RELEASE: New Report Exposes 11 Donors Funding Attack on Palestinian Movement in the US

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

E-mail: backlashdefense@ijan.org

New Report, “Business of Backlash” Exposes Eleven Major Donors Funding Attack on Palestinian Movement in the US

 

[03/26/2015—San Francisco, CA] Today, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) released an explosive new report, The Business of Backlash: The Attack on the Palestinian Movement and Other Movements for Social Justice, revealing the financing behind the attacks across the United States who have been organizing in support of Palestine. The 120page report, which synthesizes thousands of pages of tax returns, demonstrates that a small handful of individuals, including right-wing donors Sheldon Adelson, the Koch Brothers, and Newton and Rochelle Becker, are responsible for a huge portion of this funding.

The eleven major donors identified in the report run their money through private foundations and intermediaries like the Middle East Forum or the Jewish Communal Fund, who pass the money on to organizations like the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which has been in the news for hanging grotesque flyers on college campuses falsely attributed to Students for Justice in Palestine and slandering them as “Jew-Haters.”

“Even foundations which purport to represent the whole Jewish community are deeply implicated in practices many Jews find reprehensible,” said Emma Rubin of IJAN. “Why is the Jewish Community Foundation of San Francisco giving $100,000 to the extremist AMCHA initiative which is undermining academic freedom by suing universities for discrimination on the grounds that professors who teach about Palestine are somehow anti-Semitic?”

“The attacks on the Palestinian community have been relentless; we have faced a highly organized campaign of intimidation, criminalization and economic coercion,” said Lara Kiswani of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center. “Now we know where much of the money behind these attacks is coming from. We can use this critical information to launch campaigns and connect movements to counter the outsized influence of these donors who are dedicated to fattening their pocketbooks no matter how much harm they do to people and the planet.”

By following the trail of money, the report reveals that these same donors, many of whom earned their wealth from or are invested in industries that profit from war and instability in the Middle East, are involved in undermining other progressive causes. “As I was poring over the research, I suddenly realized that the same donors that are attacking Palestinians, promoting Islamophobia and funding climate change denial are heavily invested in oil and weapons,” said Josh Cadji, IJAN member and environmental justice activist.

The report references the 2010 Reut Institute report, which laid out a strategy for attacking those supporting justice in Palestine. One of the primary suggestions of the report is that Israel’s supporters should work to divide the Palestinian movement into those offering legitimate and illegitimate criticism. “We are building our power, and that is why they are attacking us,” says Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, a Palestinian professor who was targeted by the AMCHA Initiative. “Palestinian rights are indivisible, and we refuse to let them divide us, even with their billions of dollars.”

Download the executive summary and full report here:

IJAN-Business-of-Backlash-Executive-Summary-web

IJAN-Business-of-Backlash-full-report-web