Media Roundup: JVP in the News Fall 2025.

Organizers Are Demanding Palantir Drop Contracts With ICE and Israeli Military

Nearly 100 activists from Jewish Voice for Peace filled the lobby of Palantir’s Seattle offices on July 14, 2025. Activists carried banners featuring giant eyes with yellow irises: “First Palantir Surveils, then IDF Kills.” “First Palantir Tracks, then ICE attacks.” Arm in arm, they blocked the elevators to the building, preventing employees from accessing their offices. On the same day, hundreds of activists protested at Palantir’s other U.S. offices in New York, Washington D.C., Palo Alto, and Denver.

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Manipulation of Antisemitism is Dangerous and Misleading

“As Jews, some of us embraced Zionism in reaction to our loss [in the Holocaust], believing that Jewish safety was paramount, even at the expense of the lives of others. Some of us, however, were moved to see the Holocaust as a catalyst to refuse to tolerate the perpetration of those horrors upon anyone else, and especially, not in our name…The far right is happy to use Jews for its own agenda, but it has no interest in protecting Jews. Safety for Jews depends upon working to create a world in which all people are safe.” — Karin Shearer, Jewish Voice for Peace VT/NH

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Jewish Voice for Peace sues Miami Beach, claiming free speech violations

“Silence is complicity…As much as Mayor Meiner and Commissioner Suarez wish to silence our voices, they will not succeed.” — Donna Nevel, JVP South Florida

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UC Berkeley Gives Trump Administration 160 Names in Antisemitism Investigation

“It cannot be the case that to support Palestinian lives — which I do as a Jewish person, and which I proudly do as part of Jewish Voice for Peace — it cannot be that it goes against Jewish values to stop a genocide against an entire people.” — Dr. Judith Butler, JVP Academic Council

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Photo Story: UMaine JVP Rally for Palestine

“We can’t act in taking down the entire Israeli government from here in Maine. But what we can do is that we can make our institution, this university, stop its financial investment in those crimes. Our tuition dollars should not be used to profit off of the death and destruction of a people.” — Talia Callum, UMaine JVP

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Bill targeting antisemitism in classrooms presents test for Newsom

“[The legislation] leaves everything open to interpretation…It is going to scare teachers into not talking about Israel and Palestine. That’s already happening.” — Seth Morrison, JVP Bay Area

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A Statement From US Jews Opposing Trump’s Attacks on Colleges and Students

“The weapons the Trump administration now wields against political dissidents — public humiliation, state persecution, expulsion and deportation — are the very same that Jews have suffered from at various points in history. It is imperative that we stand on the frontlines in opposing this wanton assault on civil liberties and the right to dissent.”

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South Florida activist group wants Miami-Dade to divest its $151 million Israeli bonds

Activists with Jewish Voice for Peace South FL also released a poll they commissioned that shows most residents — about 63% — are unaware of the county’s investment in Israeli bonds. The activists say the money should instead be rerouted into the community at a time when the county is facing a steep budget shortfall. They also say global credit agencies have given Israeli bonds lower ratings and a negative outlook.

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Activists demand Frey end Israeli surveillance contract

“Thousands of people have made it clear that we don’t want the city contracting with an Israeli tech company that emerged out of Israeli military intelligence…There are a lot of us who not only are critical of Israel, but want to hold Israel to account for the genocide. Our ultimate goal is to ensure the city of Minneapolis does not contract with Israeli companies.” — Jo Manu, JVP Twin Cities

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Demonstrators say they were ‘forcibly’ ejected from Phillies game for holding pro-Palestinian posters

“We’re taught in Jewish tradition that if you know injustice and you don’t speak out against it, you are held accountable. There’s no business as usual. It’s never again for anyone…so go Phils, free Palestine and let this be the year that Palestine is free.” — Rabbi Ari Lev Fornari, JVP Rabbinical Council

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Rosh Hashanah protest urges Kansas City Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to break with Israel over Gaza war

“As I got older and got more aware of what was being done in our name (as Jews), I became more and more disturbed the more I learned. My grandma is a Holocaust survivor, and the story that’s happening in Gaza is very similar…I would like to see everybody in whatever way they can step into the power they currently hold to effect change and make sure that this ends as soon as possible.” — Molly McGlynn, JVP Kansas City

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Can Morgan Bassichis Be Famous?

“It’s really important for people to know that they have precedent behind them, to know that we are in an unfinished, ongoing conversation across generations. To know that there are generations who’ve weathered similar and overlapping difficulties will give us greater courage and wisdom than we have on our own.” — Morgan Bassichis, JVP New York

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Jewish Voice for Peace holds rally to demand arms embargo on Israel

“This year, as we gather for Sukkot, we are very aware that though we may have abundance in our lives, in Gaza there’s no food, there’s no grain, there’s no place to live, and they’re suffering through now two full years of a genocide.” — Ava Agree, JVP Albany

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Local Jewish group protests Israel’s capture of aid flotilla

Members of the Tacoma chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) took a stand for peace and human rights on Oct. 2 – Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for the Jewish community – to condemn Israel’s kidnap and detention of more than 470 activists in international waters this past week.

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March for Gaza unites community in downtown Bellingham

“We must work to heal ourselves and the world so that we do not repeat cycles of violence…Do not use the dishonest pretense of caring about antisemitism to justify genocide. Not in our name. Do not use my people’s trauma and the persecution we suffered to perpetuate trauma and commit violence against others.” — JVP Western Washington University spokesperson

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A Village With Close Ties to the Bay Area, Facing Demolition in the West Bank

“What is happening is de facto an annexation. Since the Gaza genocide started, settler violence against Palestinians has increased a hundredfold. Numerous people have been killed, they’ve taken over more land, they’ve built more illegal settlements. And this is part of that initiative.” — Seth Morrison, JVP Bay Area

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People’s Tribunal finds local institutions guilty of complicity in genocide

“Jews are not a monolith. Jews do not have an inherent, inalienable connection to the state of Israel.”

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Philly activists mark 100th peace vigil for Gaza outside of Sen. John Fetterman’s Old City office

“We’re being duped into thinking that something ended. Very little ended. The suffering is deep now, and the suffering is ongoing every single day.” — Rabbi Mordechai Liebling, JVP Rabbinical Council

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International activists confront Israeli impunity in the West Bank

“What it felt like was what I’ve heard my great grandparents went through in Russia when they experienced pogroms. This sense of vulnerability to armed gangs invading, attacking with absolutely no recourse to any kind of authority. In Russia, it was sanctioned by the state, and here in the West Bank, it is sanctioned by the state.”

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UC Berkeley aligns with fascism, not Jewish safety

“Jewish Voice for Peace condemns UC Berkeley’s transparent and sinister capitulation as a betrayal of its own supposed ideals and the campus community. The exploitation of Jewish safety to justify Palestinian death is reprehensible. As Jewish students, we reject accusations that say solidarity with Palestine is antisemitic. To stand against genocide and to stand in solidarity with Palestine is not just a human imperative — it is a core Jewish value.” — JVP Berkeley

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Federal judge allows Northwestern to block enrollment for students who boycotted antisemitism training

“The truth is that Northwestern’s antisemitism training discriminates against Jewish students who are anti-Zionist, against Palestinian students, and against all people of good conscience, and it has nothing to do with Jewish safety. It’s about Northwestern trying to cozy up to an increasingly authoritarian administration.” — Jonah Rubin, JVP Senior Manager of Campus Organizing

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Thousands protest Trump administration at ‘No Kings’ rally

“The demand for a free Palestine, the fight for Palestinian liberation, is essential to the fight against facism.” — Zack Kligler, JVP Rhode Island

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Gaza Ceasefire Deal Brings Scenes of Relief and Some Uncertainty for Activists

“Without Palestinian sovereignty and authority and participation in the peace deal as leaders, things aren’t going to change. Israel, the U.S., other nations can’t be the decisive voices in the reconstruction that happens.” — Ellen Brotsky, JVP Bay Area

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How the war in Gaza foreshadowed Trump’s policies

“Whether or not this ceasefire plan is implemented, the U.S. will continue to send billions of dollars in military funds and lethal weapons to a regime that is actively and ongoingly oppressing Palestinians. Our work will be to continue to harness and grow the mass movement of people who have organized non-stop to end this genocide into the ongoing struggle to upend the financial, cultural, and political alliance that ties the U.S. and Israel’s atrocities.” — Stefanie Fox, Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace