Rebecca Vilkomerson
Overview
Rebecca Vilkomerson, in her capacity as executive director of the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization, has been arrested for trespassing at the offices of the Friends of Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) organization.Vilkomerson is one of the leading promoters of Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in the United States. She has also targeted LGBTQ Jews for harassment in order to push JVP’s anti-Israel agenda.
Vilkomerson has promoted and defended terrorist Rasmea Odeh, as well as the prominent anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour.
Between 2006-2009, Vilkomerson worked with anti-Israel organizations Taayush and Anarchists Against the Wall.
Arrest
In July of 2014, Vilkomerson was one of nine protesters arrested inside the Manhattan offices of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) for trespassing.The protesters, organized by JVP and another group, gathered for a “die-in” to protest Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). Twelve protesters entered the FIDF offices and, for around an hour, read aloud names they claimed were Palestinians killed in Gaza.
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
In an interview, JVP protester Lizzie Busch said: “The employees became upset and eventually called the police.” Three protesters left the office when police arrived and ordered them to vacate. The remaining nine protesters, including Vilkomerson, were arrested.
Pushing BDS
On June 24, 2016, Vilkomerson published an article in the Washington Post titled: “I’m Jewish, and I want people to boycott Israel.” Following the article’s publication, Vilkomerson was accused of “mainstreaming BDS.”In her article, Vilkomerson wrote that she embraced BDS in 2009, during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (OCL). Israel commenced OCLin 2008-09 in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.
Vilkomerson also claimed that “during my time with the movement, we’ve had growing success.” She then denounced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s for banning boycotts directed at Israel.
Targeting LGBTQ Jews
On June 4, 2017, five JVP activists were arrested at the 69th Celebrate Israel Parade in New York, for third degree trespassing and disorderly conduct. The JVP activists infiltrated [00:001:05] and disrupted a contingent of participants from five Jewish LGBTQ organizations that were participating in the parade.In a June 5, 2017 interview, Vilkomerson was quoted explaining that the LGBTQ group was “a carefully chosen target.” She also defended the JVP protesters as “a group of queer Jews who feel strongly about gay rights not being used to pinkwash the occupation.”
Other protesters held [00:02:10] signs that read: “End the Deadly Exchange” — a JVP campaign that blamed [00:04:04] US-based Jewish organizations for police violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the US.
Promoting a Terrorist
In a March 2017 interview with Ha’aretz, Vilkomerson said that she had “no regrets” inviting Rasmea Odeh to address JVP’s bi-Annual Membership meeting in 2017.Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.
In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.
On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.
Another speaker at JVP’s 2017 bi-Annual Membership meeting was prominent anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour, who Vilkomerson described as a “passionate and compelling, very smart, committed and an impressive person.”
Demonizing Pro-Israel Lobby
On March 4, 2013, Vilkomerson wrote an article in the Huffington post, titled: “AIPAC Does Not Speak for Me.” In her article, Vilkomerson described an ad campaign she spearheaded that demonized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).In her article, Vilkomerson referred to AIPAC’s annual conference as “an open display of power in Washington.” The article featured a JVP campaign poster featuring Vilkomerson that read: “Jewish and Proud. And AIPAC DOES NOT speak for me.” The text continued: “Most Jewish Americans are pro-peace. AIPAC is not.”
In her article, Vilkomerson implied that U.S. aid to Israel was harmful to Americans and repeatedly suggested that Israel was a disloyal ally to America.
Vilkomerson continued: “AIPAC has an extremist agenda… AIPAC undoubtedly intimidates members of Congress, and goes as far as to demand and sometimes write legislation that favors Israel at the expense of the United States.”
In another March 2013 op-ed written for the Forward titled “AIPAC Fosters Islamophobia and Elevates Power Over Justice,” Vilkomerson accused AIPAC of “condemning the people of Israel to endless military escalation, ugly ethno-nationalism, and constant warmongering, to say nothing of the system of permanent control, oppression, and dispossession it strives to maintain over the Palestinian people.”
Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour
On September 2, 2017, Vilkomerson tweeted support for the #returnthebirthright campaign launched by JVP.Vilkomerson tweeted: “Terrific article introducing @jvplive students #returnthebirthright 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.
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.”
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.
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