Jordan Scott Kushner
Overview
Jordan Scott Kushner was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct on multiple occasions. Kushner has also demonized Israel, engaged in anti-Israel activism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of July 2021, Kushner’s LinkedIn page said he was a “Solo practitioner” at the “Law Office of Jordan S. Kushner” since 1991, specializing in “Litigation with emphasis on criminal defense and civil rights plaintiff cases.”
Kushner has provided legal services, advice, and support to anti-Israel causes, such as the Minnesota Break the Bonds Campaign (MN BBC), Anti-War Committee (AWC) and CODEPINK.
In January 2016, Kushner’s Zoominfo profile said he was the President of the National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG)’s Minnesota chapter. NLG describes itself as a “proud member” of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, which seeks to stop all U.S. military supportand other aid to Israel.
In April 2013, Kushner received the annual Justice Works Award from the Minnesota Chapter of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In November 2014, CAIR was listed as a terrorist group by the United Arab Emirates. CAIR was also listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in a U.S. federal court case for funding millions of dollars to Hamas, which has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
As of January 2011, Kushner was a member of the Minnesota Coalition for Palestinian Rights, a coalition of groups that promotes divestment from Israel.
As of July 2021, Kushner’s LinkedIn page said he was based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Arrested and Charged for Disorderly Conduct
On November 3, 2015, Kushner was arrested and charged with “trespassing and disorderly conduct” and “obstruction of the legal process” at the University of Minnesota Law School (UMN Law).Kushner was protesting a talk on ethics and the law of war to be given by Israeli law professor Moshe Halbertal. Kushner joined other anti-Israel protesters who prevented Halbertal from starting his lecture for 30 minutes.The law school administration placed Kushner under a one-year ban from its campus, which was lifted in September 2016.
On October 16, 2012, Kushner was cited for “disorderly conduct” during a protest of a basketball game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Maccabi Haifa, an Israeli basketball team.
The protest was organized by MN BBC, which sent a letter in October 2012 to each Timberwolves player asking them “to boycott the exhibition game against Maccabi-Haifa, the Israeli team that you are scheduled to play next Tuesday, October 16.”
Demonizing Israel
In January 2014, Kushner signed an open letter to UMN President, Eric Kaler, following Kaler’s statement denouncing the American Studies Association (ASA)’s vote to boycott Israeli academics and institutions.In 2013, the ASA adopted a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel, during its annual conference.
The letter accused Israel of “the oppression of Palestinians, and the repression of their speech,” citing the fact that “the commemoration of the expulsion [Nakba] of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 is illegal [in Israel].”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
In 2011, the Israeli Knesset passed the “Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) Bill, which would penalize “local authorities and other state-funded bodies for holding events marking Nakba Day on (Israeli) Independence Day, supporting armed resistance or racism against Israel, or desecrating the state flag or symbols.”
The letter also held Israel responsible for the closure of Palestinian schools in the West Bank and Gaza during the First Intifada, claiming that, “Attending classes and even carrying textbooks were crimes punishable by prison sentences.”
Anti-Israel Activism
On July 24, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Kushner participated in a protest organized by the Minnesota Coalition for Palestinian Rights outside Adath Jeshurun Congregration in Minnetonka, Minnesota. At the rally, MPR News quoted Kushner as saying: “We want to see the U.S. cut off military and other aid for Israel.”Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
In 2012, Kushner served as an attorney for MN BBC, which had been involved in a multi-year statewide campaign to pressure the state of Minnesota to divest itself of Israeli holdings.
In addition to attempting to persuade the state of Minnesota to divest from Israeli bonds, one of MN BBC’s other 2012 goals was to “to serve as a model for organizations in other states and municipalities that are attempting to divest of Israel bonds.”
In November 2011, MN BBC filed a lawsuit against the Minnesota State Board of Investment, claiming the Board had “illegally invested Minnesota’s taxpayer money in Israeli bonds.” Kushner served as MN BBC’s attorney on the case, which MN BBC lost in 2012.
On January 19, 2011, Kushner was one of the featured speakers at an AWC event titled “How U.S. Support for Israeli Oppression in Palestine Leads to Political Repression at Home.”
In his speech, Kushner said [00:09:07]: “The issue doesn’t become whether you’ve supported terrorism -- it’s whether you’ve actually supported an organization that the State Department decided is a terrorist organization. Ultimately, what that boils down to is any foreign non-governmental group that the U.S. disagrees with, that the U.S considers to be a challenge to its interests, is likely to get labeled a terrorist organization.”
Kushner continued, saying [00:09:33]: “You’ve a very high proportion of these foreign terrorist organizations, and most of them are Muslim organizations, they have Arabic names… A very high number of them are Palestinian organizations. A lot of this propaganda about terrorism came out of the Israeli-Palestininan conflict. That’s a lot of what shaped the lingo about what terrorism is and who gets defined as a terrorist, what the stereotypes are of terrorists and how the government goes about it.”
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.
Code Pink
CODEPINK is a U.S.-based activist group founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and other activists to oppose the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The group actively opposes “U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and has been criticized for maintaining close ties to Hamas. CODEPINK also promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
CODEPINK has led a number of solidarity delegations to Gaza under Hamas protection. In March 2014, CODEPINK also helped organize an “International Women's Day” delegation to Gaza. However, upon arriving at the Cairo airport on March 3, 2014, Benjamin was detained by Egyptian authorities and refused entry into Gaza. She was then forcibly deported to Turkey.
CODEPINKBDS campaigns have targeted RE/MAX, Ahava, SodaStream, Hewlett Packard and Airbnb. On November 20, 2016, CODEPINK leader Ariel Gold disrupted a speech given by the actor Ashton Kutcher, an Airbnb investor who defended the company. Gold was escorted off the stage by security.
In September 2008, a number of CODEPINK leaders met with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. CODEPINK reportedly initiated its anti-Israel campaign followeding meeting. In November 2008, Jodie Evans and a CODEPINK contingent visited Iran at the personal invitation of Ahmadinejad.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jordan.kushner.9
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
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- Minnesota
- Organizations:
- AWC,
- BDS,
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- NLG
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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