‘L’chaim Intifada’: New Jewish group spurns anti-Zionist JVP as insufficiently radical

JTA — An anonymous group of Jewish student activists has broken away from Jewish Voice for Peace to form a new national organization, the Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front, that pledges to escalate campaigns against Zionism on college campuses.

In a statement released this week, the group framed itself as part of what it termed a global “student intifada” and said it was aligning with the “Popular University,” a loose network of pro-Palestinian activists.

“We work to dismantle Zionism in its entirety by confronting Zionist institutions on campus, to struggle for divestment, and to pursue the criminalization of Zionism as a white supremacist weapon of war,” the statement said.

Jewish Voice for Peace, the country’s largest anti-Zionist Jewish organization, confirmed the separation. The group has grown in prominence in recent years, staging high-profile demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza and partnering with progressive advocacy groups. But it has recently shifted its energy toward political lobbying after not achieving its organizing goals.

The Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front presents itself as more radical, questioning whether existing nonprofit structures are effective for campus activism and rejecting the centrality of messaging like “anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”

Instead, it says it will focus on direct confrontation with “Zionist institutions on campus” and on pushing for divestment. Its logo features the Yiddish phrase “L’chaim Intifada” surrounded by an Arabic slogan that reads, “Where there is oppression, may there thrive resistance.”

The announcement appeared on Instagram, posted by the account of the Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front and tagged as a collaboration with five others: campus chapters at George Washington University, Georgetown University and American University; the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, an activist group formed in 2008; and anti-Zionist activist Anna Rajagopal.

The organization did not respond to an press inquiry. Rajagopal responded to a request for comment to say that she did not represent the groups involved and had “no desire to talk to an employee of the Jewish Telegraph[ic] Agency about any topic, ever.” She did not respond to further questions.

The announcement video cites numerous Jewish concepts, including “tzedek” or justice and “doikayt,” the Yiddish word meaning “hereness” that anti-Zionist Jewish activists have adopted as a watchword.

The video features footage from George Washington University, where pro-Palestinian advocacy has been notably fierce. Just weeks after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, students there projected anti-Israel messages including “Glory to our martyrs” on a university building. The school suspended both JVP and Students for Justice in Palestine in the aftermath.

Both groups have since disaffiliated from the school. The school’s chapter of JVP told the student newspaper last month, after it was suspended for another year, that it would cease to function as a student group.

Now, it is also ceding from the national JVP organization, a move that JVP’s senior manager of campus organizing, Jonah Rubin, confirmed in a statement.

“The decision to amicably separate comes after long and principled discussions between all parties,” Rubin said. “While we share the goal of mobilizing anti-Zionist Jews working towards Palestinian liberation, our analyses of the strategy and tactics best suited to respond to the current moment of genocide in Gaza and rising fascism at home have diverged.”

He added, “Through our discussions it became clear that the best path forward was to pursue our shared goals in separate organizations. We wish these students the best.”

Rubin added that JVP’s more than 100 local chapters will continue to build “a grassroots movement of anti-Zionist Jews dedicated to taking strategic action to combat racism, fascism, genocide, and apartheid.”

The Anti-Zionist Jewish Student Front, too, promises a robust future, animated by a belief in “rejecting Zionism and upholding Palestinians’ right to return, remain, and resist.”

“Students are learning and adapting every day in the fight against the American and Zionist imperialist beast,” the group’s video says. “Our numbers grow, our principles fortify, and our dedication to enacting substantive change has never been stronger.”