Canary Mission: JVP Statement and Resource Guide

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 8, 2018
Contact: Sonya E Meyerson-Knox | sonya@jvp.org | 929-290-0317
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Jewish Voice for Peace has been fighting Canary Mission since 2015, when the site first appeared.

Thanks to intrepid reporting in The Forward, The Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco (JCF) has promised to stop funding Canary Mission in the future, following the exposure of a $100,000 contribution by one of its donor groups.

The Canary Mission website, which maintains a blacklist of people who defend Palestinian human rights, has bullied and slandered thousands of students and professors, making egregious claims based on very little fact. Canary Mission has threatened the careers and reputations of those listed, and tries to intimidate and dissuade people from speaking out for Palestinian rights.

Canary Mission particularly targets Arab and Muslim students, pulling on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim tropes. For Palestinian students, inclusion on the blacklist can prevent them from visiting their families. Indeed, it was recently confirmed that the State of Israel is using this slanderous and unverified blacklist as a tool in determining who can enter Israel, and that the FBI was using Canary Mission as a basis for questioning students of color in the U.S.

With the majority of Canary Mission’s donors remaining anonymous, all Jewish institutions should immediately confirm they will cease any funding to the cyber-bullying blacklist.

Moreover, it is not enough to pledge to abstain from funding Canary Mission in the future. Indeed, the JCF should issue a public apology, and clarify the steps it will take towards restitution and repair.

Many American Jewish philanthropic institutions grant money to causes far outside their mandate of support for the Jewish community; The Jewish United Fund of Metro Chicago funds anti-Muslim hate groups, for example. We urge members of the American Jewish community to contact your local Jewish institutions to ensure they are not funding hate groups or racist organizations.

Canary Mission is a form of online harassment, and like all cyberbullying, it has real world consequences for the victims. It must be shutdown – and it will be, once it has lost its funders.

Resources

• Against Canary Mission
• Palestine Legal: Canary Mission’s Veil of Anonymity Pierced
• Jewish Voice for Peace condemns Canary Mission
• University Faculty condemn Canary Mission Blacklist

Articles

• Official Documents Prove: Israel Bans Young Americans Based on Canary Mission Website
• In Funding Canary Mission, Jewish Federation Betrayed Us
• Following Forward Report, Federation Says It Will No Longer Fund Canary Mission
• REVEALED: Canary Mission Blacklist Is Secretly Bankrolled By Major Jewish Federation
• How Israel Spies on US Citizens
• Meet the Owner of Canary Mission’s Anonymous Anti-Palestinian Blacklisting Website
• A New Wave Of Hardline Anti-BDS Tactics Are Targeting Students, And No One Knows Who’s Behind It
• The FBI is using unvetted, right-wing blacklists to question activists about their support for Palestine
• Canary Mission’s Threat Grows, From U.S. Campuses To The Israeli Border
• Banned From Israel: A Q&A With Law Professor Katherine Franke
• Jewish students: A blacklist of BDS supporters is hurting our efforts to defend Israel on campus
• Countering a Blacklist: Introducing ‘Against Canary Mission’

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Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters, over 70 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.