Media Roundup: “As our bodies have gotten weaker, our spirit and resolve have gotten stronger.”

^{Photo: Over 100 Jews and allies shut down Palantir’s office, demanding Washington State divest over $2 billion from genocide profiteers.}

As the Israeli government’s campaign of mass starvation in Gaza reaches a tipping point, JVP members are refusing to look away and refusing to stay silent.

In Chicago, JVP members launched a weeks-long hunger strike, putting their bodies on the line to draw attention to Israel’s forced famine in Gaza. In Seattle, JVP members shut down the office of Palantir, a tech company that enables Israel’s AI-fueled genocide and contracts with ICE to deport our neighbors and friends. Across the country, JVP members are pushing back against the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism and other right-wing repression tactics, campaigning to divest our communities from Israeli genocide and apartheid, and propelling a massive shift in public opinion toward support for Palestinian liberation.

In the face of devastating political conditions, JVP members are finding new and creative ways to hold truth to power — and making headlines across the country.

What should Jewish New Yorkers make of Zohran Mamdani?, The Guardian, July 16, 2025

“Hundreds of thousands of Jews in the US are clear: the Israeli government is committing genocide and apartheid, and our government must stop funding it. Many Jewish New Yorkers alongside our neighbors are desperate for elected representatives brave enough to say the truth, and it is refreshing to see a politician like Zohran with consistent values, whose progressive politics do not stop at our city’s borders.”

_{– Beth Miller, JVP Action Political Director}

JVP Chicago members attempt indefinite fast to draw attention to Gaza starvation crisis, RNS, June 27, 2025

“For me, there’s a long story of transformation — about spending more time in Israel and Palestine, seeing the devastation, watching what it means for people to live under martial law. Seeing that happen was really transformative for me, and I remember sitting on an airplane back from Tel Aviv and thinking, ‘I can’t be a Zionist anymore.’”

_{– Ash Bohrer, JVP-Chicago}

Jewish Activists Conclude Weeks-Long Hunger Strike for Palestine, South Side Weekly, July 17, 2025

“Every day is different; your bodily autonomy is very reduced, your energy is gone, and it was something that constantly reminded us of Gazans’ daily experience, especially in the heat.”

_{– Audrey Gladson, JVP-Chicago member and hunger striker}

A Jewish group is taking turns fasting to bring attention to starving Gazans, RNS, June 11, 2025

Many American Jews on the left are appalled, at both Israel and the U.S., for allowing the starvation to continue. “It violates everything it means to be humane as a Jewish value. That my tax dollars are being used to create that level of suffering is almost unbearable to me.”

_{– Tema Okun, JVP-Triangle}

No ordinary solidarity—inside Chicago’s hunger strike for Gaza
, Nation of Change, July 11, 2025

“We decided there is no better way to highlight what starvation is doing to the people of Gaza than to do a solidarity hunger strike. While Gazans cannot eat, we will not eat…As our bodies have gotten weaker, our spirit and resolve have gotten stronger.”

_{– Ash Bohrer, JVP board member} 

Try to imagine living in a genocide, Electronic Intifada, July 10, 2025

“Jewish Voice for Peace activists in Chicago launched an indefinite hunger strike in mid-June…More than symbolic gestures, people are putting their bodies on the line through these urgent moral responses aimed at piercing the political indifference and media silence to say with their own physical suffering: ‘We will not look away.’ These acts of solidarity – at a time when we in Gaza now resort to baking bread made with ground lentils or pasta in lieu of flour – move me deeply.”

_{– Asem Alnabih, engineer and PhD researcher currently based in Gaza City}

The Past, Present, and Future of Left Jewish Identity, Jacobin, June 8, 2025

“The Jewish left must address Zionism and organize in solidarity with Palestinians… To be a Jewish leftist is to have your identity mobilized, whether you like it or not. But I also think the task of the Jewish left is to imagine there’s going to be a world after this crisis, and that you’re going to need organizations and communities that last beyond whatever immediate moment of burning intensity we’re living and dying through.”

_{– Benjamin Balthaser, JVP Academic Council}

Taking a Page Out of Trump’s Playbook: California Legislation Designed to Protect Israeli Apartheid and Genocide, LA Progressive, July 1, 2025

“If AB 715 becomes law, fearful school administrators will micromanage the classroom,” said Seth Morrison, board member of Jewish Voice for Peace Action. “Principals will crack down on teachers who introduce materials on the decolonization of Palestine. AB 715 echoes the agenda of MAGA extremists who share the goal of suppressing discussion on race history and global justice.”

_{– Seth Morrison, JVP Action board member}

National Jewish Advocacy Center Files Amicus Brief Backing Trump Admin Against Harvard’s Funding Suit, The Crimson, June 29, 2025

One of the groups named by the Brandeis Center, Jewish Voice for Peace, argued in its brief that the IHRA definition makes support for Israel necessary to being Jewish — thus describing Jews who think otherwise as by definition antisemitic.

July 2025 Events from the Ocean Beach Green Center, OB Rag, July 1, 2025

“As Jewish San Diegans we support Kehlani as the headliner for San Diego Pride. Our Jewish values teach us that Palestinian, queer, and Jewish liberation are deeply interconnected.  None of us are safe until all of us are safe.”

_{– JVP-San Diego}

Status of Collin County Sheriff’s controversial training in Israel remains uncertain as ceasefire begins, KERA News, June 25, 2025

“[Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner] is participating in a very deadly and long-standing tradition of exchange of violent and racist, oppressive police tactics between U.S. Law enforcement and the Israeli military.”

_{– Deb Armintor, JVP-Dallas-Fort Worth}

‘No control.’ Charlotte Jews, Iranians concerned after US strikes on Iran, The Charlotte Observer, June 24, 2025

“Israel could not pursue its policies without the support of the United States. I think that’s terrible.”

_{– Mitch Bollag, JVP-Charlotte}

Atlanta groups to hold vigil opposing war on Iran, American Friends Service Committee, June 24, 2025

“We’re now seeing the continued chaos and devastation wrought from the warmongering, authoritarian Netanyahu-Trump alliance. Far from promoting peace and working towards de-escalation, illegally bombing Iran at Israel’s behest continues the devastating pattern of militarized imperialism in the Middle East. From the ongoing U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza to these escalatory strikes in Iran, we reject the U.S. and Israel’s violent alliance that continues to bring death, conflict, and endless war. We demand an end to the genocide in Gaza, an end to belligerent escalation in Iran, and an end to repression abroad and at home.”

_{– Marissa Pyle, JVP-Atlanta}

Nearly 2 Years Into Gaza Genocide, US Activists Escalate Their Resistance, Truthout, July 21, 2025

“JVP’s multi-tendency, diversity of tactics approach is a strength, allowing room for local and regional experimentation, as we work against the behemoths of colonialism and militarism that currently dominate the globe.”

_{– Dean Spade, JVP-Seattle}

Colorado committee hears testimony in Auraria Campus antisemitism probe, Colorado Newsline, July 16, 2025

“We are not calling for divestment out of hatred, but out of love — for human life, for justice, and for the values our institutions claim to uphold. To conflate that call with antisemitism is not only incorrect, but dangerous. It undermines the real fight against antisemitism by weaponizing it to silence legitimate political expression and dissent.”

_{– Jeffrey Mühlrad, JVP-member}

Washington Is Investing Money in Palantir – Jewish Voice for Peace Wants It to Stop, The Stranger, July 14, 2025

“These corporations, in partnership with the government, are seeing what they can get away with. How far they can train it on, in this case the trapped population of Gaza before they can employ the same tools they’ve refined at home. What’s really important to me is interrupting that cycle.”

_{– Michael Grant, JVP-Seattle}

Protests at South Lake Union’s Palantir Office, The Stranger, June 14, 2025

At least a hundred protesters from Jewish Voices for Peace blocked the entrance to the upper offices of Palantir in South Lake Union this morning, calling on Washington State to divest from the company. Earlier this year, the UN Human Rights Council found that the company was complicit in war crimes in Gaza, thanks to its software that allows the IDF to make automated decisions on the battlefield.

“Purge Palantir”: Day of Action Protests Firm’s Role in Gov’t Surveillance, ICE & Genocide in Gaza, Democracy Now!, July 15, 2025

Human rights activists demonstrated in front of the offices of the technology and data company Palantir in multiple cities yesterday, from Seattle to Palo Alto, from Denver to here in New York.

Seattle Jewish Activists Protest Palantir, The Company Profiting From The “AI-Powered” Genocide In Gaza, The Burner, July 15, 2025

“As a Jewish person working in tech, I’m painfully aware of how technologies can be weaponized against people under the guise of innovation or efficiency,” said JVP organizer Benjamin Lucking in a press release. “Palantir reminds me of IBM’s complicity in the Holocaust —when IBM provided Nazi Germany with punch card systems that enabled the systematic identification, tracking, and extermination of millions of Jews.”

Evanston teacher to file discrimination complaint; advocates say appeals for Palestinian human rights are squelched, Chicago Tribune, July 16, 2025

“We tried again to do this [celebrate Sukkot] in compliance with these new restrictions, and we were told again that this was in violation, that we could all be facing expulsion, and that it was very clearly implied to us that the reason we were in violation is because our sukkah had a banner on it that said, ‘Stop arming Israel” and ‘Gaza Solidarity Sukkah.’”

_{– Isabelle Butera, JVP-Northwestern}

The Apartheid-Free Communities Coalition Comes to Western Mass, Amherst Indy, July 11, 2025

“Working in collaboration with others to dismantle systems of oppression, and those that cause harm to people and the planet, is the only way to sustain the gritty, long-term engagement needed to bring down these systems and build new ones in their place. The system of apartheid is a house of cards, and many people focusing their efforts similarly will bring it down. We start by taking down the apartheid walls of our minds through conversations with people unlike ourselves.”

_{– Heather Hutchinson, JVP member and Apartheid Free Western Massachusetts founder}

Why faith leaders are standing up to the largest pro-Israel Christian lobby, Waging Nonviolence, July 4, 2025

“No matter what [Christians United for Israel] claim, they cannot speak for all Jews, Christians or people of faith. Our faith does not align with genocide. We reject their attacks — and we reject their vision.”

_{– Nikki Morse, JVP-Baltimore}

Teachers Slam NEA for Caving to ADL Pressure, Ignoring Palestinian Solidarity, LA Progressive, July 21, 2025

“The ADL is not a neutral body. It is a bully pulpit that is used to disrupt, dox, and target supporters of Palestine, and opponents of racism, transphobia and oppression. We will continue to speak out and rise up in NEA until justice is served.”

_{– Judy Greenspan, JVP member}

The fracturing of Project Esther: How weaponizing antisemitism is beginning to backfire, Anadolu, July 16, 2025

“Understanding Project Esther requires recognizing what antisemitism historically meant: attacks on Jews’ fundamental place in the societies where they lived, rooted in the perception that Jews were essentially alien to the prevailing racial, national, religious, or economic order…Project Esther corrupts this understanding by conflating criticism of Israeli government policies with hatred of Jews themselves, thereby diluting the concept’s power to identify and combat actual anti-Jewish bigotry.”

_{– Barry Trachtenberg, JVP Academic Council}

Jewish Safety Will Not Come Through More Guns, Policing, and Repression, Truthout, July 5, 2025

“By clinging to the chimera of “leftwing antisemitism” and making common cause with the right, the mainstream Jewish community is allowing itself to be isolated from other marginalized populations. When Greenblatt identifies Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, and ‘Islamist groups’ as part of this leftwing cabal, he is telling Jews that to survive they must turn against people of color, progressive movements, and the poor.”

_{– Lesley Williams, JVP member}

The Long Anti-Zionist History of the American Jewish Left, Jacobin, July 21, 2025

When Jewish Voice for Peace unveiled the “Deadly Exchange” campaign to highlight the racism of both the US police state and the Israeli apartheid state, they were articulating a hundred-year tradition of linking Zionism to racial violence and imperialism…earlier Jewish leftists built a Jewish left — and a critique of Zionism — out of the terrain that was autochthonous to the United States: one in which racial oppression, a rapacious bourgeoisie, a bloated military budget, and precarious living standards even for the educated are the norm rather than the exception.

_{– Benjamin Balthaser, JVP Academic Council}