The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) filed a false advertising complaint this week regarding the HaTikvah slates’s official platform page, which was published on January 14, 2015 on the official American election website for the World Zionist Congress elections.  The HaTikvah slate’s platform page falsely states that the HaTikvah slate works to “combat the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.”   The “HaTikvah” slate’s false advertising will mislead voters.   In fact, the HaTikvah slate’s member organizations promote discriminatory boycotts and sanctions against Israeli Jews and international sanctions against Israeli officials that they disagree with as follows:

(1)    Partners for a Progressive Israel (PIP) (a major member of the “HaTikvah” slate) promotes discriminatory boycotts of Jewish Israel businesses in 170 industries in Jerusalem, Hebron, Ariel, Efrat, Ma’ale Adumim, etc. right on PIP’s website.  Partners for a Progressive Israel’s Chairman Theodore Bikel also promotes cultural/artistic boycotts including boycotting the new Israeli-Jewish arts facility in Ariel.

(2)    Ameinu (another major member of the HaTikvah slate) lobbies U.S. and European governments to impose severe financial and visa sanctions on Jewish Israeli government officials whom Ameinu disagrees with.   Ameinu’s top officials also double as J Street officials or are tied closely to J Street, which engages in extensive de facto promotion of BDS.

(3)     “Open Hillel”:  The confusingly-named “Open Hillel” group tries to force the well-known and long-time campus organization Hillel International to provide platforms to promote the global BDS movement – and to bring in speakers that promote Israel’s destruction.  “Open Hillel” was formed in 2012 to attempt to abolish Hillel International’s “Standards of Partnership.”  Hillel International’s reasonable “Standards of Partnership” prohibit campus Hillel facilities from hosting organizations that promote BDS against Israel.  “Open Hillel” brings in speakers who say that Israel should be destroyed and cease to exist.  “Open Hillel” is working together with the anti-Israel anti-Semitic hate group “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP)   SJP members have violently attacked Jewish students on college campuses.

(4)    Americans for Peace Now (APN):  APN openly promotes boycotts of Jewish Israeli businesses in eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.

(5)    New Israel Fund (NIF):  NIF spent large sums of money erecting the BDS infrastructure, and continues to fund BDS groups and their co-conspirators .NIF grantees Adalah, B’Tselem and Breaking the Silence also provided the false information to Judge Goldstone which formed the basis of the false (and since discredited) Goldstone report that accused Israel of war crimes.  The BDS movement uses the false Goldstone report as one of its chief weapons to promote BDS against Israel.  The “US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel” has a web page entitled “Sections of Goldstone Report Very Useful for BDS and related campaigns.”   The NIF also funds groups that hire Arabs to viciously confront young Israeli soldiers with ugly personal provocations against the Israeli soldiers, their families and Israel.   There are always cameras filming these episodes, so that on the rare occasion when a young soldier responds strongly, these groups’ cameras film and disseminate the response, out of context – without showing the provocation or the rarity of such responses – to try to harm the humane IDF’s reputation.*

(6)     J-Street:  J Street promotes, honors, and gives major platforms to the leaders of the global BDS movement (including Mustafa Barghouti) at its national conferences and brings top BDS leaders to college campuses.  J Street also promotes BDS on J Street’s website video.

Thus, the HaTikvah slate’s official platform page on World Zionist Congress election website tells voters the exact opposite of what the HaTikvah slate members are really doing.   It is unconscionable election fraud to mislead World Zionist Congress voters with such lies.

*Correction: A previous version of this release also referenced BDS activities of Adalah-NY and attributed these additional BDS activities to the NIF-funded Adalah.   A blogger who stated that he is a friend of persons involved then contacted ZOA.  This blogger stated that Adalah-NY is a separate entity from the NIF-funded Adalah.  The lack of information on Adalah-NY’s directors and associations makes the blogger’s claim that Adalah-NY is a separate entity difficult to confirm.  Apparently neither Adalah nor Adalah-NY is complaining that the other group is using the same name.  It thus seems that neither group has concerns about the other group’s actions which can understandably be attributed to the other.  Nonetheless, in the event the blogger’s information is correct, ZOA has removed Adalah-NY’s BDS activities from this paragraph.  The paragraph now only discusses Adalah’s activities which help the BDS movement.