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The Business of Backlash THE BUSINESS OF BACKLASH: The Attack on the Palestinian Movement and Other Movements for Justice The Business of Backlash: The Attack on the Palestinian Movement and Other Movements for Justice International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network March 2015 The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) is an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part. We are committed to the dismantling of Israeli apartheid, the return of Palestinian refugees, and to ending the Israeli colonization of historic Palestine. We coordinate and support Jewish participation in local and international efforts to challenge Zionism, Islamophobia and other racism, separatism and militarism, and work towards a society premised on the economic, political, social, cultural and environmental rights of all people, beginning with the most vulnerable communities. IJAN currently has chapters across the United States and chapters or affiliates in Argentina, Toronto, India, Israel, France, London, Geneva, Austria, New Zealand, Spain, and the Netherlands. To order additional copies of this report and for more information about or to get involved find us on- ‐line at www.ijan.org or contact us at [email protected]. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The report is based on the collective work of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network responding to backlash against our work and that against the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity movements. The following IJAN members gave extensive time and attention to the research, writing and editing involved in completing this report: Sara Kershnar, David Langstaff, Toby Kramer, Max Geller, Sam Weinstein, Josh Cadji, Rachel Marcus, Lee Gargagliano, Rio Scharf, Emma Rubin, Carla Hays, Sue Goldstein and Rebecca Hom. The insights of IJAN member, Global Women’s Strike founder, author and long-time activist Selma James were invaluable to holding IJAN to our principles and commitments in the writing of this report. This report, as with all of our work, would not have been possible without the camaraderie, solidarity and collective insight, experience, skill and commitment of the many partners with whom we share this struggle. The insights and discussions with Puerto Rican and labor activist Jaime Veve, Palestinian community organizer Lara Kiswani, activist lawyer Charlotte Kates, and Black liberation activist Kali Akuno greatly shaped the thinking behind and conclusions of this report. The edits and critical feedback of activist lawyers Maria LaHood, Dima Khalidi, Radhika Sainath and Andrew Dalack, Palestinian intellectual and activist Rabab Abdulhadi, academic activists Sunaina Maira and Bill Mullen and Palestinian community activist Sami Kitmitto were instrumental in working to make this document as accurate and useful as possible. For offering their experiences and cases of responding strategically to backlash, the following made significant contribution to the concrete examples offered in the report: activists with Students for Justice in Palestine at Northeastern, Cornell University, University of Michigan, Florida Atlantic University, and New York University, Palestinian activist and lawyer Lamis Deek, the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative at SF State University, Eastside Arts Alliance and the Committee for the Defense of Rasmea Odeh. The following organizations have informed the report directly and indirectly through our work together and their independent work and example of responding to backlash in ways that strengthen our movement and each other: » Al Awda – New York » Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative, SF State University » Arab Resource and Organizing Center » Center for Constitutional Rights » Committee for the Defense of Rasmea Odeh » Global Women’s Strike » Malcolm X Grassroots Movement » National Lawyers Guild Free Palestine Sub-Committee & Student Support Work Group » Palestine Solidarity Legal Support » Palestinian Youth Movement » Payday Network » Students for Justice in Palestine » US Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel THE BUSINESS OF BACKLASH 3 » US Campaign to End the Occupation FOREWORD The bulk of the research and writing for this report was done by the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN). This is part of IJAN’s ongoing work to expose the political and economic role that Israel and the U.S. play internationally. Our thinking reflects the collective discussions about and responses to backlash (see glossary of terms, page 96) that we have been part of with the individuals and organizations listed in the acknowledgments. We hope that this report can serve as a resource for the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity movements in the United States, as well as a tool with which to defend ourselves, and expose and challenge our opposition. This report offers an illustrative and not exhaustive overview of the resources and interests devoted to stopping criticism of Israel and undermining support of the Palestinian movement for human rights and liberation, as well as those behind systematic attacks on Muslim, Palestinian, and other Arab activists and communities. Through donor-advised funds, funders support extreme anti-Muslim and anti-Arab racist propaganda and virulent attacks against pro-Palestinian organizing with some, if not total, anonymity. Therefore, it is not possible to gather all of the information on where the donor money behind backlash is invested, or to detail all of the people, organizations, and media outlets involved. Some of these donors and foundations are supporters of the State of Israel as a Jewish state, and others support Israel because of the role that Israel plays in protecting U.S. interests in the region. What they share is an interest in ensuring U.S. support for Israel, and for wars and occupation in the region, both of which benefit their investments in oil, alternative energy, weapons, and militarization. The report is also illustrative in a different way: It is a specific example of the ways in which money, power, and propaganda are deployed in service of the accumulation of profit by a handful of individuals. The donors this report discusses are not unique – the vast majority of the wealthiest people in the United States safeguard their economic interests and wield political influence in similar ways. The donors we investigate because of their deep involvement in Zionist backlash and Islamophobia also give to many other conservative and reactionary causes, think tanks, and propagandists. A great number of the wealthiest people in the United States funnel money through foundations and donor-advised funds to organizations, institutes, and media outlets whose work protects their investments, and which advance policies and ideas that facilitate their profit-making and political power. What is more, these “donations” – which are really investments – are themselves tax deductible. Such investments are, in fact, about tax evasion and consolidating wealth and power, and thus their representation as public goods is misleading. With this report we hope to offer the Palestinian and Palestine solidarity movements in the United States information we can use to expose, confront, and thwart our opposition. In this way, the backlash being organized against the movement for Palestinian rights and freedom by those who support Israel and Islamophobia is a specific instance of the ways that power, profit, and politics work more generally. A Note on Sources: The research and analysis which has been compiled and synthesized in this document has been gathered from a variety of sources, both activist and scholarly. For the empirical data on the financing of backlash, we have relied heavily on over ten thousand pages of publicly available tax returns (990s), as well as the work of prior investigative reports in on-line journals and searchable databases such as Sourcewatch, Citizen’s Audit, Conservative Transparency, Guide Star and the Foundation Directory. As noted above, elites have intentionally obscured and even hidden much of this information from public scrutiny, and thus we have provided the most accurate and comprehensive data that we were able to access. We hope that this report will encourage more investigative research into the sources of funding for Islamophobia and backlash against the Palestinian movement as well as into Donor Advised Funds more broadly in hiding the ways that elite donors fund non-profits, foundations, media outlets, and public figures whose work and agendas secure and grow their profit. 4 International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE Summary .............................................7 INTRODUCTION .................................................15 History & BACKGROUND .........................................20 SPECIFIC ROLE OF THE U.S.-ISRAEL Relationship IN REPRESSION, RACISM AND BACKLASH .............................25 Leveraging Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab Racism – Islamophobia ..............27 Criminalizing Palestinian Activists................................28 THE REUT INSTITUTE: THE OVERARCHING FRAMEWORK FOR BACKLASH Strategy .........................................30 THE LANDSCAPE OF DONOR AND Foundation-FUNDED REPRESSION & Disinformation ...................................34 Note on Jewish Charities and funding of pro-Israel advocacy .............34 PROFILES OF THE 11 MAJOR DONORS TO ZIONIST BACKLASH IN THE UNITED States ..................................36 Newton
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