Medea Benjamin
Overview
Medea Benjamin has equated Israel with Nazi Germany and expressed support for terror groups like Hamas, including running trips to Gaza to meet Hamas officials. Benjamin has also spread anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel in her activism.Benjamin is co-founder of the anti-Israel organization CODEPINK and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Benjamin is also a leader in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Benjamin equated Israel with Nazi Germany in the wake of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Benjamin has also coordinated numerous anti-Israel demonstrations and collaborated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). She is a contributing author to the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss.
Benjamin and CODEPINK have organized and coordinated rallies against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) since 2008.
Benjamin received her master's degrees in Public Health from Columbia University and in Economics from The New School for Social Research (New School).
As of March 10, 2024, Benjamin’s LinkedIn profile About section said she “currently lives in Washington, D.C.” However, her LinkedIn Intro said she lived in San Francisco, California.
Equating Israel with Nazi Germany
On March 6, 2024, during Israel’s war against Hamas, Benjamin appeared in a video on Twitter wearing blue-striped pajamas. She explained [00:00:01]: “I’m wearing now this pajamas that’s supposed to symbolize the concentration camp and the people in the Holocaust who died of starvation, to say people are starving right now in Gaza.”Benjamin’s outfit was meant to evoke the blue-striped uniforms Jewish prisoners in concentration camps used during the Holocaust.
Benjamin continued [00:00:16] in the video: “As a Jewish person, I think it’s important to recognize that the Israelis are doing to the people of Palestine, especially in Gaza, what was done to them, our people, in the Holocaust.”
In the video, Benjamin was also wearing a pin in the shape of the State of Israel, West Bank and Gaza painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Support for Terrorists
On March 8, 2015, Benjamin posted on Facebook: “At fundraiser for Rasmea Odeh with @PhyllisBennis and Ramah Kudaimi. Rasmea has been unjustly targeted for her political work.”Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
In an August 2014, Mondoweiss article, Benjamin urged diplomatic engagement with Hamas because it has “a social welfare wing” and because, she claimed, “the more moderate members of Hamas tend to run the government agencies, oftentimes at odds with the more militant members.”
Benjamin argued that Hamas should be removed from the U.S. terrorist list and engaged as a negotiating partner.
Benjamin admitted that Hamas had “certainly been involved in terrorist activities–from suicide bombings in the 1990s to launching rockets into civilian areas in Israel.”
In May 2009, Benjamin led a CODEPINK delegation to Gaza, which was welcomed by Hamas officials. A month earlier, Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned Hamas for executing and torturing Palestinians. Benjamin personally met with senior Hamas officials and carried a letter back to then-President Obama, signed by Dr. Ahmed Yousef, Deputy Foreign Minister and senior advisor to Gaza’s Prime Minister Ismail Haniya.
Youtube videos, dated May 27, 2009, documented Hamas officials welcoming Benjamin’s delegation and hosting a Q&A session that served as a podium for unchallenged Hamas propaganda.
Benjamin has led at least seven delegations to Gaza since 2009.
On June 14, 2014, Benjamin posted a photo on Facebook with the caption: “Foto from last night here in Yemen with Nasser Al-Awlaki, whose son Anwar and grandson Abdulrahman were killed by drones.”
Anwar al-Awlaki was linked to the Fort Hood Shooting and identified by the U.S. government as involved in senior recruitment and planning for Al Qaeda terrorist operations.
On June 17, 2013, Benjamin and fellow co-founder of CODEPINK, Jodie Evans, organized a protest in Yemen with Al Qaeda-affiliated group al-Karama. Later that year, the U.S. Treasury Department determined that al-Karama’s founding president, Qatari history professor and human-rights activist Abdul Rahman Omeir al-Naimi, was an Al-Qaeda financier.
Anti-Semitism & Hatred of Israel
israel first. Un-American.”Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Zionism is a core part of the identity of most Jews.
The term “Israel-Firster” is an anti-Semitic slur used against Jews to accuse them of dual loyalty. The term also applies to non-Jews to allege they are more loyal to Israel than to their own countries.
The stated mission of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
On March 4, 2013, Benjamin tweeted: “@RepSwalwell @AIPAC Ah, so exciting to be w people who support an apartheid state, no? They are also good at buying Congress. #AIPAC2013.”
On September 29, 2014, Benjamin participated in an anti-Israel and anti-American conference in Iran called New Horizon. She went alongside anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and Holocaust deniers. Iranian state media outlet Press TV wrote that the 2014 conference’s goal was “to unveil the secrets behind the dominance of the Zionist lobby over US and EU politics.”
The “Israel Lobby” is a conspiracy theory alleging Israeli and Jewish control over the U.S. government. Proponents of the theory decry the negative effects on American interests, particularly in foreign policy.
In an October 3, 2014 interview, Benjamin reportedly alleged that “that we have been conducting foreign policy often times in the interest of Israel against the interests of the United States,” and that “every single new Congressman is forced by pressure to go on a trip to Israel paid for by a lobby group …”
In a February 3, 2015 article, Benjamin wrote that “most of Congress is in the pocket of AIPAC.” Benjamin went on to blame AIPAC for “increased anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East” and for “sowing the seeds of more possible terrorist attacks against us.”
Anti-Israel Activism (CODEPINK)
After the police moved to block the assault on one AIPAC attendee, some protesters began verbally abusing the police officers called to preserve order and public safety. Benjamin claimed the officers were not “real police” and called them “really Nazis”.
On November 12, 2015, shortly after former professor Steven Salaita claimed: “Civility is the language of genocide...It’s a word whose connotations can be seen as nothing if not as racist,” Benjamin retweeted a tweet that read: “Steven Salaita settles lawsuit. Huge win for freedom of speech #FreePalestine @codepink electronicintifada…
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 March 1, 2015, Benjamin and CODEPINK co-organized a “Shut Down AIPAC” rally outside of the 2015 AIPAC Policy Conference.
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
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.
Code Pink
CODEPINK is a U.S.-based activist group founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and other activists to oppose the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The group actively opposes “U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and has been criticized for maintaining close ties to Hamas. CODEPINK also promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
CODEPINK has led a number of solidarity delegations to Gaza under Hamas protection. In March 2014, CODEPINK also helped organize an “International Women's Day” delegation to Gaza. However, upon arriving at the Cairo airport on March 3, 2014, Benjamin was detained by Egyptian authorities and refused entry into Gaza. She was then forcibly deported to Turkey.
CODEPINKBDS campaigns have targeted RE/MAX, Ahava, SodaStream, Hewlett Packard and Airbnb. On November 20, 2016, CODEPINK leader Ariel Gold disrupted a speech given by the actor Ashton Kutcher, an Airbnb investor who defended the company. Gold was escorted off the stage by security.
In September 2008, a number of CODEPINK leaders met with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. CODEPINK reportedly initiated its anti-Israel campaign followeding meeting. In November 2008, Jodie Evans and a CODEPINK contingent visited Iran at the personal invitation of Ahmadinejad.
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.”
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/medea.benjamin
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
