(JEWISH GROUP) Spurning Jewish Voice for Peace as insufficiently radical, new Jewish student group joins 'student intifa

Spurning Jewish Voice for Peace as insufficiently radical, new Jewish student group joins ‘student intifada’

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.”

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