Tamar Ghabin

USCPR - Leadership 

Josh Ruebner — the co-founder and former Executive Director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), an organization which merged into JVP — is the Policy Director for USCPR.

In a March 4, 2013 article, Ruebner described supporters of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as “Israel-first citizen lobbyists.” The slur “Israel-firster” wasfirst popularized by Willis Carto’s anti-Semitic The Spotlight. Use of the slur has been described as a case of “Leftist Mccarthyism” — “debasing the debate by accusing anyone who disagrees with them of treasonous impulses.”

Ramah Kudaimi, the Director of Grassroots Organizing for USCPR, has promoted incitement to violence against Israelis, urged platforms to include Holocaust deniers among mainstream voices and, on July 16, 2016, called for the destruction of Israel — tweeting: “F**k Israel every day until the fall of the zionist regime.” Kudaimi, who previously worked for CODEPINK and the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) — was one of five USCPR delegates denied entry into Israel in July 17, 2016, for security reasons, and banned from entering the country for the next 10 years.

The National Organizer of USCPR, Anna Baltzer, is heavily involved in church divestment campaigns and travels the world promoting these and other BDS causes. Baltzer has reportedly propagated unsourced claims which she later recanted. In a July 25, 2014 interview during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Baltzer denied that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields, despite Hamas openly admitting to the practice several weeks earlier. (0:18). Baltzer also referred to Hamas as a “red herring” when asked about how Israel should respond to Hamas provocations (2:00).

USCPR - Inflating Jewish Influence over American Policy  

In March 2015, USCPR uploaded a short video to Youtube, titled “Bibi’s Bad Advice.” The video called to “#SkipTheSpeech” — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to both houses, critiquing the nuclear deal with Iran. The video insinuated that Americans were duped into going to war with Iraq by Netanyahu’s claims that Saddam Hussein was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

USCPR demonizes pro-Israel Americans by accusing them of bribing U.S. politicians to support their political agenda — USCPR wrote (p.8) in its annual 2015 report — “of course the Israel lobby doesn’t limit its advocacy efforts to the federal level. Politicians at the state and even municipal levels are treated to all-expense-paid propaganda trips to Israel, and city and state politicians are pressured to support anti-Palestinian legislation.” Later in the same report (p.20), USCPR wrote “US Campaign staff also presented at more than a dozen conferences and gatherings including Shut Down AIPAC.”

On September 19-21 2014, at the USCPR’s 13th Annual National Organizers' Conference, Northeastern University student and SJP member Max Geller presented a workshop titled: “1% & State of Israel’s Agenda to Silence Criticism of Israel & Promote Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab Racism.” Geller listed major Jewish organizations in the U.S. and argued that they were not grass roots organizations but were “vehicles for the 1% to have even more influence over the Israeli-Palestinian conversation in this country,” in order to protect their financial interests in weapons and oil.

At the same conference, Professor Rabab Abdulhadi served as a panelist and accused the Amcha Initiative of a “smear campaign” against her. Abdulhadi also claimed that American Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Simon Wiesenthal Center and American Jewish thinkers, like Professor Alan Dershowitz and late Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel were “engaged in a campaign of repression.”

USCPR - Orchestrating Boycotts and Divestment Campaigns

Per its 2015 Annual Report, ETO provides (p.16) “one-on-one support... resources, letters, networking, action technology, financial support, and more -- to students leading powerful boycott and divestment campaigns on more than 25 campuses.” 

USCPR - Pressuring Artists  

USCPR campaigns to pressure artists to cancel performances in Israel.

On June 29, 2016, USCPR Policy Director Josh Ruebner tweeted a video calling for the musician Santana to cancel his scheduled performance in Israel. Santana responded in his own video ignoring the pressure and said —  “We look forward to seeing you at Park Hayarkon. Shalom and salam alaykum. Peace.”

In 2016, USCPR initiated a campaign urging actors and directors nominated for Academy Awards to reject an all-expenses paid trip to Israel, to see Israel for themselves —  first-hand.

USCPR - Targeting Sodastream  

USCPR coordinated (p.10) a divestment campaign to boycott the Israeli company, Sodastream. 500 Palestinians eventually lost their jobs when Sodastream moved its factory from the West Bank to southern Israel. Although Sodastream denied that BDS had an impact on its decision to relocate, the BDS movement took credit for the factory’s closure.

USCPR - Shutting Down Muslim-Jewish Dialogue  

USCPR started (p.13) a petition “to ‘Say No to Faithwashing’” writing an “open letter calling on Muslim Americans to eschew any participation in or legitimization of the Muslim Leadership Initiative of the Shalom Hartman Institute.”

USCPR - Producing Anti-Israel Propaganda  

USCPR is a key promoter of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) and organizes programs on college campuses throughout the U.S. claiming to “raise awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies over the Palestinian people” and “mobilize… BDS campaigns.” USCPR offers resources and ideas for how anti-Israel agitators can execute IAW on campus.

In 2008, to mark the 60th anniversary of the Nakba (“Catastrophe,” in Arabic) USCPR produced and distributed propaganda materials about Israel’s War of Independence.