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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/pro-israel-groups-pro-palestinian-report"
id="reader-domain" class="domain">theguardian.com</a>
<h1 id="reader-title">Pro-Israel groups targeting Palestinian
organizations in US, report finds</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">Amanda Holpuch<br>
30 September 2015<br>
<b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/pro-israel-groups-pro-palestinian-report">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/pro-israel-groups-pro-palestinian-report</a></small></small></b><span
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<p>Pro-Israel organizations are increasingly targeting
pro-Palestinian groups in the US, according to a report
released by two legal advocacy groups on Wednesday.<br>
</p>
<p>In a report co-authored with the Center for
Constitutional Rights, legal group Palestine Legal said
it was called in to respond to<strong> </strong>nearly
300 incidents of attempted suppression of pro-Palestine
activism and rhetoric in the past 18 months.</p>
<p>“These numbers aren’t telling the full story,” said
Dima Khalidi, director of Palestine Legal. “They are
really the tip of the iceberg with incidents that go
unreported.” </p>
<p>The report found that, overwhelmingly, these incidents
took place on university campuses, which have become the
focus of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
campaign in recent years. </p>
<p>The movement encourages organizations and institutions
to boycott and divest from <a class=" u-underline"
data-component="auto-linked-tag"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/israel">Israel</a>
until “the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian
citizens of Israel” have been recognized.</p>
<p>It has been branded antisemitic by several pro-Israel
groups <a class=" u-underline"
data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body
link"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/israel-brands-palestinian-boycott-strategic-threat-netanyahu">and
the Israeli government</a>. Casino magnate Sheldon
Adelson held a closed-door meeting of fellow pro-Israel
billionaires and <a class=" u-underline"
data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body
link"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/05/sheldon-adelson-looks-to-stamp-out-growing-us-movement-to-boycott-israel">activists
in June</a> in an attempt to combat efforts to divest
from Israel. </p>
<p>The report’s authors say that conflating pro-Palestine
activism with antisemitism is one of the key ways
pro-Israel groups attempt to constrain their activities.
</p>
<p>Incidents documented in the report include criminal
investigations, lawsuits, and the suspension of
pro-Palestine student groups.</p>
<p>In one such example, more than 175 faculty members from
16 New York City colleges wrote an open letter to the
City University of New York system <a class="
u-underline" data-component="in-body-link"
data-link-name="in body link"
href="http://ticker.baruchconnect.com/article/cuny-faculty-call-for-student-right-to-free-speech-in-open-letter/">in
September 2014</a>,<strong> </strong>alleging that
pro-Palestinian student groups were treated unfairly,
compared to other student groups.</p>
<p>The report also mentioned an <a class=" u-underline"
data-component="in-body-link" data-link-name="in body
link"
href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/27/website-targets-pro-palestinian-students-harm-job-prospects">incident
in May</a>, when an unknown group launched a website
which profiled people associated with pro-Palestinian
student groups, to dissuade potential employers from
hiring them.</p>
<p>“It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are
not tomorrow’s employees,” the Canary Mission website<strong>
</strong>warned.<br>
</p>
<p>Of the 152 incidents Palestine Legal responded to<strong>
</strong>in 2014, only 12 were not campus-related. This
year, it has so far responded to<strong> </strong>140
incidents, 28 of which were not campus-related. </p>
<p>“We’re not just talking about a handful of isolated
incidents,” Khalidi said. “This is really a widespread
problem that affects hundreds of people across the
country.”</p>
<p>The report claims that dozens of pro-Israel groups are
connected to attempts to suppress free speech, including
<a class=" u-underline" data-component="in-body-link"
data-link-name="in body link" href="http://zoa.org/">the
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)</a>, the <a
class=" u-underline" data-component="in-body-link"
data-link-name="in body link"
href="http://www.amchainitiative.org/">AMCHA
Initiative</a> and StandWithUs. </p>
<p>Roz Rothstein, CEO of pro-Israel group <a class="
u-underline" data-component="in-body-link"
data-link-name="in body link"
href="http://www.standwithus.com/">StandWithUs</a>,
was critical of the report. She said that
pro-Palestinian activists in the US were simply upset
because they wanted to continue participating in work
that was both anti-semitic and anti-Israel.<br>
</p>
<p>“The perpetrators are crying victim,” Rothstein said.
“They are harassing the pro-Israel community on campus
and they are crying victim.”</p>
<p>She said she considers the work of these groups
anti-semitic because it meets the “<a class="
u-underline" data-component="in-body-link"
data-link-name="in body link"
href="http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-sharansky-f04.htm">3D
test of antisemitism</a>”, defined as demonization,
double standards and delegitimization.</p>
<p>“If you apply the 3Ds it is antisemitism and they can
cry all they want, but it happens to meet the definition
of antisemitic,” she said.</p>
<p>Palestine Legal and the Center for Constitutional
Rights are calling on universities to be more responsive
to activities that they believe suppress pro-Palestine
groups’ right to freedom of speech. </p>
<p>They also called on the US government to be more clear
about the difference between criticizing Israel’s
policies and antisemitism.<br>
</p>
<p>**************************************<br>
Link to Palestine Legal's report <a
href="http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpalestinelegal.org%2Fthe-palestine-exception&h=JAQGmaHyTAQH4GvhkAn-ES4-qa3hz7TE67f-yN8llai4IEQ&enc=AZOFHy4DEWnQokF6oi7TDvxNURMgd8QojZMdsykumzxDXb_lp2bdm7GASfFhaK49pHxq2Qj941b9jrODZpYPI-vKd_Y1KxdpJZoedcqEV281GChqG8MHyqpCWWGYOxw0iRMXVojoOO-ErHHkoJ8CKlvxcsys7CHho7K7DjBbis5hyA&s=1"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
onmouseover='LinkshimAsyncLink.swap(this,
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<br>
ALSO The Business of Backlash report by the
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN)<br>
<a
href="http://www.ijan.org/resources/business-of-backlash/"
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"
onmouseover='LinkshimAsyncLink.swap(this,
"http:\/\/www.ijan.org\/resources\/business-of-backlash\/");'
onclick='LinkshimAsyncLink.referrer_log(this,
"http:\/\/www.ijan.org\/resources\/business-of-backlash\/",
"\/si\/ajax\/l\/render_linkshim_log\/?u=http\u00253A\u00252F\u00252Fwww.ijan.org\u00252Fresources\u00252Fbusiness-of-backlash\u00252F&h=1AQHP9LlvAQHc2u1jjp6wHiwXTCyGAlOUiOy5CDhPw0RCNw&render_verification=0&enc=AZP_XA1r9Bj4BYpAGPi_xGVZijJWh_qQPXPcze_BcMMwQCnleI-Az7-P7aNp1K7vt9W3n2e964D0zbf3MlPTnTvQu144znAY3eBWjwz1CzGB5gAtkAUQHise4tXuFbVZlLRUZpGvgGiBd95BGlGPuPjCeZAntRrqmQpn8iIjhZK9bA&d");'><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ijan.org/resources/business-of-backlash/">http://www.ijan.org/resources/business-of-backlash/</a></a><br>
</p>
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