A group with one of the largest anti-Israel campus presences in the nation, Jewish Voice for Peace, was denounced in a Tuesday report detailing its connections to and support for U.S.-designated terrorist groups.
The StandWithUs report also highlighted JVP’s “questionable” funding sources, including money tied to Lebanon, Iran, and megadonor George Soros. The group called for further investigation into JVP’s funding sources after Hezbollah officials admitted to “investing in” anti-Israel groups in Western countries.
“JVP’s harmful rhetoric and alliances make it clear they are not a voice for peace,” StandWithUs co-founder and CEO Roz Rothstein said. “This organization fuels hate and shields extremists from accountability while doing nothing to bring about peaceful coexistence.
“To help fight rising antisemitism, the public, media, and leaders across our society must finally recognize JVP’s dangerous agenda and reject it,” Rothstein added.
StandWithUs slammed JVP for its “record of supporting” the U.S.-designated terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks and the murder of U.S. citizens, as well as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Yemen-based Houthis.
The report detailed how JVP supported the Great March of Return, which was led by a committee featuring representatives from Hamas and other terrorist groups. It also highlighted JVP’s connections to Samidoun, a group sanctioned by the United States and Canada in 2024 due to its fundraising for terrorists.
JVP also hosts rallies with Within Our Lifetime, a group StandWithUs slammed for “routinely express[ing] support for indiscriminate violence against Israelis;” regularly partnering with the Palestinian Youth Movement, which expresses support for terrorist organizations and celebrated the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel; and promoting an advertisement to “globalize the intifada.”
“Intifada” refers to violent uprisings against Israel, led by Hamas, that resulted in thousands of deaths on both sides.
The StandWithUs report listed several “questionable sources of funding” including from The Maximum Difference Foundation, whose founders have been accused of maintaining ties with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and has donated to the National Iranian American Council, which has been dubbed the “de facto” Iran lobby for the West.
In addition, JVP has taken thousands from The Violet Jabara Charitable Trust and The Halaby Family Foundation. The former funds causes in Lebanon, Iran, Yemen, and other Middle Eastern countries, and the latter has donated significant funds to Lebanese entities.
One of JVP’s largest known donors is the Open Society Foundation, founded by Soros. The OSF has funded numerous groups designated as terrorist organizations by Israel, including Al Haw, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.
While JVP stands for Jewish Voice for Peace, one does not have to be Jewish to be a member. Hamas-tied anti-Israel activist Hatem Bazian is largely involved with the group, and the report also points out the founder of American University’s first JVP chapter and a former JVP intern, both of Palestinian descent, as examples of non-Jewish involvement in the group.
The organization has pushed an “antisemitic conspiracy theory” that posits that American police have been trained by the Israeli military to brutalize minorities and claims that “racism shapes everything in the U.S., Israel, and beyond. … White supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, patriarchy, colonialism, militarism, and capitalism are intertwined at the roots, and that we can’t fully address any of them without addressing all of them.”
JVP’s agenda is to dismantle the Jewish state of Israel, according to the report. StandWithUs also criticized the group for objecting to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
The group’s campus project, “JVP Campus,” is one of the largest anti-Israel campus groups in the country and regularly works with groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine to organize demonstrations and Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns.
While both SJP and JVP had a campus presence prior to the Oct. 7 massacre, in the wake of the attack, both groups saw increased activity across the nation. With increased anti-Israel activity, a massive spike in antisemitic conduct followed, including a 2500% increase in physical assaults and a 900% increase in violent threats to Jewish students.
The rise in campus antisemitism prompted hundreds of legal actions under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and over 100 civil rights investigations into colleges and school districts.
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Anti-Israel groups such as JVP may be in danger under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration, as he has vowed to remove funding from schools found to be fostering antisemitism. Florida has already banned SJP from public campuses in an effort to combat rising Jewish hate at educational institutions.
The Washington Examiner reached out to Jewish Voice for Peace for comment.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
