Facing a crowd of 2,000 anti-Zionist activists at the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) National Members Meeting (NMM) in Baltimore, Naomi Klein shared that at this gathering, she was at home.
Klein is not alone. Over the past 19 months of ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Palestine solidarity movement in the U.S. has grown to unprecedented levels, particularly among Jews.
But the U.S. government, acting as what Angela Davis calls “the most consistent surrogate to Israel,” has shown just how resilient their support is–the weapons continue to flow, the political alliance remains intact, if not stronger than ever. One strategy wielded by the state to maintain this seemingly obstinate alliance is the weaponization of false antisemitism accusations to repress the Palestine solidarity movement and quell dissent.
Across panels and workshops, one theme of the NMM was identifying a unique role for Jews in the present moment: shielding the movement from this “smokescreen” antisemitism. As Elena Stein, JVP Director of Organizing Strategy, said “antisemitism is being weaponized. It’s our duty to fight.”
This smokescreen is a cynical attempt to obscure the clear political dynamics in Palestine–genocide, occupation, apartheid, settler colonialism–by placing false accusations of antisemitism at the forefront of public discourse and federal policy. It also distracts from actual antisemitism, primarily perpetrated by the Christian nationalist right–the very same actors claiming to “combat antisemitism.”
During a NMM panel titled “Steadfastness in the Face of Repression,” Dima Khalidi, director of Palestine Legal, shared that conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism is the “foundation of so much repression and is deeply anti-Palestinian.” As the exploitation of smokescreen antisemitism has become more virulent during Trump’s second term, it has also become more transparent. The scale and scope of the JVP NMM demonstrate that more and more Jews are seeing through it.
The NMM was a four-day convergence of JVP organizers and movement allies from across the U.S. Each day was jam-packed with panels featuring movement leaders such as Angela Davis, Omar Barghouti, Naomi Klein, Dima Khalidi, Noura Erakat, and Eman Abdelhadi, and 90 skill-based workshops ranging from “Organizing Municipal Divestment Campaigns,” “Storytelling Against Empire,” and “Digital Security Under Repression.” There were also art builds, film screenings, religious services, a concert, a circus show, and self-organized meetups. It was overwhelming, generative, and beautiful.
Attendees navigated many different pathways to the movement. I met a Jewish woman named Hope from Alaska whose outrage at false charges of antisemitism was a catalyst for her activism; a group of organizers from Philadelphia who found their political home in JVP after October 7; a Jewish artist named Molly whose ancestor was an anti-Zionist Russian Bundist; an Israeli socialist who moved to the U.S. and unlearned Zionism after reading Edward Said; a student named Brandon who told me his first time ever finding belonging in Jewish community was at the Gaza Solidarity encampment on his college campus.
Why are so many Jews finding their way to the Palestine solidarity movement in the current political moment? The answer might have something to do with Project Esther, the updated playbook for how the far-right intends to repress the movement. Their core strategy: weaponizing false charges of antisemitism.
Project Esther was produced by the Heritage Foundation, which is also the author of Project 2025. I attended a workshop about Project Esther and learned that it specifically names JVP, along with two other organizations, as the architects of a so-called “terrorist support network.” This workshop highlighted some core repression tactics, including lawfare, dismantling movement infrastructure and non-profit status, assaulting free speech on college campuses, leveraging counterterrorism and immigration laws, and sowing discord among movement partners–all under the guise of “combating antisemitism.”
Columbia University is a frontline of the escalating repression laid out in Project Esther. Columbia students and faculty at the NMM hosted a workshop reporting on lawsuits, authoritarian policy changes, funding cuts, and deportations of students. Many of these assaults are done under the false pretext of antisemitism, including Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest, after which the White House posted “Shalom Mahmoud” and Trump tweeted that Khalil was a “pro-terrorist anti-Semite.”
Noura Erakat, speaking on a panel about “This Political Moment,” believes that a result of Trumpism is that “progressive except for Palestine is in the dustbin.” Because of increasing domestic repression, supporters of Israel in the U.S. are being forced to reckon with Zionism as a far-right ideology.
It could be true that many who previously considered themselves “progressive Zionists” are able to see through the smokescreen and have rejected their previous politics. This is perhaps evidenced by the 20,000 new JVP members who joined this year. As Naomi Klein puts it, “The Israeli state stands for the safety of the few in a sea of suffering.” The NMM’s scale also shows that American Jews are increasingly rejecting this fragile offer.
This gathering was not 2,000 anti-Zionist activists passively supporting Palestine, but 2,000 organizers actively sharpening their organizing skills, expanding their political analysis, and committing to each bring ten more people with them next time. As Elena Stein shared, “The only thing we as a collective are more than enraged and horrified, is determined.”
Several organizers I spoke with at the NMM shared that in their local communities, they are seeing increasing disillusionment from Jews who belong to Zionist Jewish institutions supportive of Trump and Project Esther’s repression tactics. A consistent theme of the NMM was strategizing around the opportunity to bring these folks into the movement. Some workshops took this task head-on, including: “Inviting People in: The Art and Craft of 1:1 Organizing Conversations,” “If We Don’t Organize Them, The Right Will” and “How to Have Hard Conversations About Palestine.”
The overt, indiscreet mendacity of the Trump administration’s rhetoric and policies is coalescing in the formation of a united front against fascism. This front has the potential to adopt Barbara Ransby’s words as a mantra: “collective liberation is our only chance for survival.” In the struggle for collective liberation, Jews have a unique mandate–taking down the antisemitism smokescreen.
First time I have ever had a comment not get through moderation. On May 14th I brought up how millions of Jews and others have been silent about the devastating circumstances that Palestinians have been in for decades, since the UN created Israel in 48/49. Palestinians have had homes stolen, land stolen, lives destroyed, imprisoned without due process, humiliated, intimidated, family members killed over decades. Many Jews and others have stayed silent.
Yes, we have Finkestein who came out and stood on front lines of this issue in the 80’s, Chomsky. Then JVP formed about 20 years ago. Amy Goodman 1996, Medea, Phillip Weiss, Naomi Klein early 2000’s. However, by and large many Jews as well as others stayed silent for decades. Many even sending money and support for Israel in unbridled ways.
Whole book written about what many of us involved in the Pro Palestine, Pro Israel (based on internationally recognized borders) Pro Peace for many decades were shunned, ridiculed, often labeled as anti semitic for our efforts and stances to lift the lid on the issue. Pushing credible sources for information getting out about what was taking place on the ground in the conflict. The power of the “Israel Lobby” was/is real. Many Jews were part of that lobby directly or indirectly for decades
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taXIbXYt6YY
While there has clearly been a shift taking place in the Jewish community that has accelerated since Israel has been flat out committing a genocide. Jews and others who have not just sat on the sidelines but pushed for the support of Israel in unbridled and unquestioning ways for decades need to own their complicit, deadly support for Israel. Own those serious mistakes. There is a real effort going on trying to spin that many who have often been supporting Israel over decades who have shifted have always been on the right side of history. Own your complicity, acknowledge, sincerely apologize and then move forward on the right side of history.
This is what is happening for many.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJGJvNTjpR8
All these proclamations expressing outrage and…results??? NOTHING! Those still preaching pacifism have betrayed the causes. Turning the ‘other cheek’ time and again has been totally useless…while those afflicted keep suffering.
“a student named Brandon who told me his first time ever finding belonging in Jewish community was at the Gaza Solidarity encampment on his college campus.”
“In the struggle for collective liberation, Jews have a unique mandate–taking down the antisemitism smokescreen.”
Reacting emotionally.
you want people who have always been alienated from the Jewish community to demonstrate that hating Israel is not antisemitic, when they’ve never felt comfortable with Jewishness until they have found a group that hates some aspect of Jewishness.
The history of American openness to Jews is an open book, particularly compared to the experience in Eastern Europe. Jews who came to America for the most part wanted to join American society and accomplished this through educating their children and keeping the Jewish content of their lives to a minimum. (This was not necessarily an immediate response and of course the socialist tendency of a large part of this population had been devoted to destroying the particularism of their group for decades before coming to America, but in all, this devotion to assimilation was rather widespread.) The lack of content that resulted, turned Jewishness into a food choice: deli, lox, bagels, rye bread, challah (and knowing how to pronounce the ch). The numbers who chose to have Christmas trees in their homes and to only attend seders if there were nonJews present. The Jewish struggle to balance identity with assimilation is probably aiming for some mixture that is exceedingly rare and the net effect can be one of scorning tradition or turning Jewish headgear or prayer shawls into a fashion accessory for rare occasions. Of course the Holocaust needs to be mentioned. That is if the major Jewish immigration to America occurred from 1881 to 1920, this was followed by a shutdown of that immigration which was immediately followed by a rather painful example of what being Jewish in the rest of the world can result in. One should realize that between 1945 and the Eichmann trial silence was the foremost output until the 6 day war. So Zionism mostly of the 1967 variety rather than the 1948 birth of Israel was a response to that historical abyss. It is indeed a shallow Judaism and offers insufficient day to day content to the Jews. But now with identity Jew hatred (of the kanye west sort) combining with the political self denial involved in the Gaza demonstrations, these Jews must lead the way? Doesn’t add up.
I wonder (and am largely pessimistic) regarding the possibility of dialogue between left leaning Zionist Jews and the people described in this post.
First: let me react emotionally. The mention of Angela Davis. Of course she’s a historic figure of radical politics, but that history includes the rejection of the desire of Jews to have freedom of movement to leave the Soviet Union in the 1970’s rejecting them as fascists that deserve to be imprisoned. How can one make a leap over that? One cannot.
Taking October 7th in isolation yields the following from those who support Jewish statehood in the historical homeland: the defeat of Hamas must be achieved. The utter destruction and upheaval of life in Gaza that became the inevitable consequence (or avoidable bad faith destruction) is either an automatic consequence of the desired defeat of Hamas or else something wrought only by other considerations rather merely “the defeat of Hamas”.
The 23 years after the camp david attempt at an agreement in July 2000 have not been good for those who aim towards reconciliation.
the israeli policy of de facto annexation of the west bank accompanied by the lack of franchise is not saleable on a basic level and this vulnerability regarding public opinion is not about to disappear.
the nakba of 1948 is not something that Palestinians are about to forget. there is a very narrow Israeli public that would advocate something that undoes the nakba in any meaningful way as the platform of their future peace plans.
Support for Palestinians does not mean automatic support for Hamas, but such support seems widespread amongst supporters of a free Palestine. There may be valid historical reasons for this, but this does not make dialogue any easier.
Prediction: There is no need for Netanyahu to stop fighting Hamas until the situation between the US and Iran clarifies. Once it clarifies, I assume there will be an agreement of some sort and then the war against Hamas will necessarily change and what that future looks like is beyond me. a real attack by Israel and US against Iran would be a gigantic gamechanger. (even more beyond the outer range of my imagination).
I think Netanyahu would be wisest to stop the fighting and withdraw. Israeli society is tired and the reoccupation of Gaza can be delayed for three years. Because of the 24 or 25 years since camp david 2000, it is difficult to sell the cause of reconciliation.