Paula Kahn
Overview
Kahn has participated in an anti-Israel activist trip and equated Israel with Nazi Germany. Kahn has also harassed participants of Birthright Israel at the airport.
Kahn is a leader with the Los Angeles chapter of the anti-Israel group IfNotNow (INN) and is affiliated with the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). In 2016-2017, Kahn was a leader with CODEPINK.
Kahn has also promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
On October 26, 2019, Kahn announced on Facebook that Kahn was running to represent California’s 30th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Kahn was looking for signatures and donations to help get her name on the ballot. Kahn set up both a Twitter account and a fundraising site for her campaign but reportedly withdrew from the election before the primary on March 3, 2020.
As of January 2020, Kahn’s since-deleted LinkedIn profile said Kahn was the “Founder” of CosmoVisiones Ancestrales, the “Communications Coordinator” for SoCal350 and a “Consultant” for Reframe Health and Justice.
Kahn’s LinkedIn also said Kahn was a 2015 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), where Kahn received a bachelor’s degree in “Interdisciplinary Studies, Migration, Prison and Performance Studies.”
Also as of January 2020, Kahn used the name “La Pachamami” on Facebook.
As of January 2020, Kahn’s LinkedIn said Kahn was located in the Greater Los Angeles Area.
6/23/2024 - Assaulting an Israel Supporter Outside a Los Angeles Synagogue during a Hamas War
On June 23, 2024, Kahn assaulted [00:00:02] an Israel supporter during a violent brawl outside the Adas Torah synagogue in Los Angeles, California. Khan repeatedly hit the victim on the head with a metal water bottle. Khan can be seen in the video wearing a white and pink baseball hat and a face mask. The incident took place during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.On June 23, 2024, a violent riot broke out outside the Adas Torah synagogue in a densely populated Jewish area in Los Angeles, California. The riot began as a protest organized by anti-Israel agitators in response to a sale of “housing projects in all the best [English-speaking] neighborhoods in Israel.” During the protest, anti-Israel activists blocked [00:00:11] access to the synagogue and, later in the day, harassed Jewish residents in their neighborhood.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
Arrest
On April 11, 2018, Kahn was arrested at an INN LA-organized protest, titled: “Stop the Violence: Vigil & March for Gaza.”Most of the Gazans who died between March 30 and April 6, 2018, were identified as terror operatives who were killed while carrying out terrorist attacks, rioting against IDF forces or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
Kahn and other activists blocked the entrance to the Jewish Federation of Los Angeles building while holding a sign that read: “How many more? #EnoughOccupation.” When the activists, including Kahn, refused police requests to stop blocking the entrance, they were arrested.
During the protest, activists recited [00:20:11] the Mourner’s Kaddish for Gazans who died during these border riots.
The Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish is a prayer customarily reserved for close relatives or Jews murdered for being Jews.
The event’s Facebook description said: “While we celebrated our own people's liberation, we witnessed the killing of 30 innocent Palestinians in Gaza. We can no longer stay silent.”
March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Rioters also made numerous attempts to breach Israel’s border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.
Activist Trip to Israel
Kahn traveled to Israel as a delegate with Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB) and a representative of CODEPINK, on an IFPB Delegation (now known as EyeWitness Palestine) that was sponsored by CODEPINK. Kahn was part of the “May 2017 Delegation: Incarceration, Detention, & Political Prisoners.”Khan appeared in multiple photos on Instagram, as part of the delegation, which used the trips hashtag: “#ifpb61.”
On May 27, 2017, Kahn appeared in a photo on Instagram, with the IFPB delegation, taking part in the Salt Water Challenge.
On July 11, 2017, Kahn was scheduled to speak about her trip at a CODEPINK event titled: “Israel Palestine Report-Back With CODEPINK's Paula Kahn.”
The event’s Facebook page said: “CODEPINK's Paula Kahn will share her experiences and insights from her recent delegation with Interfaith Peacebuilders to Palestine & Israel.”
The event’s Facebook page also said Kahn would: “Define an apartheid state as she witnessed it, Discuss state facilitated premature death and genocidal intent” and “Draw parallels between...U.S. police extrajudicial killings and IDF murders of Palestinians” and that it would “explore BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) as a dynamic tool.”
Equating Israel with Nazi Germany
On April 1, 2018, Kahn tweeted about the violent March of Return protests: “...This is what genocide looks like, isn't #Gaza a horrifying recreation of #WarsawGhetto? #Palestine #Israel...”Supporting Violent Protesters
On May 18, 2018, Paula indicated on Facebook that Khan “went” to JVP-Los Angeles-hosted event, titled: “Senator Harris Hear Our Cries: A Vigil for Gaza.”The event’s Facebook event page said: “We implore Senator Harris to use her immense power and important voice to condemn the indiscriminate killings & injuries of grassroots protesters and journalists.”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On May 16, 2018, Kahn shared a Facebook post encouraging people to “call your “members of Congress to pressure them to hold Israel accountable for murdering 61 Palestinians, injuring over 2,700 in the past two days...”
The protests along the Israeli-Gaza border saw thousands of rioters attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with participants declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
On March 29, 2018, Kahn tweeted: “...Israeli occupation forces extrajudicially executed Ahmad Nasser Jarrar.”
Ahmad Jarrar, the son of a senior Hamas commander Nasser Jarrar, was reportedly the head operative behind the drive-by shooting murder of Rabbi Raziel Shevach, in January 2018.
On June 21, 2017, Kahn posted on Facebook: “The slow genocide of Gazans will literally wash up as human shit on Tel Aviv's beaches Swimmers & marine life will be contaminated by the viruses birthed from an open air prison.”
Condemning Birthright
On August 15, 2018, Kahn was featured in a photo posted to Facebook by INN, harassing Birthright Israel participants at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.
In July 2018, Kahn can also be seen in photos posted by INN to Facebook, featuring INN activists who were dispatched to LAX to intercept Birthright participants on their way to Israel.
On June 27, 2018, INN released their #NotJustAFreeTrip campaign: “PRESSURING BIRTHRIGHT TO TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION TO ITS 40,000 YOUNG JEWISH PARTICIPANTS THIS SUMMER.”
Anti-Israel Activism
As of July 14, 2019, Kahn’s pinned tweet was an April 6, 2019 tweet that said: “I interrupted Trump b/c I fear my ppl aligning themselves w/ genocidal rhetoric.children seated in front &behind me. We chanted ‘occupation/yt nationalism is a plague’ & sang “Olam Hessed Yibaneh-we will build this world with love” may hate never be normalized #JewishResistance.”Kahn’s tweet embedded an INN tweet, featuring video of INN activists, including Kahn, interrupting a speech by U.S. President Trump at a Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) event. Kahn and her fellow activists stood on chairs and chanted [00:00:01]: “Jews are here to say, the Occupation is a plague.”
Also on April 6, 2019, Kahn was featured in a photo posted to Twitter by INN, being forcefully escorted out of the event.
In a statement posted by INN, the activists who interrupted the event said: “the current Israeli government continues to find common cause with antisemites, racists, and Holocaust revisionists.”
On November 8, 2017, Kahn can be seen in photos posted to Facebook by JVP-Los Angeles in their photo album: “#DeadlyExchange National Day of Action 11/8/17,” participating at an event hosted by JVP-Los Angeles, titled: “Nov. 8 Action to End US-Israel Police Partnerships.”
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange (DX)” campaign, which accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] U.S.-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
Participants marched to the Anti-Defamation League’s offices in Los Angeles, to “call on the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to end their deadly law enforcement exchanges between the U.S. and Israel.”
The event’s Facebook description said: “Under the banner of ‘counter-terrorism,’ the ADL’s police exchange programs...transform Israel’s 70 years of dispossession and 50 years of military occupation into a marketing brochure for successful policing--reinforcing racist & militarized policing in Palestine/Israel and the U.S.”
On February 13, 2017, Kahn promoted on Facebook an event hosted by anti-Israel activist Amani Al-Hindi Barakat.
Barakat has called for intifada, glorified terrorists and shown support for the terror organization Hamas. She also promoted violent protests, spread hatred of Israel and is a supporter of the BDS movement.
The event was also endorsed by organizations including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) chapter of Greater Los Angeles, JVP-LA, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) chapter of Los Angeles, Orange County and the Inland Empire, the Free Gaza Movement, CODEPINK-LA, FOSNA in Los Angeles and Orange County, Jews for the Palestinian RIght of Return and Al-Awda: Palestinian Right of Return Coalition.
Kahn’s Facebook post said: “we will be getting together to participate in nationwide demonstrations against Trump's first meeting with Israel's Prime Minister, Netanyahu.”
The event’s Facebook event page quoted anti-Israel professor Nada Elia. Elia has called for “intifada," defended terrorists and called for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel. Elia also promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, spread hatred ofIsrael, endorsed hate speech and is a leader within the BDS movement.
Promoting BDS
On November 29, 2016, Kahn tweeted: “HPEDiscover #STOPHP” and embedded a tweet by CODEPINK that featured Kahn and other CODEPINK activists promoting a boycott against HP, that said: “CODEPINK team, including co-founder @MsJodieEvans demand HP ends it's role in providing the technology of oppression #HPEDiscover #StopHP.”On November 30, 2016, Kahn posted on Facebook: “#StopHP: the technology of Israeli apartheid” The post featured several photos, including one of Kahn with other CODEPINK activists, including Ariel Gold. Kahn, Gold and the other activists were holding signs that called for the boycott of Hewlett Packard (HP), as part of an ongoing CODEPINK BDS campaign.
Ariel Gold is an organizer for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) and CODE PINK. She is also a delegate for Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB) and has been arrested multiple times protesting against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at their annual policy conference and while participating in a Palestinian riot.
In a March 15, 2017, post on CODEPINK LA’s Facebook page, Kahn wrote: “Hewlett-Packard (HP), the company that makes Israel’s apartheid ID cards...tell HP to stop whitewashing Israeli crimes and end its contracts with Israel! Use the hashtags #Jerusalens and #BoycottHP and Twitter handle: @HP”
Kahn’s post linked to CODEPINK’s March 16, 2017 event, titled: “Twitter Storm Tell HP to stop whitewashing Israeli apartheid!” The event’s Facebook description said: “Shame on @HP for helping Israel celebrate 50 years of illegally occupying East Jerusalem #Jerusalens #BoycottHP #BDS.”
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.
IfNotNow (INN)
INN claims to be “young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions” to OPE. INN presents three demands on its website: “Stop the War on Gaza, End the Occupation, and Freedom and Dignity for All.”
INN defines “the Occupation as the military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” which is land Israel has controlled for nearly 50 years since the 1967 Six-Day War. However, INN leaders have made [00:34:32] the claim [00:13:49] at protests that the occupation is 70 years long, referring to Israel’s founding in 1948.
INN actions have aimed to demonize [00:38:13] Israel, harass [00:05:44] mainstream American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and decrease support for Israel among American Jews.
INN has used “public action and imaginative ritual” to achieve its goals, including disruptions where activists were arrested.
One of the high-profile arrests occurred at a May 2018 disruption at a U.S. Senator’s office in Washington, D.C. to protest legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
At the same incident, INN used [00:07:17] the Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer to mourn [00:09:10] protesters who were killed during the Hamas-organized and funded Great March of Return riots on the Israel-Gaza border.
INN activists have also staged and promoted walk-offs from Birthright Israel trips, a heritage trip to Israel for young Jewish adults from across the world.
INN claims to take no position on the BDS movement and that it is “open to any who seek to shift the American Jewish public away from the status quo that upholds the Occupation.” However, INN organizes with pro-BDS, anti-Israel organizations including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
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.
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/plur4lifeTwitter: https://twitter.com/CosmoAncestral [Deleted]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paula-kahn-9a5750100/ [Deleted]
