Sara Abrams
Overview
Sara Abrams has shown support for an anti-Israel agitator, spread hatred of Zionists and demonized Israel.Abrams is an activist with the Portland State University (PSU) chapter of the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization.
Abrams has promoted the #returnthebirthright initiative launched by JVP against the Birthright Jewish heritage tour. She also participated in anti-Israel campus activism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of February 2019, Abrams’s Facebook page said she began studying at PSU in 2014 and left the university in 2018.
Supporting an Anti-Israel Agitator
On March 9, 2019, Abrams was featured in a PSU JVP Facebook photo, holding a sign that read: “We #StandWithIlhan because Palestinian Lives Matter.”Spreading Hatred of Zionists
On February 8, 2019, Abrams tweeted a meme featuring American media personality Kim Kardashian with the text: “I'm like dropping hints that Zionism is colonialism…Zionism is colonialism.”
On January 23, 2019, Abrams tweeted: “the only binary i believe in is that zionists are ugly and antizionists are hot.”
That same day, Abrams tweeted: “just thinkin about how zionists look like they're dying from the inside out and like their eyes are about to fall out of their heads.”
Demonizing Israel
On December 27, 2018, Abrams tweeted: “reminder that supporting israel is an act of violence and you cant be a zionist and a feminist at the same time 😘.”On December 14, 2018, Abrams tweeted: “america truly is israel's bitch.”
On December 7, 2018, Abrams tweeted: “celebration of israel is celebration of genocide. we all see you! #FreePalestine”
On November 12, 2018, a day when over 300 rockets were launched by terrorists in Gaza at Israel, injuring more than 30 Israelis, Abrams tweeted: “my heart is aching for Gaza and my stomach is filled with rage over israel's actions and media portrayals of this violent, racist occupation.”
Abrams’s tweet continued: “Palestine will be free. had to remake this tweet to capitalize Gaza and Palestine
On July 19, 2018, Abrams responded to a tweet that said: “The Palestinians biggest issue is their leadership. Terrorists in Gaza and corrupt leaders in the West Bank who pay terrorists for killing civilians. Israel, while some unfortunate things do happen, is not the problem.”
Abrams tweeted: “‘some unfortunate things’ is a weird way to say settler colonialism and apartheid but ok!”
Abrams signed an April 2018 online petition, addressed by Portland JVP to U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, the junior senator from Oregon, urging him to “join” a call “on the Israel Defense Forces to exercise restraint and respect the rights of Palestinians to peacefully protest.”
The petition also urged Senator Merkley to “join...calling on the Israeli military to comply with international law and endorsed the call of the Israeli human rights group, B’tselem, asking Israeli soldiers to disobey illegal orders to shoot at unarmed civilians.”
The petition was in response to the violent March for Return on Israel’s Gaza border and claimed: “Tens of thousands of Palestinians have protested peacefully. No demonstrators have carried firearms.”
The petition also alleged Israel fired “on unarmed demonstrators” and that “The Israeli government has offered no credible evidence that any demonstrators posed a serious threat.”
Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour
On July 17, 2018, Abrams tweeted against an effort to raise money for a group of IfNotNow activists who had staged a walk-off of their Birthright Israel trip. Abrams wrote: “so we should give our money to a group of people who are complicit in and perpetuating apartheid because of hateful comments? that doesnt sound right.”That same day, Abrams also tweeted regarding the INN activists: “meet and build bridges? they made the choice to go on birthright. they made the choice to take a free trip on occupied land and they dont deserve any applause for realizing that as late as they did. they should never have been there in the first place.”
Also on July 17, 2018, Abrams tweeted about those the INN activists walking off the Birthright Israel trip: “im in the usa and its actually really easy to grasp whats going on from here. if they didnt know the details of the land they were going to travel to thats their own problem. no one needs to see apartheid first hand to understand that its happening.”
Abrams then commented on Twitter: “they want $10,000!!!!!! $10,000 for kids who decided to TALK (soooo revolutionary) to the people whos land they were complicit in stealing!!!! this is disgusting.”
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 Campus Activism
On April 27, 2019, Abrams shared a May 3, 2019 event on Facebook called: “Radical Shabbat: Gaza is an Open Air Prison,” hosted by JVP PSU. The event’s Facebook description stated: “We will be discussing the living conditions in Gaza as well as highlighting the ongoing Great March of Return.”On April 15, 2019, Abrams tweeted an invitation to the JVP event titled: “Norman Finkelstein On Gaza,” scheduled for April 16, 2019. Abrams commented, “so excited for tomorrow's @jvppsu event! we are bringing the radical @normfinkelstein to speak on the rights of Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and the importance of showing solidarity with protesting Gazans. it's free, no tix needed!”
On February 7, 2019, Abrams tweeted an invitation to the JVP event titled: “Radical Shabbat Dinner,” scheduled for February 8, 2019.
Abrams indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a January 13, 2019 event called: “Inside Gaza: An Evening with Dr. Clyde Farris,” sponsored by the Jewish Voice for Peace - Portland and PSU chapters.
The event’s Facebook description said that Dr. Farris was coming to speak about his experience helping people in Gaza and “the conditions inside what has been called “the largest open-air prison on Earth.”
Abrams indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a JVP PSU-hosted event on October 18, 2018, called: “Radical Shabbat Dinner.”
The Facebook event description asked: “Ready to learn about anti-zionism, BDS and Palestine solidarity?”
Supporting BDS
On January 30, 2019, Abrams responded to a tweet by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, Abrams tweeted: “you could say the same for Palestinians in Gaza. support BDS, bernard.”On August 19, 2018, Abrams tweeted at musician Lana Del Rey, who was scheduled to play in Israel and was the subject of an intense BDS campaign, urging her to cancel, which she eventually did.
Abrams tweeted: “by going there youre enabling apartheid, and with hundreds of people telling you this you have no excuses left.”
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: www.facebook.com/100000606350545Twitter:https://twitter.com/trashedfloors
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/marioandluigikissing/
Photos & Screenshots
