Lincoln Shlensky

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Signatories of the petition wrote: “We are...troubled, however, that the mainstream Canadian Jewish community is perceived as giving full support to all Israeli government actions. The Canadian government, and Canadians generally, need to hear that there are many Jews who do not reflexively support these actions.”

The petition went on to equivocate the terror organization Hamas with Israeli settlers and the Israeli military: “We are critical of Hamas, whose attacks spread terror among Israeli civilians. At the same time, the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, and the violence of the Israeli military response in Gaza...can only deepen the cycle of hatred.”

In a Facebook post, published on June 25, 2013, Shlensky wrote that: “Torture is not practiced only in dark and secret chambers. It is also…practiced in open air by Israeli forces in the Occupied Territories.” 

Shlensky went on to charge that “Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are routinely denied registration of their birth and access to health care, decent schools and clean water. They are routinely used as human shields, held for months in solitary confinement, and… forced to sign damning ‘confessions’ in Hebrew, which they do not speak, in order to gain release.”

In 2009, Shlensky wrote an introduction for an interview with anti-Israel Oxford University (Oxford) professor, Avi Shlaim. 

In his introduction, Shlensky described Shlaim’s position that “the current vicious Israeli onslaught on the people of Gaza is the climax of this longstanding Israeli policy of shunning diplomacy and relying on brute military force.”

In a blog post published on November 10, 2009, Shlensky charged that “the hypermilitarized doctrine that has arisen in tandem with the messianic territorial claims of Greater Israel ideology.”

Shlensky went on to write that “the Israeli occupation has gone from being a relatively discreet project of the extreme right to one that now orients social values and dictates national policy.”

In an article published on October 14, 2000, it was reported that Shlensky attended a demonstration as a “representative” of JVP, outside of the Consulate General of Israel to the Pacific Northwest’s office, in San Francisco, California, to protest Israeli military operations in Gaza.

The article cited Shlensky as a representative of JVP and quoted him stating that “There's no reason to reflexively support Israel for every wrong policy.”

Defending Campus Anti-Israel Activism

Seitler signed a 2017 letter, authored by the anti-Israel JVP, which condemned a decision by Fordham University (Fordham)’s dean to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham. 

In 2016, Fordham reportedly blocked the formation of a Fordham SJP chapter “based on the reported behavior of other [SJP] chapters on other campuses,” indicating that “the establishment of a local branch could be ‘polarizing’ and pose a safety concern to students and faculty.”

Signatories demanded that Fordham “immediately rescind the rejection of SJP as a student group on campus, apologize to the students affected by this harmful decision, and reaffirm Fordham’s commitment to free speech and academic freedom.” 

The petitioners also highlighted SJP’s BDS activity, characterizing SJP’s efforts to promote anti-Israel boycott as part of “a time-honored non-violent mode of political expression.” The petition accused Fordham’s administration of a “fundamental misunderstanding of what boycotts are, the purpose of a university, and the goals of SJP.”

The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in cooperation with Palestine Legal (PL), and civil rights attorney Alan Levine sued Fordham on behalf of four students in April 2017. A New York court annulled Fordham’s decision in August 2019, mandating that the university recognize SJP as an official club. 
 
Fordham appealed the ruling to the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division in January 2020. On July 24, 2020, Fordham SJP students filed a brief asking the appellate court to deny Fordham’s appeal of the lower court’s decision.
 
As of October 2020, a variety of groups, not directly involved in the case, filed amicus briefs with the Appellate Division for the court's consideration including JVP. 

In a Facebook post published on September 11, 2015, Shlensky applauded the University of California for its decision to not expand its definition of anti-Semitism to include anti-Zionism. The decision against expanding the definition came after a letter was circulated around the university.