Maxine Fookson

Overview

Maxine Fookson is a leading member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in Portland (JVP PDX). Fookson regularly spreads anti Israel propaganda on her personal Twitter account. JVP PDX also shares anti-Israel propaganda online, including accusations that Israel is committing "genocide" and allegations that Israel is a “settler colonialist state.”

Fookson, a pediatric nurse practitioner, is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and is an activist with the BDS group Occupation Free Portland (OFP).

Fookson has been involved with BDS efforts at Portland State University (PSU) that have been led by Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at PSU, an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). JVP Portland and SUPER are both members of OFP.

Fookson is the co-host for the monthly radio show, One Land Many Voices, on Portland area radio station KBOO, where she and co-host Mohammed Nabil often host anti-Israel speakers like Miko Peled and BDS founder Omar Barghouti.

Supporting Terrorists

On April 18, 2017, Fookson tweeted a graphic reading "Free Barghouti," which urged support for Marwan Barghouti — who is serving five life sentences in Israel for his role in various deadly terror attacks.

Barghouti headed the the Palestinian Authority’s Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Barghouti’s organizations carried out a large number of attacks that killed scores of Israelis and wounding hundreds more. Barghouti is reported to have orchestrated some of the deadliest attacks of the second Intifada.

Fookson’s tweet read: "@Addameer @jvplive #FreePalestinianPolitical_Prisoners." Addameer is an organization that advocates on behalf of Palestinian prisoners — and often characterizes as “political prisoners” those convicted for deadly terror attacks. Addameer has been reported to be an affiliate of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization.

On November 13, 2014, following a trip to Gaza, Fookson also praised the late Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi on her blog. Fookson wrote that she was informed Al-Rantisi was a Hamas terrorist but claimed that "when you dig in you learn he was the Dr. Spock of Gaza--a gentle pediatrician, fierce for liberation."

Rantisi supported suicide bombings against Israeli civilians and said in 2003: "By God, we will not leave one Jew in Palestine. We will fight them with all the strength we have. This is our land, not the Jews."

On November 17, 2014, Fookson also posted an image to Facebook in support of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Odeh was a military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a bombing that killed two university 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 her 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. In 2017, Odeh was deported to Jordan and stripped of U.S. citizenship, after admitting to immigration fraud.

Vilifying Israel

On October 15, 2014, Fookson retweeted a tweet that claimed that Israel is committing "#GenocideInGaza." The tweet also used a hashtag — #JSIL (Jewish State of Israel in the Levant) — designed to compare Israel to ISIS.

On October 7, 2016, Fookson wrote on Facebook that Israel practices "Apartheid."

On May 1, 2016, Fookson posted a Facebook photo showing a Palestinian flag with the phrase: "DEAR USA YOUR 9/11 IS OUR 24/7," a reference to the September 11, 2011 attacks.

On May 23, 2016, Fookson posted a photo on Facebook of protesters holding a sign claiming that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) "PREACHES WAR & OCCUPATION."

On May 22, 2016, Fookson tweeted a photo of protesters holding signs reading: "AIPAC = ETHNIC CLEANSING" and “STOP ISRAELI OCCUPATION AND APARTHEID.”

On September 12, 2015, Fookson tweeted a map which distorts the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict. In February of 2016, publishing giant McGraw-Hill Education recalled and destroyed copies of a college textbook that contained copies of the map.

On October 18, 2015, Fookson retweeted a tweet showing the same map which was aired on MSNBC. MSNBC later apologized for airing the map and retracted it.

On August 3, 2015, Fookson retweeted a JVP tweet featuring Haneen Zoabi — a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions. Zoabi called for "developing popular resistance" and BDS in the tweet.

On July 29, 2015, Fookson retweeted a tweet from BDS activist Susan Abulhawa who called Israelis "f**king Zionist colonizers."

Endorsing Anti-Semites

On April 9, 2015, Fookson posed for a photo alongside Professor Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut, after SUPER held an event at which Salaita spoke.

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

On November 19, 2014, Fookson responded to a photo featuring pro-Hamas propagandist Dr. Mads Gilbert and another person, saying, "Love and deep respect to you both--true humanitarians."

Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership. 

In 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 Gilbert was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site. During that time he acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza.

In 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert expressed support for the terror acts as a “legitimate response.” In December of 2009, Gilbert was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

Supporting BDS at PSU

On October 24, 2016, SUPER authored a BDS resolution which passed the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), the PSU student government. Fookson was present that night and praised SUPER after the vote.

The resolution, which attempts to portray the State of Israel as a modern incarnation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the university to divest from companies with ties to the Jewish state in an effort to discourage these companies from doing further business with Israel.

On May 23, 2016, Fookson tweeted multiple photos from a BDS resolution hearing in front of the ASPSU. Among the photos she tweeted were of SUPER members.

On May 9, 2016, Fookson appeared in a photo before a BDS resolution hearing in front of the ASPSU. She stood alongside several SUPER members.

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.”

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.

SUPER - Honoring Terrorists

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted its Palestinian Cultural Night where the group set up multiple displays honoring terrorists. Among them were Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members Leila Khaled and Rasmea Odeh.

Khaled hijacked airplanes with the PFLP in 1969 and 1970 while Odeh masterminded a 1969 bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket and 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 her as the mastermind.

The same event honored the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat and senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi, as well as Haneen Zoabi — a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) — who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions.

On November 19, 2014, SUPER hosted an event exclusively supporting Odeh.

On March 1, 2014, SUPER hosted another Palestinian Cultural Night where they honored Arafat.

SUPER - Bringing Anti-Israel Speakers to PSU

On May 23, 2016, SUPER hosted an event featuring Nada Elia who — in October of 2015, while Palestinians across Israel stabbed scores of Israeli civilians during the "Knife Intifada" — wrote an article titled “Why Be Afraid of an Intifada?” where she said “Intifadas are good.”

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi who is known for his aggressively anti-Israel performances.

On April 9, 2015, SUPER hosted Professor Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

On February 24, 2015, SUPER hosted BDS founder Omar Barghouti and Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director of anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

On May 13, 2014, SUPER hosted anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: "Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit."

On December 13, 2013, SUPER hosted terror supporter Eva Bartlett.

On May 25, 2012, SUPER hosted blood libel propagator Jasbir Puar who has claimed that Israel harvests Palestinian organs and stunts Palestinian growth.

On February 25, 2012, SUPER hosted conspiracy theorist As’ad Abu Khalil who said two weeks earlier that among the "anti-Semitic kooks" within the Palestinian movement were possibly “infiltrators to sabotage our cause and smear our campaigns.”

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/1081698100

Twitter:https://twitter.com/palsolPDX

Blog:http://maxine-gazahealth.blogspot.com/