Julia Mason Wedgle
Overview
Julia Mason Wedgle participated in an anti-Israel protest in Bil’in and has spread hatred of Israel. She has been a leading activist with the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization since May 2013.As of June 2018, Wedgle’s LinkedIn said that she was a member of JVP’s national fundraising team and national membership committee. Her LinkedIn also said that, from 2012 through 2015, she was a student organizer with JVP and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Tufts University (Tufts).
Wedgle has been a campus organizer for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has demonized the Birthright Jewish heritage tour.
Wedgle is an affiliate of IfNotNow (INN), an organization that has demonized Israel and seeks to drive a wedge between American Jews and Israel. She participated in the INN Boston chapter kickoff event in September 2014.
Wedgle graduated from Tufts in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree in Peace and Justice Studies and Community Health. She claimed on LinkedIn to have guest lectured “each semester” from 2012 to 2015 on “Palestine/Israel” and JVP for the class “Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies.”
As of June 2018, Wedgle LinkedIn said she was a “Lawyer Referral Service Coordinator and Administrative Assistant” at the National Lawyer’s Guild, Massachusetts Chapter.
Anti-Israel Protest
On December 27, 2013, Wedgle posted multiple photos to Instagram showcasing her participation in an anti-Israel rally at Bil’in against Israel’s security fence.The Bil’in popular resistance committee has organized weekly demonstrations against the Israeli West Bank security barrier since 2005. The protests have attracted the media and participation of anti-Israel groups. Although described as “non-violent,” these demonstrations have often turned violent.
Iyad Burnat, the lead protest coordinator, has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS. He has also claimed that Zionism is a “racist ideology” and accused “Zionists” of controlling American politics.
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On March 4, 2015, Wedgle commented on a Tufts SJP Facebook post, writing: “as a White Jewish-American I can certainly say that Zionism and Israel are white supremacist much like the United States is … Israel was a state built by White Jewish men for White Jewish men.”On February 7, 2015, Wedgle retweeted a tweet that showed a photo of herself claiming that Israel “worsens the #climate situation for Palestinians."
On November 6, 2014, Wedgle tweeted a Tufts SJP petition and added “sign @TuftsSJP important petition! War criminals deserve a trial not a platform!”
The petition urged Tufts to prevent a legal advisor to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Lt. Col Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer, from speaking at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Shamir-Borer’s talk addressed Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On July 27, 2014, Wedgle posted a photo on Instagram of herself participating in an anti-Israel rally. Wedgle held a sign that read: “As a Jew, an American and a Human being, I say Not in my name! Stop bombing Gaza. #Free Palestine.”
On June 27, 2013, Wedgle posted an image to Instagram accusing Israel of planning a “genocide.” The image mischaracterized a proposed Israeli plan that would have officially recognized and registered the vast majority of Bedouin settlements throughout southern Israel.
On August 16, 2013, Wedgle posted a photo on Instagram to show her “evolution to a palestine solidarity activist.” She also commented “#zionismisterrorism #zionismisracism #israeliapartheid #fromtherivertothesea.”
On April 18, 2013, Wedgle tweeted: “zionism is racism. #ucbdivest.” On the same day, Wedgle tweeted that Israel engaged in “illegal colonial actions.”
On November 15, 2012, during Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD), Wedgle tweeted: “so Bibi, Israel has the right to defend itself but the Palestinians don't? I am pretty sure you started this one.”
Israel launched OPD to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Over the course of eight days in November 2012, Palestinian terrorist groups fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel. The majority struck Israel, damaging homes, schools and other civilian areas. Human Rights Watch noted: “Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim.”
Tufts SJP Activism
In October 2014, Wedgle reportedly helped organize the 2014 National SJP Conference at Tufts.On October 25, 2014, Tufts SJP quoted Sara Kershner, the founder of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), as saying at the conference: “Zionism has hijacked [Jewish] history and struggle against genocide to justify genocide today.”
On October 25, 2014, Sa’ed Atshan, then the Tufts SJP faculty advisor, blamed Israel for Palestinian honor killings and persecution of LGBTQ+ people within Palestinian society.
Clothing was sold at the conference, including a shirt with the image of airplane hijacker Leila Khaled — a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — with the text “resistance is not terrorism.”
Although the event was listed as “free and open to the public,” at least one student journalist was refused press credentials. Terror supporter Max Geller and agitator Ahmed Hamad both spoke and presented at the conference.
Conference attendee Ofek Ravid said that he was “booed and hissed at” — and told by “several members in the crowd to f**k off” — for suggesting that “Israel needs to be looked at as a complex nation through a dialectic lens, not as a black and white fragment.” Ravid was also asked to leave the building by an SJP representative.
On March 6, 2013, Wedgle participated [00:00:37] in a Tufts SJP “mock checkpoint” demonstration, which demonized Israeli security procedures.
Pushing BDS on Campus
In July 2013, Wedgle attended a five-day training session for campus BDS organizers, run by the anti-Israel groups JVP and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).According to her Linkedin, Wedgle also represented Tufts SJP in the Tufts Prison Divestment Coalition, where she reportedly “organized an event during Israel Apartheid week on BDS which served as the prison divestment campaign’s launch” and “brought Palestine to the forefront of the mission and work of the coalition.”
Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour
In December 2012, Wedgle co-wrote a primer for her SJP chapter that targeted Jews considering participating on a Birthright trip to Israel. In her primer, Wedgle claimed to have attended a Birthright trip, and credited the trip for her decision to join SJP and support BDS. The SJP primer was also reprinted in the anti-Israel online publication, Mondoweiss.Wedgle concluded her piece by urging Birthright attendees to extend their stay in Israel and join excursions offered by anti-Israel organizations such as Machsom Watch and Breaking the Silence.
On October 19, 2012, Wedgle tweeted a YouTube video showing JVP activists disrupting Birthright events by shouting down speakers. Wedgle captioned her tweet: “Occupy Birthright Israel, Un-Occupy Palestine.”
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.”
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
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/643307513/Twitter:https://twitter.com/JujuBee4393
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/jujubee4393/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-wedgle-102789105/ [Deleted]
Photos & Screenshots
