Gabriel Schivone
Overview
Gabriel Schivone [Gabe Schivone] expressed support for a terrorist and was an organizer in 2011 of the anti-Israel “Youth Flotilla to Palestine” that set sail to Gaza. He also represented [00:00:14] Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) on the flotilla and has spread hatred of Israel.Schivone was a founding [46:12] member of the National Conference Steering Committee of SJP and a National SJP Steering Committee member in 2011, as well as 2015.
Schivone helped found the University of Arizona (UA) chapter of JVP in 2010, was the 2011 coordinator of the UA chapter of JVP and remained a JVP activist in 2012.
Schivone was also an activist with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement from 2012- 2018 and spoke at anti-Israel events in 2013, 2015 and 2019.
Schivone has been a writer and blogger for the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada (EI) since 2011 and has contributed anti-Israel articles to The Huffington Post.
As of March 2020, Schivone’s LinkedIn page said he was a “Writing Fellow, Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice,” at UA.
Scihvone was reportedly a 2018-2019 visiting scholar in the History Department and Agnese Nelms Haury Program in Environment and Social Justice at UA.
Support for a Terrorist
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
2011 Flotilla to Gaza
On June 27, 2011, Schivone posted a video to YouTube explaining [00:00:11] that he would be sailing on the anti-Israel “Youth Flotilla to Gaza” to “resist the US-Israeli aggression and occupation over Palestine and Gaza.”The flotilla was publicly opposed by the United Nations, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S., but welcomed by the terror group Hamas.
Schivone authored an article published in Haaretz on June 24, 2011, titled: “A Moment Before Boarding the Next Flotilla.”
In his article, Schivone claimed that he would join the flotilla because he was Jewish and “determined to shake off an assumed - and largely imposed - association with Israel” and wished “to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.”
The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
On August 1, 2011, Valerie Saturen published a letter in Haaretz, responding to Schivone’s article, where she stated that she was a former classmate of Schivone and noted: "Gabriel is not Jewish, whether in terms of ethnic ancestry, religious belief, or cultural identity. He has never identified as a Jew until it became useful in advancing his political agenda."
The flotilla was stopped in Greece by Greek Coast Guard officials, who intercepted one of the flotilla’s vessels after it tried to defy a Greek ban on boats sailing to Gaza.
On October 24, 2012, Schivone co-authored a blog in the Huffington Post glorifying flotilla attempts to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza.
On May 6, 2013, Schivone spoke at a Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at the University of Washington (UW) co-hosted event, where he claimed that Israel established [00:39:55] a “blockade and siege” on Gaza since the early 1990’s and then made it “exponentially brutal especially after the democratic election of Hamas.”
Schivone also labeled [00:41:27] the Mavi Marmara incident a “massacre” and accused Israel of committing “executions.”
The Mavi Marmara was the lead ship in the “Freedom Flotilla” that attempted to sail to Gaza in May 2010. Activists aboard the ship agitated for violent confrontation and chanted a slogan glorifying the killing of Jews. When Israeli security forces boarded the Marmara, protesters attacked them with iron bars, metal chairs, knives, stun grenades and firearms, rocks and bottles. A United Nations report found that the flotilla agitators initiated an organized, violent confrontation with Israeli forces, and that the Marmara was carrying no humanitarian aid, only weaponry.
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On November 19, 2019, Schivone tweeted: “Given some of the racist, anti-Palestinian material that a former IDF [Israel Defense Forces] officer (who recently spoke at Vassar) has circulated around campus recently, allow me to repost this excellent piece by the historian, Maha Nassar.”Schivone was referring to a December 2018 opinion piece by Nassar, an Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies at the University of Arizona, published in the Forward and titled: “‘From The River To The Sea’ Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means.”
“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.
Nassar’s op-ed defended Marc Lamont Hill’s call at the U.N. for a “free Palestine, from the river to the sea” and accused Israel of colonialism. The editorial also whitewashed Hamas and PLO terrorism.
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 July 3, 2019, Schivone published an article on Truthout, titled: “Border Patrol Is Using ‘Virtual Wall’ Technology Israel Uses in Palestine.”
In the article, Schivone criticized the US policy of using Israeli technology to deter illegal crossing along the US-Mexico border. Schivone also accused Israel of incarcerating “up to 40 percent of Palestinian men since 1967, and 8,000 children since 2000, in the backdrop of a decades-long military occupation and ongoing colonial settlement.”
Schivone also intimated that Israeli company Elbit profited from the killing of Palestinians during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), writing: “During the first month of Israel’s 2014 attack on Gaza, Elbit’s share price increased by 6.1 percent. More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed in that attack.”
Throughout the summer of 2014 — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Hamas's deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged Gazans to act as human shields to frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
On October 5, 2018, Schivone published an article on EI, titled: “Gaza ‘laboratory’ boosts profits of Israel’s war industry.” The article accused Israel of weapons-testing on Palestinians and claimed that Israel uses Gaza “as a human Petri dish – to improve killing capacity and cultivate pacification methods.”
On January 26, 2015, Schivone tweeted: “Bringing ‘great laboratory’ of Gaza to AZ for border security w/@memomiller @TomDispatch” and linked to a January 25, 2015 article that he co-authored in the Huffington Post, titled: “Gaza in Arizona.
The article painted Israel-US collaboration to secure the US-Mexico border as a weapons “laboratory” and “testing ground” and said: “the Mexican border would simply replace that country’s [Israel’s] highly marketed Palestinian testing grounds.”
On October 6, 2014, Schivone tweeted: “‘T'is the times' plague when madmen lead the blind.’ --#Shakespeare on #Netanyahu and #Israeli society.”
On September 21, 2014, Schivone posted a blog on EI, titled: “Countering Israeli greenwashing at the People’s Climate March.” In his post, Schivone labeled Israeli envinronmentalism an attempt to divert attention away from Israeli “occupation and colonization” of Palestinian territories.”
"Greenwashing" is a claim by anti-Israel activists that Israel manipulates the environmentalist agenda to deflect international attention from Israel's alleged "persecution of the Palestinians."
Schivone also accused Israel of killing “mostly civilians” during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in 2014 and Operation Cast Lead (OCL) in 2008-2009.
Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Schivone then commended Bolivia for having “unparalleled environmental protection rights,” leading “the hemisphere (if not the world) in its level of criticism of Israel,” severing ties with Israel, calling for international criminal genocide charges against Israel and labelling Israel a terrorist state.
On April 8, 2014, Schivone authored an article on EI titled: “How Israel’s war industry profits from violent US immigration ‘reform.’”
In the article, Schivone claimed “The US and Israel both continue to dispossess indigenous people of their lands, and even of their existence” and painted Israeli sales of border-monitoring technology to the U.S. as reaping the benefits from “US border militarization as the levels of death and suffering grow.”
On August 5, 2014, during OPE, Schivone tweeted: “RT @memomiller: RT @NoMoreDeaths: .@KVOA @bembenekKVOA We single out @Raytheon for local pressure over their support of #Gaza violence....”
Raytheon teamed with Israel in 2011 to develop the Iron Dome, a defensive missile-intercept system responsible for saving thousands of lives.
On August 3, 2014, also during OPE, Schivone tweeted: “MT @nomoredeaths: #GazaSupport: w/Palestinians and Israelis we cry ‘no more deaths!’ during #GazaUnderAttack.”
On October 11, 2012, Schivone co-authored an article in EI, titled: “Let’s unite our struggles to challenge legacies of US and Israeli ethnic cleansing.” The article claimed that Israel committed: “ethnic cleansing” prior to the state’s founding and continued to practice “settler-colonization.”
On September 16, 2010, Schivone posted a letter on statepress.com, where criticized the “ongoing U.S.-Israeli crimes in the occupied territories, their past and possibly future invasions of Lebanon as well as the grave threats the two countries pose to other areas in the region.” Schivone also condemned “Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza” in 2009.
Anti Israel Activity
On November 20, 2019, Schivone was hosted by SJP at Vassar College to speak about his upcoming book, including “Israel's military and security efforts in Central America.”
On March 1, 2015, Schivone spoke [00:46:32] as a panelist at the Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF) “Peace Works” Conference located at Evergreen State College, led by BDS-founder Omar Barghouti. In his talk, Schivone advocated disrupting US-Israel collaboration in securing the US southern border wall.
RCF was created to honor the memory of Rachel Corrie, a former International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member who was accidentally killed while interfering with an Israeli military operation in 2003 during the Second Intifada. A wrongful death suit brought by Corrie’s family was dismissed when the judge ruled that Corrie unreasonably chose to put her own life in danger.
During his speech, Schivone accused [00:30:07] Israel of weapons-testing border technology on Palestinians and then exporting “Palestinian suffering” to the U.S. to prevent “migration” from Mexico into the US.
Schivone also labeled [00:10:27] American Jews who choose to move to Israel of “violent dispossession” of Palestinians. Schivone then accused [00:04:12] Israel of “pinkwashing.”
“Pinkwashing” is a claim that Israel advocates manipulate the LGBTQ community in order to garner support for Israel.
Promoting BDS
The letter also advocated for anti-normalization and the right of return.
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Proponents of the “anti-normalization” policy seek to police all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians and shut down all conversations and interactions perceived as being ideologically unaligned with their own agenda. They believe “liberal Zionist” dialogue with Palestinians “normalizes” entrenched power dynamics. This policy was originally dictated by the BDS National Committee (BNC), which prioritized the “Monitoring & Rapid Response” against interactions that recognize or cooperate with “Israel’s regime.”
On June 6, 2015, Schivone reportedly spoke at a “Ferguson to Mexico to Palestine” event, sponsored by the “Hewlett-Packard (HP) Boycott Campaign”
On August 13, 2014, Schivone tweeted: “RT @nomoredeaths: Migrant rights group on US-Mexico border urges boycott of Israel http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/jimmy-johnson/migrant-rights-group-us-mexico-border-urges-boycott-israel… via @intifada.”
On July 1, 2012, JVP sent Schivone as a representative to speak at a shareholder meeting of Caterpillar to promote “Proposal 8,” to “enact policies requiring all of their dealers to ‘conform more fully with international human rights and humanitarian standards’.”
During his speech, Schivone reportedly encouraged Caterpillar shareholders to divest from Israel, criticized Caterpillar for their business association with Israel their involvement in "Israeli war crimes" and likened Israel to apartheid South Africa.
On Jun 13, 2012, the MySanAntonio news website reported that the proposal was rejected by 80 percent of the shareholders.
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.”
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.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Twitter:https://twitter.com/gschivoneFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/10132734
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielschivone/
Website: https://gabrielschivone.info/
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