Media Roundup: JVP is organizing everywhere.

How October 7 Remade Jewish Politics in America, Jacobin

“Yet only a few weeks after October 7, long before major human rights organizations such as Amnesty International named Israel’s invasion of Gaza a genocide, thousands of Jewish activists who had organized with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) occupied Grand Central Station in New York City and dropped a banner reading ‘Never Again for Anyone.’

The message was unmistakable. Against the prevailing narrative that October 7 was a ‘pogrom,’ a link in a chain of endless violence against Jews that culminated in the Holocaust, the banner suggested a different interpretation of past and present. For these activists, the lesson to draw from Jewish history was one of solidarity with the Palestinians, who have been for a century now rendered stateless and rightless at the hands of a powerful, militaristic nation.”

– Benjamin Balthaser, JVP member

The Shift: Tlaib introduces genocide resolution, Mondoweiss

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) has introduced H.Res.876, a resolution that recognizes Israel’s actions in Gaza as a genocide and calls on the U.S. to stop sending the country weapons. Additionally, the bill calls for investigations and prosecution for U.S. individuals and corporations connected to the genocide, compliance with the International Court of Justice, and sanctions on the Israeli government. … It’s also backed by over 100 organizations, including…Jewish Voice for Peace Action.

NSPM-7: A Blueprint for Silencing Progressive Movements, Common Dreams

“The approach embedded in NSPM-7 was foreshadowed in Project Esther…Jewish Voice for Peace, for example, appears prominently in Project Esther. The project treats dissenting Jewish movements as potential enemies of the state while ignoring the sources of real antisemitic violence from white supremacist organizations and Trump’s own network. In doing so, it advances an agenda that uses the language of Jewish protection to mask a campaign that targets, among many groups, Jewish progressives and anti-fascists.”

– Barry Trachtenberg, JVP Academic Advisory Council

North Carolina sells $6.4 Million in Israeli government bonds following community campaign, Mountain Xpress

“As a state employee, I’m so relieved that my pension fund will no longer be funding a genocide. And as a Jewish North Carolinian, I am so proud to be part of a multi-faith movement of people across the state who have proven that we will never stop fighting for Palestinian lives.”

– Dr. Noa Nessim, JVP Triangle

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The ADL Tried to Appease MAGA. The FBI Cut Ties with Them Anyway, Jewish Currents

In June 2020, Jewish Currents and The Guardian reported that senior ADL employees had recommended that the group end its practice of sending police and federal law enforcement, including FBI agents, on delegations to Israel — a program that had long been protested by pro-Palestine groups like Jewish Voice for Peace… But soon after this moment of reflection, the ADL became only more defensive against its left critics. 

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The Jewish Diaspora Movement, In These Times

“While activist organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) have created a space for a new kind of Jewish identity to flourish, a new network of religious projects is growing to offer a pathway back to Judaism itself. With little funding and support from the larger infrastructure of American Jewish life, this upstart confederation is remaking American Judaism with the same ingenuity that marked the historical Jewish Left’s attempt to celebrate a diverse and ethical vision for Jewish life.”

– Shane Burley, JVP member & coauthor of Safety Through Solidarity: a Radical Guide to Fighting Antisemitism.

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Northwestern Faculty, Students Divided Over $75M Settlement With Trump Administration, WTTW

“I question whether this was really about antisemitism. They’re using Jews in order to do a project that they have always wanted to do. That has nothing to do with keeping Jews safe and everything to do with advancing a far-right antidemocratic project.”

– Jonah Rubin, JVP Senior Manager of Campus Organizing

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Mamdani’s Inaugural Committee to Include Prominent Israel Critics Ms. Rachel, Cynthia Nixon, Haaretz

With under a week until Mamdani enters office on January 1st, his office has presented the list of 45 people who will join a largely symbolic committee. It features Ms. Rachel, a children’s entertainer whose YouTube channel boasts over 18 million subscribers; Beth Miller from Jewish Voice for Peace Action; Hollywood star Cynthia Nixon, one of the prominent signatories of a September petition to boycott Israeli film institutions; and Phylisa Wisdom, the executive director of the New York Jewish Agenda, a liberal Jewish advocacy group. 

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Resisting Zionism’s IHRA Attack on Free Speech, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs

“IHRA is really a tool to weaponize the term ’anti-Semitism’ as a way to prevent Americans from understanding what’s really happening, and to prevent Americans from saying to our elected leaders: ‘You cannot keep funding this genocide.’”

– Seth Morrison, JVP Bay Area

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Ethics complaint filed against five Vermont legislators who went on paid trip to Israel, Barre-Montpelier Times Argus

“That Vermont legislators would accept $6,500 in gifts to be lobbied by a foreign government is disturbing in its own right, but it is indefensible that the five in question allowed themselves to be lobbied by a government that stands credibly accused by multiple organizations of war crimes and genocide in Gaza.”

– Liz Blum, JVP Vermont-New Hampshire

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Group files ethics complaint against Greer, other reps, over Israel trip, Bennington Banner

“The representatives accepted gifts of travel to, from, and within Israel, including chartered flights, accommodations in luxury, five-star hotels, meals, and guided tours in Jerusalem, all paid for by the Israeli government…The public record shows the legislators were invited primarily to be lobbied by high government officials, including the prime minister and foreign minister, with the expectation they would support legislation in their home states favorable to Israel’s geopolitical and economic interests.”

– Fran Miller, JVP Vermont-New Hampshire

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CAIR Supports Jewish Voice for Peace’s Ethics Complaints Against Vermont Lawmakers Over Pro-Genocide Propaganda Tours to Israel

“We applaud Jewish Voice for Peace Vermont–New Hampshire for taking principled action to uphold ethical standards in public office. Elected officials should not accept gifts or foreign-sponsored travel that entangles them in propaganda efforts, especially when those efforts seek to justify genocide. Accountability and transparency are essential to democracy, and no foreign government should be permitted to buy political influence at the expense of human rights.”

– Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)

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US: Proposal to restrict protests shields ‘unlawful’ sales of Palestinian land, rights groups say, Middle East Eye

“That events supporting the theft of Palestinian land, in full violation of international law, are occurring at all is unconscionable. That they are occurring in our sacred spaces is a moral failure of epic proportions.”

– JVP Statement