Zia Laboff
Overview
Zia Laboff has demonized Israel and condemned the Birthright Jewish heritage tour. She has also promoted the “Deadly Exchange” campaign by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and supported anti-Israel agitators.Laboff also helped starta JVP chapter at Portland State University (PSU).
In April 2017, Laboff was confirmed as president of PSU’s student government after the elected president and vice president resigned.
As of March 2020, Laboff’s Linkedin page indicated she graduated PSU in 2019. Laboff was reportedly an International Studies major.
Also as of March 2020, Laboff’s LinkedIn said she was employed as a Sustainability Research Intern at Ecochallenge.org, formerly the Northwest Earth Institute.
Demonizing Israel
In a May 30, 2019 Instagram post which Laboff posted of herself holding a sign that said: “No Pride in Apartheid,” Laboff accused of “pinkwashing.”Laboff charged: “How dare Israel use not only the holocaust but also LGBT propaganda to further its own acts of genocide.”
“Pinkwashing” is a claim that Israel advocates manipulate the LGBTQ community in order to garner support for Israel.
Laboof claimed that Israel “commits human rights violations every minute of every day” and complained that “hateful zionists and white supremacists” were commenting on social media about Arab countries’ treatment of the LGBT community.
Laboff then suggested Israel was conducting a “violent genocide” against the Palestinians” and stated that her ancestors killed in the Holocaust were “rolling in their graves” over the actions of Zionist Jews.
The violent riots during the “March of Return” continued into 2019 and included armed protesters using gunfire, penetrating Israeli territory, launching incendiary kites into Israel and throwing IEDs, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails. Some of the attacks were carried out by Hamas operatives.
Condemning Birthright
On July 9, 2018, Laboff shared to Facebook a video produced by “Now This,” about four members of anti-Israel organization IfNotNow, who were the first to stage a walk-off from a Birthright Israel trip.Laboff wrote: “I greatly commend this group of Jewish Americans...It's for reasons like theirs that I have personally decided to never take my birthright trip and would encourage other Jews to do the same....”
Laboff said: “Even to vacation in such a nation that is continuously committing heinous and racist acts is deplorable to me. To make my views clear I do not support the actions of Israel as a nation and no Zionist is a friend to me.”
Laboff commented on her post that the Birthright Israel trip is: “an investment in propaganda” and said she hoped to go in the future: “not funded by an apartheid government.”
Laboff indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a December 7, 2018 event called: “Radical Shabbat: Bye Bye Birthright,” hosted by JVP PSU. The Facebook event description read: “We will be discussing the return the birthright campaign founded by JVP as well as other questions of its morality.”
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.
Promoting the “Deadly Exchange”
On May 30, 2019, Laboff posted to Instagram a photo of herself holding a sign on campus that said: “No Pride in Apartheid.” In the photo caption, Laboff compared PSU campus police to the Israeli military and stated: “Israel has taken it to another level as their forces have turned the land of Gaza into an open air prison.”Laboff also claimed that “Palestinians and other marginalized groups in Israel are constantly attacked by the IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] in the streets.”
Laboff continued: “We help run a campaign called #EndTheDeadlyExchange which works to highlight and end the current exchange program that sends out police forces to Israel to receive training from the very same IDF.”
Supporting an Anti-Israel Agitator
On March 9, 2019, Laboff was featured in a PSU JVP Facebook photo, holding a sign that read: “We #StandWithIlhan because Palestinian Lives Matter.”The JVP PSU Facebook photo’s caption read: “Thanks to everyone who came to our radical Shabbat last night! From Portland, Oregon we are sending solidarity. #WeStandWithIlhan because anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism.”
Laboff posted the same photo to Instagram and captioned it: “Thank you to everyone who came out last night and showed support for @ilhanmn !!... Establishing the difference between antisemitism and anti Zionism is imperative rn (right now) and an issue I’ll never stop speaking on ❤️✊️✡️ #imwithilhan #istandwithilhan.”
On March 4, 2019, Laboff posted to Facebook an article from Politico, titled: “House Dems will take floor action to confront Omar’s latest Israel comments.”
Laboff commented: “This is absolutely horrendous and it's working against progress for the Jewish people because this continues the pattern of conflating anti-semitism with anti-zionism. It's despicable that Omar is receiving so much hate...for being one of the few US politicians to call out Israel for the human rights abuses it commits daily. Her comment...is not anti-semitic.”
On February 12, 2019, Laboff shared to Facebook an article from the Huffington Post titled: “Sorry Democrats, your NRA [National Rifle Association] is spelled AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee].” The article was in response to the controversy involving U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.
Laboff commented: “We must acknowledge the role of manipulation and intimidation that the NRA uses is the same, if not more severe, tactic used by AIPAC...we need to see more call outs of AIPACs toxic influence on our government and foreign policy.”
JVP Activism
Laboff was featured in an October 4, 2019 photo on Instagram, tabling on the PSU campus for JVP. The caption read: “tfw (that feeling when) you start to explain how Zionism is settler colonialism and how Israel is an apartheid state.”On March 10, 2019 Laboff posted to Instagram a photo of herself giving a tutorial called: “The Do’s and Don’ts of Anti Semitism!” Bullet points of the presentation included: “Don’t use a star of David as an equivalent to Zionism” and “Don’t use terms for Jewish people or Israelis as an equivalent to Zionists.”
On February 7, 2018, Laboff posted on Facebook inviting people to JVP’s first “radical Shabbat” of winter.
On January 17, 2019, Laboff featured in a JVP PSU Facebook photo, tabling on the PSU campus to promote JVP.
JVP PSU’s Facebook post said: “It was great to meet so many new people interested in JVP at this years Party in the Ballroom! Always spreading the message that Judaism isn't Zionism.”
Laboff 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.
As of December 2018, Farris was a “Faith Leader” with Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). FOSNA is a chapter of Sabeel which applies “liberation theology.”
Liberation Theology “claims that Palestinians represent a modern-day version of Jesus’ suffering,” including “deicide imagery, and supercessionist rhetoric used to demonize Israel and Judaism.”
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.”
Laboff 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?”
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/100005262731402LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/zia-laboff-64a918167/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finewinelikefranzia/
https://www.instagram.com/zialaboff [Deleted]
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Portland-State
- Organizations:
- JVP
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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