Matthew Zeltzer
Overview
Matthew Zeltzer has expressed support for terrorists, defended violent protesters and promoted an IfNotNow (INN) training session that featured Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).He has also demonized Israel and is an activist with INN.
In 2017, Zeltzer was affiliated with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In 2015, Zeltzer attended the JVP National Membership Meeting.
As of April 2019, Zeltzer was listed as a volunteer and member of the Farm Crew at Stony Point Center in Stony Point, NY since May 2013.
Zeltzer reportedly graduated from Vassar College (Vassar) in 2013.
Support for Terrorists
On April 21, 2017, Zeltzer joined JVP NYC activists in supporting Palestinian Hunger strikers participating in the “Dignity Strike.”“Dignity Strike” refers to a hunger strike initiated by Marwan Barghouti on April 16, 2017. More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners participated in the strike – most them also convicted for acts of terrorism. Barghouti headed the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He was sentenced to five consecutive life terms by an Israeli civilian court for some of his crimes, including his role in the Sbarro Cafe bombing.
Defending Violent Protesters
On June 6, 2018, Zeltzer promoted INN’s #YouNeverToldMe campaign on Facebook andlinked to an INN petition calling on the Reform movement to “join us in condemning the violence in Gaza, the embassy move, and the occupation.”The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
The INN petition claimed that “Israeli soldiers opened fire on Palestinian protesters, killing over 60 and wounding thousands; more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and tens of thousands wounded since March during largely nonviolent protests” and alleged “our institutions make excuses when unarmed Palestinians are shot dead.”
The petition also condemned the U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The #YouNeverToldMe campaign features INN members providing testimonials about their Israel-related educational experiences with different Jewish organizations, including United Synagogue Youth (USY), Camp Ramah, the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) and the Solomon Schechter Day School Network.
Some of the testimonials were published as op-ed pieces in publications including The Forward, the JewSchool and 972mag.
Protesting AIPAC
On March 23, 2018, Zeltzer indicated on Facebook that he would promote and attended an INN-organized training event in Washington D.C., titled: “ResistAIPAC Anti-Islamophobia Training,” that was “developed and facilitated in coordination” with Taher Herzallah, the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing for AMP.The training event’s Facebook page promised to “continue the theme of the day with an action” that focused on the ways “AIPAC supports Islamophobia.”
The INN organizers wrote they were “excited to be joined by” Ramah Kudaimi, the Director of Grassroots Organizing for U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations, which lobbies the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and to end support for Israel.
INN reported that the event was attended by “55 IfNotNow members from Washington D.C, Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City.”
They also reported that the training session looked at “messages of Islamophobia” and “focused on the ways the Jewish institutions in which many of us grew-up teach and propagate these messages.”
INN then listened to Herzallah go into “greater detail about various Jewish institutions that perpetuate Islamophobia support the occupation.”
The training event was followed by a protest outside of AIPAC's Conference at the Mt. Vernon Convention Center that evening to focus “on the ways AIPAC supports Islamophobia.”
At the protest, INN organizer Jill Raney said that the training earlier that day taught [00:22:10] her how Islamophobia is closely tied to the “American support for the Occupation.”
During the protest, one leader claimed [00:30:18] that AIPAC is “Islamophobic” and “peddles Islamophobia.” Another INN speaker took the bullhorn to explain [00:09:04] that he came out to “make sure that we continue to resist the awful influence that AIPAC has on the Jewish community and our country as a whole.”
Demonizing Israel
On August 11, 2014, Zeltzer was featured in a photo posted to Facebook from an August 5, 2015 “Rockland County Peace Vigil,” holding a sign that read: “JEWS AGAINST THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE.” The sign also featured a misleading series of maps known as the “Map that lies.”The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
Zelzer was also listed as creating INN groups “Boston Hive” and “Philadelphia Hive” in 2016.
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).
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.”
