First, the protesters made their point. Then the attendees at a Jewish Community Federation dinner struck back.
After demonstrators shouting and bearing signs such as “JCF supports Israeli genocide” disrupted a reception for 250 donors to the S.F.-based JCF, many guests at the May 15 event in San Francisco responded by augmenting their gifts to the federation.
“It mobilized people in a way this event normally wouldn’t do,” said Shelly Porges, chair of the dinner. “This event is normally meant to thank people. But I think [the protesters] mobilized people more than they ever could imagine. We had an outpouring of support — we haven’t added up the money, but it sure made people want to support Israel more.
“I appreciate the passion and the commitment reflected by the people who showed up and demonstrated. And if that passion and commitment were backed up by the facts, I’d have a lot different reaction. But the fact is, they took this action in a state of ignorance, based on some of the comments I overheard.”
While demonstrators from Jews for a Free Palestine and Students for Justice in Palestine shouted slogans and waved banners outside the Four Seasons Hotel, a subgroup eluded hotel security and moved inside.
The 13 protesters blended in with the guests of the Business and Professionals Division dinner and speech by Israeli journalist Hirsh Goodman by dressing in business attire — suits and ties, or dresses — and making their way to the hotel’s fifth floor well ahead of time.
Just before Goodman was scheduled to begin his address, the demonstrators sat down in the hotel ballroom’s main entranceway, unfurled their signs, interlocked their arms and began chanting. Within 15 minutes, police arrested and removed the disrupters, all of whom were JFP members or supporters.
The protesters were taken to awaiting paddy wagons and later cited for trespassing, then released.
“The federation puts itself out as the voice of the uniform Jewish community, and clearly their position at this time of crisis in the Mideast is that we need significantly more funding both from private Jews and the government to support the state of Israel and the policies they are carrying out. We don’t agree,” said Michael Sasson, a JFP supporter who was arrested at the hotel.
“Do I believe there are efforts in Israel to slaughter the majority of the Palestinian people? No, I don’t believe that is happening. But as a 7-year-old, I put tzedakah in JNF boxes to plant trees over what had been Palestinian villages 30 years earlier. That, I consider genocide.”
Jews for a Free Palestine, said Sasson, do not believe Israel should exist as a Jewish state, but should instead be “a state of the people who live there.”
Ed Cushman, the JCF’s assistant executive director, later expressed frustration with the interlopers’ sentiments and the attention they received.
“My sense is that the whole demonstration is a planned manipulation of the media. You can get 10 people together, give yourself a name, call up the media and say, ‘We’re doing a big demonstration,’ and you’re on the front page. There’s something off-base about that,” he said.
Signs comparing Zionists to Nazis and protesters’ claims that the JCF was aiding and abetting genocide were also galling to Cushman.
“Federation campaigns do not fund the government and do not fund the military. We fund humanitarian services in Israel, primarily absorption centers and many different projects helping to build a pluralistic base in Israel, something these protesters hugely misunderstand.”
The JCF event, Cushman added, was also soliciting donations to its Israel Emergency Fund, which is aimed at aiding terror victims.