Sun., April 6, 2025, 10:30 am-12:30 pm PDT
Weaponizing Antisemitism by Project Esther
Speaker: Seth Morrison
Project Esther is the Heritage Foundation’s roadmap to destroy the pro-Palestine movement in the US. This McCarthy era-like project falsely conflates anti-zionism with antisemitism and then deceptively accuses pro-Palestine activists of antisemitism.
Our speaker, Seth Morrison, is a leader in the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an articulate advocate to peace in West Asia, and a campaigner against the criminalization of pro- Palestinian speech. He has been active in Jewish organizations throughout his life. He was formerly a leader in J Street and other Jewish organizations, before joining JVP and becoming a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist and an anti-zionist. He is on the national board of JVP Action and a leader in the Bay Area chapter of JVP. Professionally he is retired from a career in marketing and product development in the cable television industry.
An interview with our speaker on this subject was recently published in Counterpunch: https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/02/27/the-persecution-of-anti-zionist-jews/
On a related issues, he and a colleague recently published “Can Palestinians and Israelis coexist in a single democratic state? (https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241221-can-palestinians-and-israelis-coexist-in-a-single-democratic-state/)
Additional Resources:
Seth Morrison’s “From AIPAC to JVP: My Evolution on Zionism and Israel” in
https://interlinkbooks.com/product/reclaiming-judaism-from-zionism/
Online Videos:
JVP animated overview of the situation, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y58njT2oXfE&t=28s
Alhaq, a Palestinian version of the ACLU, has many short online videos of interviews with Palestinians about their experience. https://www.alhaq.org/monitoring-documentation/testimonies – click on Palestinian voices.
Zochrot, an organization that documents Palestinian villages depopulated in 1948 has short video testimonials with English subtitles. https://www.zochrot.org/videos/all/en?Videos
Breaking the Silence – an organization that gathers testimonies from current and former IDF soldiers telling what they as soldiers, https://www.breakingthesilence.org.il/testimonies/videos
“It’s What We Do” is a 52 minute docudrama based on Breaking the Silence testimonies https://www.iwwdplay.org The website also has a lot of resources for further exploration
ICHAD, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE3qdC65Qgc 13 minute overview of Israel’s demolition of Palestinian homes.
YAS- videos of settlers moving into the Palestinian city of Hebron. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgug2Je7jCT3yKLkL_V3M9Q
JVP Boston has a free film library with many titles, some available online. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/JVP-Film-LIbrary-2018-.pdf
Short Articles:
Israeli planes spray pesticides along the border fence in the Gaza Strip, https://www.alhaq.org/monitoring-documentation/16446.html
Human Rights Watch 2022 Report on Israel and Palestine https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/israel/palestine
Israel-Gaza violence: The conflict explained https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-44124396 includes links to multiple BBC reports
Carnegie Endowment – Approaching Peace: Centering Rights in Israel-Palestine Conflict Resolution https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/04/29/approaching-peace-centering-rights-in-israel-palestine-conflict-resolution-pub-84397
Books:
Karcher, Carolyn Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism, Olive Branch Press, 2019
Pappe, Ilan, Ten Myths About Israel, Verso Books, 2017
Bennis, Phyllis, Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, Olive Branch Press, 2019
Masalah, Nur Palestine a Four Thousand Year History, Zed, 2018
Kuttab Beyond the Two -State Solution, Nonviolence International 2020
Abulhawa, Susan Mornings in Jenin A Novel, Bloomsbury 2010
Ehrenreich, Ben. The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine. New York: Penguin Press, 2016.
Tolan, Sandy. The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East. London: Bloomsbury, 2007.
