Jacob Zionts

On January 29, 2019, JVP launched a petition against GWU’s Hillel, pressing them to cut ties with the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), whose stated purpose “is to inspire American college students to see Israel as a source of pride and empower them to stand up for Israel on campus.”

Zionts spoke about the petition to the student newspaper at GWU, the Hatchet, representing JVP and said: “We believe that GW Hillel’s engagement with the ICC betrays Jewish traditions of pluralism...We also think it creates a hostile environment for Jewish, Palestinian and pro-divestment activists, and we want them off our campus.”

The petition called on members of GW Hillel to clarify the group’s involvement with the ICC and to stop engaging with the organization. JVP reportedly asserted that GWU Hillel’s association with the group “creates a ‘hostile environment’ for students who support pro-Palestinian efforts because the ICC has allegedly threatened to expose their identities and report them to blacklists.”

Zionts reportedly admitted that JVP is unsure whether GW Hillel has used the ICC to chastise pro-Palestinian activists, stating: “we still do not know the full extent of GW Hillel’s past or present relationship with the ICC.”

JVP accused the ICC in the petition of “[hiring] and [employing] political operatives to combat Palestinian rights and anti-Israel activism on American campuses” and implied that the ICC runs an intimidation campaign of “spying on Jewish and Palestinian students.”

Zionts reportedly said: “he attended about five private meetings last semester with leaders of GW Hillel...asking them to disaffiliate from the ICC.”

After their demands were not met, JVP released the petition. Zionts said: “Once we realized that we weren’t going to get anywhere in private conversations with Hillel staffers and student leaders, we knew that we needed to change our strategy.”

On March 28, 2019, JVP at GW posted a photo on Facebook of Zionts as part of their “#studentsnotdonors” campaign. The photo’s caption read: “The message here is that we don’t need money from right-wing organizations like the Maccabee Task Force (MTF) to keep our Jewish community safe. At JVP events there is always at least one golem at hand.”

On March 21, 2019, Zionts attended a JVP-SJP hosted event featuring infamous anti-Israel activist, Norman Finkelstein.

In a 2012 interview, Norman Finkelstein criticized [00:29:00] the BDS movement as a duplicitous movement that seeks to destroy Israel.

The event’s Facebook description said the event was “To culminate the events of the annual Israeli Apartheid Week.”

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

On April 24, 2018, Zionts gave [00:56:45] a presentation at the Student Association (SA) Senate, urging GWU’s student government to pass a BDS resolution.

In his presentation, Zionts shut down the calls for dialogue, condemning dialogue as [00:57:00] “a justification for delaying action” and a “manifestation of privilege.” Zionts claimed [00:57:57] debate on this issue was “between two unequal parties” which “serve only to entrench the...narratives of the dominant power,” which Zionts insisted was Israel.

Zionts also asserted [00:57:58] dialogue eased the guilt of progressive students but did nothing to end Palestinian oppression or “to end our administration's support for companies that profit off this systematic oppression of the Palestinian people.”

Zionts claimed [00:58:33] BDS was “leveling the playing field” and that the way to show “you're serious about meaningful engagement” was to “heed the words of the Palestinian students and activists that tell you that divestment is a precondition - a prerequisite…”

On March 27, 2018, Zionts posed for a photo posted on Facebook by Divest This Time at GW, holding a sign that said: “#DivestThisTime because occupation is not a Jewish value.”

In April of 2019, Zionts signed a JVP-launched petition opposing the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA), which was introduced to the U.S. Senate in March 2019.

The AAA directed the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to use the U.S. State Department’s definition of antisemitism when evaluating hostile environment complaints. The JVP petition asserted that “support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, is not inherently antisemitic” and that the bill “conflates legitimate criticism of the policies of the Israeli government with antisemitism.”

On November 5, 2018, Zionts was quoted in an article in the GW Hatchet about J Street U launching a petition to force Birthright to “include visits with Palestinians” as part of their trips.

Zionts was quoted, as a member of JVP, saying that JVP members supported the petition because “discussions with Palestinians could shed light on the “political nature” of the trip” but added that JVP continued to demand boycott of Birthright because “participating in Birthright trips reinforces the political interests of the Israeli government, which funds a portion of Birthright trips.”

Zionts also reportedly said: “If members of J Street U are serious about resisting the occupation, we believe it’s more powerful to refuse a free trip than to participate.”

In September 2017, anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) issued its #returnthebirthright campaign manifesto, calling for the boycott of the Birthright heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults. The manifesto accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and alleged “the modern state of Israel is predicated on the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.” The text claimed the trip “is only ‘free’ because it has been paid for by the dispossession of Palestinians,” and concluded: “we commit to promoting the right to return of Palestinian refugees…Israel is not our Birthright…”

Birthright was founded by Jewish philanthropists “in 1999 to address the growing divide between young Diaspora Jewish adults and the land and people of Israel.” After decades of demographic decline in the American Jewish community, Birthright set out “to strengthen Jewish identity, build a lasting bond with the land and people of Israel, and reinforce the solidarity of Jewish people worldwide.” The program offers “the gift of a life-changing, 10-day trip to Israel to young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 26.”

JVP’s anti-Birthright campaign was launched precisely to coincide with “the very moment that college students across America are returning to campus and registration for Birthright winter visits are underway.”

The #returnthebirthright manifesto accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and alleged “the modern state of Israel is predicated on the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.”

The text claimed: “We reject the offer of a free trip to a state that does not represent us, a trip that is only ‘free’ because it has been paid for by the dispossession of Palestinians.”

The manifesto concluded: “And as we reject this, we commit to promoting the right to return of Palestinian refugees… Israel is not our Birthright… Return the Birthright.”

On June 22, 2017, just prior to the launch of JVP’s #returnthebirthright campaign, JVP received a $140,00 two-year grant for general support for its operations from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).

Since 2015, JVP has received $280,000 from RBF, which has a history of supporting anti-Jewish causes, including BDS campaigns and various organizations that promote BDS campaigns throughout the United States.

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.”

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.

Overview

Marginalizing Pro-Israel Organizations

BDS Campus Activism

Opposing the Antisemitism Awareness Act

Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour

Return the Birthright Campaign

JVP

BDS

Social Media and Weblinks