Nate Taskin

Overview

Nate Taskin [Nathan Taskin] has glorified terrorists, expressed support for terror organizations and demonized Zionists and Israel. Taskin has also spread hatred of America and engaged in anti-Israel activism.

As of January 2019, Taskin was an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (UMass Amherst).  

As of the same date, Taskin was also a member of the UMass Amherst chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Taskin promoted the #returnthebirthright initiative launched by JVP against the Birthright Jewish heritage tour.

As of April 2018, Taskin’s LinkedIn page said Taskin graduated from UMass Amherst with a bachelor’s degree in “The Science of Fiction” in 2018.

In January 2022, Taskin wrote on Facebook that Taskin was located in South Hadley, Massachusetts.

As of May 2022, Taskin used the alias “Nasan Potosh” on Facebook. As of the same date, Taskin used the alias “Nosson Taskin” on Instagram. Taskin had previously used the aliases “Noss Petashnick” and “Natan Petashnik.” 

Glorifying Terrorists

In January 2019, at a UMass Amherst panel event, Taskin reportedly said: “women have been visible in armed resistance in Palestine. One woman I want to give special mention to is Leila Khaled, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP]…I mention her specifically because I remember reading her biography and feeling inspired by her story.”

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.  

Taskin retweeted a January 30, 2018 tweet that said: “‘Ghassan Kanafani corners [Australian journalist Richard] Carleton as he proposes the empty, defeatist idea of ‘peace talks’ between Israel & Palestinians. ‘It is a conversation between the neck and the sword.’” 

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.  

Support for Terror Organizations

On May 5, 2019, Taskin tweeted: “Always with the ‘what about hamas!’ But ‘Israel’ smothered all secular Gazan political orgs [organizations] and boosted Hamas after the Intifadas because they thought Gaza would be easier to control…”

Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians. 

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.  

On February 25, 2018, Taskin tweeted a video called “Palestinian Socialist song of the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine].” YouTube has since removed the video due to its policy on violent/graphic content.

The PFLP is a designated terrorist organization by the United States, European Union, Canada and Israel. 

Demonizing Zionists

On March 6, 2018, Taskin wrote an opinion piece for The Massachusetts Daily Collegian, titled: “Why is there a monument to a war criminal on our campus?” 

In the article, Taskin condemned a UMass campus memorial dedicated to the assassinated former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, whom Taskin accused of “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity.”

On March 27, 2018, Taskin tweeted: “No meaningful solidarity work is gonna come until Jews as a community actively disengage from Zionism...”

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.

Demonizing Israel

Taskin retweeted a May 25, 2018 tweet that said: “...Israel is an illegal white supremacist European Jewish settler colonial military colony...”

Taskin retweeted a May 18, 2018 tweet that featured a Facebook comment written by Taskin, in which Taskin claimed that Israel “criminalizes all forms of dissent.”

On May 30, 2017, Taskin tweeted: “...it also usefully highlights how Nazi and Zionist beliefs are pretty simpatico.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

Hatred of America

On August 18, 2018, Taskin participated in an “anti-fascism” rally in Springfield, Massachusetts. At the rally, Taskin said [00:00:39] that Taskin was a member of the Western Massachusetts branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)

Taskin compared [00:02:17] America’s modern-day bipartisan political system to the Weimar Republic. The Weimar Republic was the German system of government that gave rise to Hitler and the Nazi Party.

Taskin also reportedly called America a “capitalist white supremacist state.” 

Taskin retweeted a June 1, 2018 tweet that said: “Zionism like ISIS [the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] is the creation of AngloAmerican white supremacist empire…”

Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour

On March 12, 2018, the Return the Birthright campaign posted to Facebook a photo of a group of JVP members standing behind a Return the Birthright sign that featured Taskin in the center. 

The caption on the photo said: “We are young Jews from around the world who Return the Birthright, for Palestinian right of return. Join us! Sign and share our pledge to boycott Birthright.”

On April 15, 2018, Taskin participated [01:06:00] in a Return the Birthright protest outside the Taglit Birthright Gala in New York City. The protest condemned pro-Israel philanthropist Sheldon Adelson who received an award from Taglit-Birthright for helping finance the program.

At the protest, Taskinsaid [01:07:38]: “Birthright is an affront to Judaism. It is an affront to every single word that is written in the Torah.”

Taskin also accused [01:08:18] Israel of “genocide and ethnic cleansing,” and concluded by saying [01:09:29]: “This is why I return the Birthright.”

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)

Since 2015, JVP has received $280,000 from RBF, which has a history of supporting anti-Jewish causes, including BDS campaigns and various organizations that promote BDS campaigns throughout the United States. 

Anti-Israel Activism

On May 15, 2018, Taskin tweeted: “Was at a @jvplive Nakba Memorial/Gaza Solidarity rally in Northampton. The rain was relentless (tornado warning!), yet the skies cleared the moment we shouted ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ three times. 🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.


“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle 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.


On May 11, 2018, Taskin indicated on Facebook that Taskin attended an event called: “2nd Annual Cultural Night: 1000 Nights of Resistance.”  The event was co-hosted by SJP of Hunter College and CUNY [the City University of New York] Divest. The event description said: “Join the Palestine Solidarity Alliance and Arab Studies Club of Hunter College for our 2nd Annual cultural resistance event as we mark the 70th anniversary of the Nakba.”

On April 22, 2018, Taskin indicated on Facebook that Taskin “went” to an event called: “Vigil for Gaza: solidarity with the Great Return March.” The event was hosted by JVP Western Mass.

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.”

On March 27, 2018, Taskin indicated on Facebook that Taskin “went” to an event called: “Resisting Occupation ~ Palestine, Honduras, Springfield, MA [Massachusetts].”  The event was co-hosted by UMass Amherst SJP and JVP Western Mass, and the event description claimed: “After 70 years, the Israeli occupation, with backing from the U.S. government, continues to dismantle and destroy the lives of Palestinian people worldwide.”

On April 19, 2017, Taskin indicated on Facebook that he“went” to an SJP event called: “Living Under Israeli Apartheid: Mock Wall [security barrier].”

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

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.”


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.


Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100041846419186

Extra Videos
Nate Taskin
Status:
Unknown
University:
Massachusetts-Amherst
Organizations:
JVP,
SJP

Related Profiles:

Last Modified:
05/04/2026

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Infamous Quotes

“...it also usefully highlights how Nazi and Zionist beliefs are pretty simpatico.”
“No meaningful solidarity work is gonna come until Jews as a community actively disengage from Zionism...”
“Birthright is an affront to Judaism. It is an affront to every single word that is written in the Torah.”