Maiya Zwerling
Overview
Maiya Zwerling has supported violent protesters as an activist with IfNotNow (INN) in Washington, D.C. She has led an INN event repurposing Jewish rituals, protested against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and promoted INN DC’s partnership with Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).
She has also promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement,endorsed anti-Israel agitators and demonized Israel.
As of August 2019, Zwerling’s LinkedIn page said she was a Graduate Summer Policy Intern at the California Budget & Policy Center from “Jun 2019 - Present.”
Also as of August 2019, Zwerling’s LinkedIn page said she was pursuing a master’s degree in Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), slated to graduate in 2020.
As of the same date, Zwerling’s LinkedIn page said that she graduated from Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr) in 2013, with a bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology and Psychology and thatshe was a “Graduate Student Instructor for Professor Robert Reich” with the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley from January - June 2019.
She has also promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement,endorsed anti-Israel agitators and demonized Israel.
As of August 2019, Zwerling’s LinkedIn page said she was a Graduate Summer Policy Intern at the California Budget & Policy Center from “Jun 2019 - Present.”
Also as of August 2019, Zwerling’s LinkedIn page said she was pursuing a master’s degree in Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), slated to graduate in 2020.
As of the same date, Zwerling’s LinkedIn page said that she graduated from Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr) in 2013, with a bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology and Psychology and thatshe was a “Graduate Student Instructor for Professor Robert Reich” with the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley from January - June 2019.
Her LinkedIn page also said she was the “National Organizing Manager” with the anti-Israel “Friends Committee on National Legislation” in Washington, D.C. from February 2015 - 2018.
Supporting Violent Protesters
On May 14, 2018, Zwerling participated in an INN DC demonstration in Washington, D.C. to mourn [01:09:33] the Palestinians killed during the violent 2018 March of Return riots on Israel’s border with Gaza.In May 2018, terror group Hamas instigated violent riots on the Israeli-Gaza border. Thousands of rioters attempted to breach Israel’s border fence, declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
During the demonstration INN protestors chanted [01:32:00] “We are horrified by Israel’s violent response to Palestinian non-violent protests.”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
The May 14, 2018 event also protested the U.S. government’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish is a prayer customarily reserved for close relatives or Jews murdered for being Jews.
On October 13, 2016, Zwerling led an INN-hosted second day of fasting, following the ancient Jewish fast day of Yom Kippur, “to atone for 50 years of occupation.”
On April 19, 2016, Zwerling led an INN “liberation seder” in front of Hillel International’s office in Washington, D.C. The activists can be seen sitting at a mock Passover Seder table and wearing t-shirts that say: “No Liberation With Occupation.”
A Seder is a Jewish Passover ritual, that involves telling the story of the Israelites’ exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt and their travels to the Promised Land.
The May 14, 2018 event also protested the U.S. government’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the decision to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Repurposing Jewish Rituals
On June 4, 2017, Zwerling tweeted: “We say the Mourners Kaddish outside the FIDF days before we mark 50 years of occupation #50YearsTooMany #EndTheOccupation.”The Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish is a prayer customarily reserved for close relatives or Jews murdered for being Jews.
On October 13, 2016, Zwerling led an INN-hosted second day of fasting, following the ancient Jewish fast day of Yom Kippur, “to atone for 50 years of occupation.”
On April 19, 2016, Zwerling led an INN “liberation seder” in front of Hillel International’s office in Washington, D.C. The activists can be seen sitting at a mock Passover Seder table and wearing t-shirts that say: “No Liberation With Occupation.”
A Seder is a Jewish Passover ritual, that involves telling the story of the Israelites’ exodus from slavery in ancient Egypt and their travels to the Promised Land.
INN uploaded resources for public use and claimed that approximately 500 people participated in their liberation seders. Twenty three INN activists were reportedly arrested at liberation seder events across the country.
On October 1, 2014, Zwerling participated in an INN-hosted event titled: “Taschlich Interrupted,” intended to “cast off the sins of our community and its institutions, which are complicit in the ongoing occupation of Palestine.”
On October 1, 2014, Zwerling participated in an INN-hosted event titled: “Taschlich Interrupted,” intended to “cast off the sins of our community and its institutions, which are complicit in the ongoing occupation of Palestine.”
The event appropriated a Jewish High Holiday ritual, called Tashlich, in which individuals symbolically cast off their sins.
Protesting AIPAC
On March 21, 2016, Zwerling participated in an INN protest outside the Washington, D.C. venue of the AIPAC Conference, calling to “#DumpAIPAC.”The stated mission of AIPAC is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
INN organizers claimed on Facebook that AIPAC's invitation to the U.S. President revealed AIPAC was “more invested in the politics of hate than in a vision of a peaceful Middle East.”
On April 5, 2018, Zwerling tweeted: “‘If orgs like @aipac are supportive of shooting unarmed protestors in the back, then we will have to be the moral voice of the Jewish people’ -@busganger #EnoughOccupation #WeSayDayenu.”
Also on April 5, 2018, Zwerling tweeted: “Young Jews condemn IDF violence on Palestinians in Gaza. Orgs like @AIPAC maintain the status quo and justify this senseless killing in the name of protecting jews #WeSayDayenu #EnoughOccupation #NotInMyName.”
On April 5, 2018, Zwerling tweeted: “‘If orgs like @aipac are supportive of shooting unarmed protestors in the back, then we will have to be the moral voice of the Jewish people’ -@busganger #EnoughOccupation #WeSayDayenu.”
Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border [with Israel] and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”
Also on April 5, 2018, Zwerling tweeted: “Young Jews condemn IDF violence on Palestinians in Gaza. Orgs like @AIPAC maintain the status quo and justify this senseless killing in the name of protecting jews #WeSayDayenu #EnoughOccupation #NotInMyName.”
Promoting BDS
On April 16, 2018, Zwerling promoted on Twitter an INN DC disruption in U.S. Senator Ben Cardin’s office. The disruption was in partnership with Herzallah, the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of AMP and was a protest against 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.”
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 that the Israeli response to the Great March of Return protests on their border with Gaza was that [00:05:42] “the Israeli soldiers pick off Palestinian protesters like it’s open season.”
Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the Gaza protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border [with Israel] and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”
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 saying 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: “we will continue to stand every Friday, ‘til we return, continue on the Great March.”
Also on April 16, 2018, Zwerling tweeted: “Killing non-violent protestors is unacceptable. That's what the Israeli army is doing in Gaza. Young jews won't be silent when these autorcities are committed in the name of protecting the Jewish people #HowManyMore #NotInMyName.”
Zwerling’s tweet also linked to a Haaretz article with a headline mentioning the disruption at Cardin’s office.
On January 30, 2014, Zwerling tweeted: “Disappointed w/ScarJohansson for choosing SodaStream(Israeli company that trades from WBank) >relationship w/@Oxfam http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-25958176…”
Zwerling’s tweet referred to actress Scarlett Johansson's decision to appear in an advertising campaign for the Israeli company Soda Stream.
Until 2015, Soda Stream’s principal manufacturing facility in the Mishor Adumim industrial park in the West Bank employed 500 West Bank Palestinians, who worked alongside the company’s Jewish workers in Israel’s West Bank.
Endorsing Anti-Israel Agitators
On January 31, 2018, Zwerling tweeted: “Inspired by the Jewish High Schoolers across the country who praying with their feet. They say no to the detention of 16-year-old Ahed Tamimi. They say no to endless occupation. They say yes to freedom and dignity for all #FreeAhed #NoBirthdayBehindBars @IfNotNowOrg.”
Ahed Tamimi has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.
On September 28, 2017, Zwerling tweeted: “From the US to Palestine, @IfNotNowOrg and American Jews stand for freedom and dignity for all with our friend @Issaamro #endtheoccupation.” She attached to her tweet a photo of herself with Issa Amro and other INN activists.
Anti-Israel agitator Issa Amro is known for vandalism and attacks on Israeli soldiers and civilians. Amro heads the Youth Against Settlements (YAS) movement, an anti-Israel organization based in Hebron that promotes anti-Semitism, rock-throwing and violence against Israelis.
Zwerling also tweeted: “Here w/ @IfNotNowOrg showing up for our friend @Issaamro. We are building the #jewishresistance that stands for freedom and dignity for all.”
Demonizing Israel
On July 24, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Zwerling tweeted: “Yes, Gaza militants hide rockets in schools, but Israel doesn't have to bomb them...”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
During OPE, Hamas forced journalists to conceal its war crimes when reporting from Gaza. However, multiple news sources exposed Hamas's exploitation of civilian infrastructure to attack Israel, as well as Hamas's use of human shields to frustrate Israel’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.
INN Activity
On May 20, 2017, Zwerling appeared in a group photo on Facebook of INN activists attending a training session in Washington DC.On November 20, 2016, Zwerling appeared in a group photo on Facebook of INN activists attending a training session in Washington DC.
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).
IfNotNow (INN)
IfNotNow (INN) is an anti-Israel organization founded in 2014, in response to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.
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 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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/1454130139
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ML_GZ
