Noa Kattler-Kupetz
Overview
Noa Kattler-Kupetz has opposed the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, a bipartisan bill drafted in response to growing anti-Semitism in the United States and passed unanimously by the United States Senate.Kattler-Kupetz has promoted the #returnthebirthright initiative launched by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization against the Birthright Jewish heritage tour.
Kattler-Kupetz is also an affiliateof Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), having attended several of their anti-Israel programs, including “Israel Apartheid Week.”
Kattler-Kupetz is a memberof Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an organization that promotes the the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at Columbia University (Columbia) and Barnard College (Barnard)
Kattler-Kupetz has demonized U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman during a protest organized by IfNotNow (INN), an organization that uses disruptive tactics to drive a wedge between American Jewry and Israel.
As of November 2, 2017 Kattler-Kupetz’ LinkedIn page described her as a student at Barnard, majoring in American Studies and slated to graduate in 2018.
On Facebook, Kattler-Kupetz goes by the moniker “Noa Sprinkle.”
Opposing the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act
In December of 2016, Kattler-Kupetz signed a JVP-launched petition against the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act (AAA), unanimously approved by the United States Senate on December 1, 2016.The AAA directed the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to use the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism when evaluating hostile environment complaints.
JVP’s petition asserted that anti-Semitism did not warrant its own bill, but should rather be considered equal to other forms of bigotry. The petition also purported that “real anti-Semitism” came from the “white supremacist movements in this country” and contended the bill did “little to protect us, as Jewish students, from these dangers.”
The petition also claimed that BDS was “not inherently anti semitic,” and called the State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism “problematic.”
Demonizing U.S. Ambassador David Friedman
Kattler-Kupetz was involved in protesting the nomination of David Friedman for the post of United States Ambassador to Israel. On February 21, 2017, Kattler-Kupetz and other INN NYC members demonstrated in the lobby of the building hosting Mr. Friedman’s confirmation hearing, holding placards and reading prepared statements.The group conducted a mock press conference, with one activist portraying Friedman. Kattler-Kupetz read [00:00:18] INN’s complaints against Friedman’s appointment from a script, and called it a “distinct displeasure” to welcome Ambassador Friedman to his confirmation hearing.
Several others, including Columbia student Jack Synder, posed questions to “Friedman” and berated his scripted responses.
After the skit, the group left the building while singing.
Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour
On October 13, 2017, JVP featured Kattler-Kupetz in a Facebook photo to promote JVP’s #returnthebirthright campaign.The caption on the photo read: "I #ReturntheBirthright because Palestinians should be able to go home." - Noa, tabling today with Columbia/Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace. Sign the pledge to #ReturntheBirthright.”
On October 18, another photo featuring Kattler-Kupetz was shared by Columbia/Barnard JVP on Facebook with the caption: “#ReturntheBirthright tabling in Diana until 2 pm!! Come say hi!”
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.
CUAD is comprised of JVP and SJP members, who joined forces in February 2016. The group called on Columbia to divest its equity holdings and endowment funds from companies that — in CUAD’s words — “profit from the State of Israel’s ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law.”
CUAD listed eight target companies that it believed “*likely* to be invested in by a university like CU.”
Anti-Israel Campus Activism
Kattler-Kupetz has attended several events jointly organized and sponsored by SJP, JVP and CUAD.During the week of February 27-March 3, Kattler-Kupetz attended “Israeli-Apartheid Week” events. Associated events included visiting a mock “Apartheid Wall,” “Teaching Palestine: Scholarship and Resistance” and a lecture titled “Zionists are Racists”
On April 24, 2017, Kattler-Kupetz attended an event called “The Road to Freedom: A panel discussion with Omar Barghouti.”
Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement, rejects the existence of Israel. Barghouti has insisted that the demands of BDS are “inflexible” and “non-negotiable” — and if people object, then “tough.”
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.”
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.
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:www.facebook.com/1640290972LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/noa-kattler-kupetz-2923a592/
