Ned Rosch

Overview

Ned Rosch is a the co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in Portland (JVP PDX). JVP PDX shares anti-Israel propaganda online including that Israel is committing "genocide" and claims that Israel is a “settler colonialist state.”

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

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

Rosch is self-employed as a trainer, consultant and yoga teacher.

Vilifying Israel

On March 13, 2016, Rosch said in a radio interview that pro-Israel Jews have a "settler mentality" and that Israel practices “colonialism” (9:47). He dismissed the stated intentions of Palestinian groups seeking violence against Israeli Jews as “propaganda that we’ve [Jews] all been raised with” (10:50).

Rosch called Israel "an apartheid state" (17:10) and said that Israel has committed “ethnic cleansing” and “racism” (3:15). He also said that the American Jewish community takes the position of “if you’re Jewish, then you need to justify Israel...no matter what it does” (7:35).

On October 19, 2014, Rosch held a sign claiming that Israel practices "APARTHEID."

On May 23, 2016, Rosch held a sign claiming that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) "PREACHES WAR & OCCUPATION."

On July 3, 2013, Rosch tweeted a pro-BDS link claiming that Israel practices "bigotry and racism" and that there were “parallels” between Israel and “the experience of African Americans in the U.S. under Jim Crow.” The link — from U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation — implied that Israel is one of many “settler colonies established by Europe around the world,” thereby denying the ancient Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

Supporting BDS at PSU

On October 24, 2016, SUPER authored a BDS resolution which was passed by the ASPSU. 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, Rosch appeared in a Twitter photo speaking before the ASPSU promoting BDS.

On May 9, 2016, Rosch appeared in a photo with SUPER members before a BDS resolution hearing in front of the ASPSU.

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.”

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/1020721429

Twitter:https://twitter.com/nedrosch

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ned-rosch-b6a22a68