Josh Spitzer-Reznick
Overview
Josh Spitzer-Resnick was arrested while protesting against the Birthright Jewish Heritage tour as an activist with IfNotNow (INN).Spitzer-Resnick also participated in an INN disruption, in partnership with Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), to protest United States Senator Ben Cardin’s anti-Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) legislation.
He also expressed support for U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, days after she was condemned by both Democrat and Republican congressional colleagues, for making anti-Semitic remarks.
Spitzer-Resnick attended the 2019 National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Conference.
As of March 2019, Spitzer-Resnick was listed in a petition as an activist with INN Twin Cities and INN UMN.
As of October 2020, Spitzer-Resnick’s Linkedin stated that he was a “graduate student” at UMN, slated to graduate with a master’s degree in Computer Science in 2022.
As of December 2020, Spitzer-Resnick’s Facebook page said he studied Civil Engineering, Hebrew and Arabic at the Technion in Haifa, Israel from August 2015 to August 2017.
Arrest
On April 5, 2019, Spitzer-Resnick was arrested at an INN disruption, titled: “Birthright: It’s Time to Choose - Us or the Donors?” held outside Birthright Israel’s headquarters in New York City.Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.
Spitzer was among 15 activists who were arrested [01:21:07] for refusing to move after ignoring [00:24:30] multiple warnings [00:49:33] by local [00:52:02] police. Activists reportedly chanted outside of Birthright headquarters, linked arms and blocked entrances to the building.
On April 6, 2018, Spitzer-Resnick wrote on Facebook regarding his arrest: “I was just released from jail. I was arrested while giving Birthright their last chance to choose: #UsOrTheDonors. We stood outside of Birthright’s headquarters and demanded they confront the crisis of the Occupation. Instead, they chose to have me and my peers with IfNotNow arrested. Birthright has made their choice.”
Supporting BDS
On April 16, 2018, Spitzer-Resnick participated [00:02:06] in an INN DC disruption in partnership [00:06:06] with Taher Herzallah, the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of AMP. The disruption was to protest U.S. Senator Ben Cardin’s proposed anti-BDS legislation. INN activists were arrested for occupying Cardin’s office.During the disruption, Herzallah criticized [00:06:06] Cardin’s anti-BDS legislation, Senate Bill S.720. As INN activists were nodding in approval, Herzallah said [00:06:55] “we stand here today to oppose S.720.”
Herzallah also claimed [00:05:42] that the Israeli response to the Great March of Return protests on their border with Gaza was that “the Israeli soldiers pick off Palestinian protesters like it’s open season.”
During the disruption, Jill Raney, an INN organizer, called [00:09:55] on Senator Cardin to condemn: “Israeli violence against peaceful protesters.”
INN activist Sarah Beth Alcabes read out the names [00:07:17] of Palestinians [00:20:20] “killed by the IDF for protesting” and led [00:09:10] activists in reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer for them.
The Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish is a prayer customarily reserved for close relatives or Jews murdered for being Jews.
Following INN’s intrusion into Cardin’s offices, Herzallah was interviewed [00:44:49], for INN’s Facebook page, pledging[00:44:45]: “we will continue to stand every Friday, ‘til we return, continue on the Great March.”
As of June 2019, Open Hillel listed Spitzer-Resnick as a steering committee member.
Open Hillel is an organization that aims to “eliminate” Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership for Israel Activities, which ban partnerships between Hillel affiliates and groups that deny Israel’s right to exist, delegitimize the Jewish state or support the BDS movement.
Supporting Ilhan Omar
On February 15, 2019, Spitzer-Resnick posed with three other activists outside the office of U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, for a photo posted to Facebook by INN Twin Cities.Attending National SJP 2019
On November 3, 2019, the final day of the 2019 National SJP Conference, then-Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders with U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar held a campaign rally at UMN’s Williams Arena.
On November 4, 2019, Spitzer-Resnick and other activists featured in a JVP Action group photo posted to Twitter, holding a large banner that said: “We Stand With Ilhan.”
The JVP Action tweet read: “Excited to be heading to the @BernieSanders & @IlhanMN rally tonight with our SJP fam! Bernie & Ilhan know more than most US politicians that Palestinians deserve to live in freedom & equality. Keep pushing, keep fighting! #BernieInMN #StandWithIlhan”
The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS
The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”
The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.
2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism
The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.
Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.
2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy
The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations
National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari.
IfNotNow (INN)
INN claims to be “young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions” to OPE. INN presents three demands on its website: “Stop the War on Gaza, End the Occupation, and Freedom and Dignity for All.”
INN defines “the Occupation as the military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” which is land Israel has controlled for nearly 50 years since the 1967 Six-Day War. However, INN leaders have made [00:34:32] the claim [00:13:49] at protests that the occupation is 70 years long, referring to Israel’s founding in 1948.
INN actions have aimed to demonize [00:38:13] Israel, harass [00:05:44] mainstream American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and decrease support for Israel among American Jews.
INN has used “public action and imaginative ritual” to achieve its goals, including disruptions where activists were arrested.
One of the high-profile arrests occurred at a May 2018 disruption at a U.S. Senator’s office in Washington, D.C. to protest legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
At the same incident, INN used [00:07:17] the Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer to mourn [00:09:10] protesters who were killed during the Hamas-organized and funded Great March of Return riots on the Israel-Gaza border.
INN activists have also staged and promoted walk-offs from Birthright Israel trips, a heritage trip to Israel for young Jewish adults from across the world.
INN claims to take no position on the BDS movement and that it is “open to any who seek to shift the American Jewish public away from the status quo that upholds the Occupation.” However, INN organizes with pro-BDS, anti-Israel organizations including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
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.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100000948660684/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshspitzerresnick/
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
