495 children, were killed."

Falsely Accusing Israel of Settler Colonialism and Expulsion of Arabs

On December 13, 2015, Peled falsely accused Israel of "settler colonialism." Peled slandered — “Israel and its formation… as a settler colonialist state.” He went on to erroneously blame Israel exclusively for the Palestinian refugee problem. Peled asserted — “There were these Europeans who came in… and forcibly removed these Palestinians.”

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.

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.