Leah Muskin-Pierret

Spreading Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theories

On March 2, 2018, Muskin-Pierret reportedly gave testimony to the DC Council” about “the violent and racist #DeadlyExchange of worst police practices between DC and Israel.”

In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign that accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses.

On March 3, 2014, Muskin-Pierret authored an op-ed in the Tufts Daily, claiming: “Lobbies like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and... J-Street continue to strong arm congressmen and presidents alike to swear their allegiance to Israel and hound those who dare voice even tepid dissent.” 

On October 20, 2015, Muskin-Pierret wrote an article for the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss, where she alleged that there was a “silencing campaign” on college campuses, orchestrated by major American Jewish and pro-Israel organizations.

Supporting a Terrorist

On October 14, 2015, Muskin-Pierret contributed to the legal funding of terrorist Rasmea Odeh. Muskin-Pierret’s name appeareds on the second page of listed supporters on a GoFundMe campaign page initiated by a group calling itself the “rasmea-defense-committee.”

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.

Demonizing Israel and Israel Supporters

On October 28, 2015, Muskin-Pierret and other Tufts SJP activists staged a protest against a Tufts Friends of Israel (Tufts FOI) cultural event, where they reportedly bullied FOI members. Claudia Aliff, a Tufts SJP activist, told The Tufts Daily: “The disruption of this event” was the purpose of SJP’s presence there.

Tufts SJP members mocked Tufts FOI members and their displays while distributing Tufts SJP flyers. The flyers accused Israel of “theft” and “terrorism,” and blamed “Israeli police violence and oppressive policies” for the deadly “Knife Intifada” — then taking place in Israel.

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

Tufts SJP also posted signs accusing Israel of practicing “expulsion, occupation, apartheid & cultural cuisine appropriation” and declaring that Israel was founded on “stolen Palestinian land.”

On March 9, 2016, Muskin-Pierret and Tufts SJP demonstrated against the “illegal Jewish occupation on Palestinian land,” according to the Tufts student newspaper. The demonstration was part of Tufts SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).

At the demonstration, Tufts SJP distributed its 2013 publication titled “The Zintifada” — a play on the word “Intifada.”

The publication showcased another Tufts SJP activist, Sophia Goodfriend, who claimed  (p. 8) Israel was a “construction of simulated reality upon a foundation of genocide and delusion.”

The pamphlet also featured Tufts SJP co-founder Lucas Koerner, who claimed (p.17) that pro-Israel Jews felt “the imperative to dominate” as a symptom of “internalized oppression.” Koerner is infamous for reportedly biting an Israeli police officer in 2011.  

On November 10, 2014, Muskin-Pierret participated in a Tufts SJP “die-in” to protest a speech at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) legal advisor Lt. Col Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer. Tufts SJP organized a petition against the speech and what they referred to as “the genocidal logic of the Israel’s so-called ‘defense’ forces.”

On November 6, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Muskin-Pierret wrote on Mondoweiss that Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) OPE should be called a “murder, massacre, or assault” and that it was the “third in what has become a nearly biannual series of massacres.”

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.  

Muskin-Pierret also cast doubt upon Hamas’ documented policy of using human shields and urged readers “to contextualize [Hamas rocket attacks] within a larger power dynamic.”

On March 3, 2014, Muskin-Pierret authored an op-ed in the Tufts Daily where she claimed that Israel’s history bears a “glaring resemblance to the history of genocide, settler-colonialism and anti-Indigenous racism that the U.S. is built upon.”

She further alleged that Palestinians are forced into “reservation-like population centers” and that Israel has engaged in “ethnic cleansing.”  

SJP Activism

On February 2, 2016, Muskin-Pierret wrote a Facebook post recruiting for new SJP members at Tufts. She also shared a 2014 Tufts SJP op-ed that showcased the group’s prior campus actions, such as slippinged mock “demolition” notices into dorm rooms, campaigning against Birthright Israel, and performing a “mock annexation” that depicted Israeli soldiers violently arresting Palestinians.

On October 20, 2015, Muskin-Pierret defended SJP Northeastern University (SJP NU) after the group was suspended by NU for slipping mock eviction notices under students’ doors.

On October 23, 2014, Muskin-Pierret was reported to be the “logistics point person” for the 2014 National SJP Conference at Tufts. Freedman also helped Tufts SJP raise money to bring students from other campuses to the conference.

On October 24-26, 2014, Tufts SJP hosted the 2014 SJP National Conference.

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 merely 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.

Muskin-Pierret also spoke at the 2015 National SJP Conference in San Diego.

Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour

On December 3 2017, Muskin-Pierret participated in a Return the Birthright protest outside the Taglit-Birthright offices in New York City. JVP members from all over the country assembled to chant anti-Birthright slogans outside the Birthright offices.

At the protest, Muskin-Pierret spoke [01:22:14] to the protesters, saying: “So many of us were sold the lie that we could sit and sing and peace would come and we could go and ride camels and do these hollow, empty things, but instead we can make the choice that we’re making here today, to hold hands as raised fists to resist - to co-resist...”

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). 

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 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.”

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.

The United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) — formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO) — is a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations that lobbies the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and end government support for Israel.

Included in the coalition are groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Legal, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), CODEPINK, US Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), Israel Palestine Mission Network – Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), as well as various chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). USCPR is a major promoterof the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

USCPR claims to provide (p.14) "online and in-person trainings, workshops, one-on-one strategic support, and other mentorship to more than 100 organizations nationwide, including campus groups, faith-based organizations, and broad coalitions."

The coalition was founded in 2001 by anti-Israel activists.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leah.mp.abolitionnow

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