As the war between Israel and Hamas rages in Gaza, a bitter battle for public opinion is flaring in the United States, with angry demonstrations on many college campuses and disruptive protests in prominent locations in several major cities.
The catalysts include Palestinian and Jewish-led groups that have been active for years in opposing Israeli policies toward Palestinians and are now demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. They have clashed with pro-Israel groups in the past, and are doing so again.
The groups have roots in a movement known as BDS, which calls for the boycott, divestment and sanctions of Israel.
That campaign generated heated rhetoric long before Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7 and Israel launched its counter-offensive. Advocates wrote op-eds for campus newspapers calling for protection of Palestinian human rights, often accusing Israel of colonialism and racism.
Now groups involved in these earlier efforts are playing a key role in protesting the latest fighting, with actions on campuses and beyond. Protests have led to disruptions on Capitol Hill, at a major train station in Chicago and Grand Central Station in New York City.
They also helped organize a demonstration outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington on Wednesday evening, leading to clashes between police and protesters.
Which groups are involved?
Founded in 1996, Jewish Voice for Peace describes itself as “the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world.”
“We are organizing a grassroots, multiracial, cross-class, intergenerational movement of American Jews in solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle, guided by a vision of justice, equality and dignity for all people,” the group says on its website.
It claims more than 300,000 supporters, has 1 million followers on X, formerly known as Twitter, and maintains chapters on many American college campuses. The Columbia University chapter was suspended Friday for allegedly violating university policy on holding campus events.
After Hamas’s attack on Israel on October 7, Chicago-based Rabbi Brant Rosen, co-founder of the JVP Rabbinical Council, said he mourned fellow Jews killed but remained in solidarity with Palestinians.
The Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy group that regularly speaks out against anti-Semitism and extremism, labels JVP “a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates the boycott of Israel and the eradication of Zionism.”
In its 2021 federal tax returns, JVP reported revenue of nearly $2.9 million; it says the vast majority of revenue comes from individual contributions.
IfNotNow was founded during the 2014 Israeli-Hamas war, when more than 2,000 Palestinians were killed when Israeli forces launched airstrikes and a ground invasion in response to rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel.
“Young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly aggressive response from American Jewish institutions came together under the banner of IfNotNow,” the group says on its website. Its stated purpose: “To organize our community to end American support of Israel’s apartheid system and to demand equality, justice, and a prosperous future for all Palestinians and Israelis.”
In the early days of the current war between Israel and Hamas, IfNotNow condemned the killings of civilians on both sides while reiterating its criticism of Israeli policies.
“We cannot and will not say that today’s actions by Palestinian militants were unprovoked,” the group said on October 7. “The strangling siege of Gaza is a provocation. Settlers terrorize entire Palestinian villages, soldiers loot and demolish Palestinian homes. … These are the provocations of the most far-right government in Israel’s history.”
Eva Borgwardt, IfNotNow’s political director, said the group organized prayer services in some cities for Jews who wanted to mourn both the Jews and Palestinians killed in the conflict.
The Anti-Defamation League has accused IfNotNow of “extreme” criticism of the Israeli government and “divisive rhetoric, some of which may be offensive to members of the mainstream Jewish community.”
IfNotNow claims tens of thousands of members and supporters. According to tax forms, total revenue in 2021 was just under $397,000.
Students for Justice in Palestine has been on American campuses for decades, with frequent protests calling for the liberation of Palestinians and boycotts against Israel.
The loosely connected network says it has more than 200 chapters in the United States and Canada. His website states that his mission is “to strengthen, unite and support student organizers as they advance demands for Palestinian liberation. & self-determination on their campuses.” Last month it joined calls for a national strike by students on college campuses.
The Anti-Defamation League accuses her of anti-Israel propaganda “laced with inflammatory and sometimes combative rhetoric.”
It has increasingly clashed with university administrators, including at Brandeis University, a secular university founded in 1948 by the American Jewish community. Brandeis President Ron Liebowitz issued a statement last week saying the university no longer recognized the group’s chapter because of its support of Hamas. and “calling for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people.”
In a statement after Hamas attacked Israel, the group said it was a “moral imperative” to support the resilience of the Palestinian people, who have “endured 75 years of oppression, displacement and denial of their fundamental rights.” “armed resistance.”
Brandeis’ move came after the administration of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, took the extraordinary step of ordering state universities to ban the group, saying it illegally supports Hamas militants who have attacked Israel.
Several offshoots are also involved in protests.
American Muslims for Palestine, which has coordinated protest activities with IfNotNow over the years, hosted a “die-in” this weekend in downtown Toledo, Ohio.
Last month, the Virginia attorney general’s office announced an investigation into the group following allegations that it used funds for “impermissible purposes under state law, including benefiting or providing support to terrorist organizations.”
At Brown University this month, 20 students from the group BrownU Jews for Ceasefire Now were arrested after refusing to leave a campus building during a sit-in. The group posted on
Even groups like UNICEF and Amnesty International have faced criticism. In Scottsdale, Arizona, a high school student group’s presentation on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza prompted the state’s head of public education, Tom Horne, to urge schools to kick the two international groups off campus. Local school officials said student groups represent all viewpoints and are working to curb the furor.
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Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Crary reported from New York. Anita Snow contributed from Phoenix.
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