Joel Reinstein

Overview

Joel Reinstein has defended terrorists, spread incitement, demonized Israel and defended disgraced anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita. Reinstein was a member of Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE), a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (UM Ann Arbor) in 2013-2014.

Reinstein is an organizer of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement initiatives and was active in SAFE’s 2017 divestment resolution campaign at UM Ann Arbor - “#UMDivest.”

Reinstein is also a representative of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at UM Ann Arbor. He has also promoted JVP’s #returnthebirthright campaign, launched to demonize the Birthright Israel heritage tour.

Reinstein is a member of the Facebook Group “International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network” (IJAN).

As of December 2017, Reinstein’s Linkedin page says he is an educator based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from Michigan State University (MSU) in 2013, with a bachelor’s degree in Humanities.

Defending Terrorists

On November 6, 2014, Reinstein claimed on Facebook that convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh was “being railroaded through the courts and re-victimized as a survivor of torture and sexual assault.”

Odeh was then facing deportation from the United States after failing to disclose her prior Israeli conviction for murder, on her American citizenship application.

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

On October 13, 2015, Reinstein tweeted an article titled “Schoolgirl executed by Israeli soldiers.” Reinstein commented “actual coverage of the current crisis...take notes @NBCNews.”

The article — from the anti-Israel site Electronic Intifada (EI) — claimed that 17-year-old Dania Irsheid was “summarily executed.” The article omitted Irsheid was shot by an Israeli police officer, after she attempted to stab him.

Spreading Incitement

On October 19, 2014, Reinstein implied on Facebook that an Israeli motorist intentionally ran down Inas Shawkat dar Khalil, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl. Khalil was tragically killed in an accident, while walking on a highway.

In the same Facebook post, Reinstein shared a link to an article mischaracterizing Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount as “Jewish settlers storm[ing]” the Al Aqsa mosque.

On November 4, 2014, Reinstein tweeted that “Israeli occupation forces breach Al-Aqsa Mosque for the first time since 1967” and linked to an article that claimed “hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Compound.”

Reinstein’s accusations echoed the accusations of Palestinian leaders and media, who incited a wave of anti-Semitic violence against Israelis, that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque, in Jerusalem.

This incitement motivated the November 18, 2014 Har Nof massacre, where terrorists murdered six people with a gun, axes and a butcher knife, during morning prayers.

Demonizing Israel

On March 2, 2014, Reinstein tweeted: “I support #ApartheidWeek because Israel exists for settler colonial ethnic cleansing. #BDS #Intifada #freepalestine.”

On June 30, 2015, Reinstein tweeted: “If Israel isn't apartheid, then there has never been apartheid.”

On August 7, 2915, Reinstein tweeted: “It would be powerful if the world’s greatest living rockstar, @kanyewest cancelled Tel Aviv to fight Israeli #Apartheid. (No Sarcasm) #BDS.”

Defending Anti-Israel Professor

On September 4, 2014, Reinstein posted on Facebook that The University of Illinois (U of I)’s refusal to hire professor Steven Salaita is a “microcosm for Israel, the US & BDS. #ZionistLiabilityFactor.”

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

On December 22, 2014, SAFE hosted Salaita at a UM Ann Arbor event.

SAFE’s former spokeswoman Mekarem Eljamal stated that the group “invited Salaita to the University because they felt his message of academic freedom was particularly relevant in light of the group’s UMDivest campaign.”

Pushing BDS

Reinstein is an organizer of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) initiatives and was active in SAFE’s 2017 divestment resolution campaign — “#UMDivest.”

In November 2015, during a vigil at UM Ann Arbor to “honor victims of violence in Israel and Palestine,” Reinstein encouraged vigil attendees to boycott Israel.

In 2014, Reinstein organized a BDS campaign to bring a divestment resolution before the Presbyterian Church USA's 2014 General Assembly in Detroit.

Boycotting Jewish Heritage Tour

On September 5, 2017, Reinstein shared on Facebook a screenshot of a text message posted by the Return the Birthright Facebook page as a model response rejecting Birthright recruitment messaging.

The text read: “Hello, I do not believe it is right for me to get a free trip to Israel, a place where I have no familial connections whatever, when my Palestinian friends can’t return to their homeland. I would like to give my spot to someone who truly deserves to go there.”

The text continued, “Let me know if you’d like a list - I am sure I could connect you with plenty of young Palestinians who would relish the opportunity to go on a free trip to their country.”

On October 2, 2017 Reinstein shared on Facebook a Forward article encouraging the boycott of Birthright’s trip to Israel, authored by anti-Israel JVP activist Noah Byck Mlyn. The article was featured on JVP’s Return the Birthright Facebook page.

Return the Birthright Campaign

In September of 2017, JVP issued its #ReturntheBirthright campaign manifesto, calling on American Jews to boycott the Birthright Israel (Birthright) program. 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.

SAFE - SJP on UM Ann Arbor Campus

As of November 2017, SAFE’s University of Michigan (UM) web page said that “SAFE is Michigan’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a national coalition of students standing in solidarity with Palestine.”

SAFE - Pushing BDS at UM Ann Arbor

In October 2017, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality (SAFE) at UM Ann Arbor launched a BDS campaign, #UMDivest, to pass a BDS resolution on campus. Similar SAFE resolutions in 2014, 2015 and 2016 all failed. As of May 2018, SAFE’s university web page said it was a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter.

SAFE’s resolution called for the UM Regents to “appoint a committee … to investigate the ethical and moral implications of our investments” in Boeing, HP and United Technologies, claiming that the companies “are involved in humans rights violations against the Palestinian people according to international law.”

On November 7, 2017, the CSG held a meeting on the resolution. The next week, the CSG held a vote on the BDS resolution, which passed.

Misrepresenting BDS

On October 24th, 2017, SAFE members announced the launch of their 2017 divestment campaign at a Central Student Government Assembly (CSG Assembly) meeting. SAFE activist and UM alumnus Devin Jones said that the goals of #UMDivest were the “goals of BDS movement.”

However, during a November 7, 2017 CSG Assembly meeting, Jones downplayed the resolution’s affiliation with BDS, announcing: [01:51:28] “this is part of the BDS movement… only the D in BDS.”

At the same meeting, SAFE activist Arwa Gayar also said: [01:34:53] “I would like to first reiterate that...we [#UMDivest] is “just divestment” and not aligned with the larger BDS movement. She added [01:35:00] that “we always have this statement that ‘we just want the D and no BS.’”

On November 10, 2017, a news article quoted “a SAFE representative” who claimed #UMDivest 2017 “is not affiliated with the BDS movement.”

SAFE - Intimidation on Campus

In 2013, SAFE posted mock eviction notices on the dorm rooms of approximately 1,500 students, violating UM Ann Arbor policy. SAFE said it did so “in order to have students momentarily experience the feeling of receiving an eviction notice upon waking up.”

After SAFE’s 2014 BDS initiative failed to pass, individual students and student government representatives were reportedly targeted with violent threats and intimidation by “pro-Palestinian forces.”

During March of 2014, violent rhetoric and racial epithets were reportedly issued by pro-Palestinian activists at students who opposed the SAFE resolution to divest from Israel. Pro-Israel students reportedly received death threats and were called "kikes" and "dirty Jews," which subsequently led to a police investigation.

Some CSG representatives who voted for postponement of the legislation also reportedly received threats as a result of their decision. Business senior Michael Proppe, CSG president in 2014, reported threatening and inflammatory messages were directed at CSG representatives who voted to table the resolution.

On October 5, 2016, during the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, SAFE staged an anti-Israel demonstration, accompanied by a mock checkpoint in a central campus area.

The Michigan Review reported that “[b]ecause Rosh Hashanah calls for attending service at the synagogue, many Jewish students were not on campus to express their feelings of anguish while the event occurred. Those students who remained on campus were left to cope with the demonstration without the support of many of their peers.”

SAFE - Idealizing Terrorists

From 2014 through 2017, SAFE has supported terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Odeh was a key military operative with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated her as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud, because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship and deported to Jordan.

On November 1, 2017, SAFE staged an anti-Israel demonstration at UM Ann Arbor, accompanied by a wall display representing Israel’s security fence, and claimed that Israel practices “apartheid.”

SAFE’s wall featured an image of international hijacker Leila Khaled, a member of the PFLP Political Bureau, who participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970.

In a 2014 interview, Khaled opined that the Palestinian second intifada failed because it was not violent enough.

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 value.”

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.