IfNotNow supporters at a rally in New York City. Photo: IfNotNow via Facebook.

Along with Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow (INN) is one of the most prominent Jewish anti-Israel organizations in the United States.

Since its inception in 2014, INN has accumulated a substantial following on social media, and has been profiled by several mainstream media organizations, including The New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

However, like JVP, IfNotNow is not a mainstream, good-faith actor when it comes to representing the American Jewish community, or opining on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Rather, INN is a radical organization that opposes establishment American Jewish organizations and their support for the Jewish state, acts against Israel’s interests in the political sphere, is ambivalent about the threat of Palestinian terrorism, and fights against right-wing antisemitism while turning a blind eye to antisemitism emanating from left-wing and progressive quarters.

IfNotNow and the Jewish Community

IfNotNow was founded in 2014 as a protest movement of young Jews who were angered by the American Jewish establishment’s support for Israel’s fight against Hamas during Operation Protective Edge.

The name of the organization is taken from a rabbinic dictum by the Talmudic sage Hillel the Elder.

In order to appeal to both anti-Zionists and left-wing Zionists, INN did not take an official stance on such issues as the one-state or two-state solutions, the boycott movement against Israel, or Zionism.

While it initially billed itself as an anti-“occupation” organization, INN has broadened its mission statement in recent years to include ending American support for “Israel’s apartheid system.”

In 2014, INN’s first major protest was outside the Manhattan headquarters of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

Since then, the organization has spoken out against other American Jewish communal institutions such as Birthright, the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), American Friends of Magen David Adom (the Israeli version of the Red Cross), and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

A major focus of IfNotNow’s advocacy within the Jewish community is education. As several members of INN are graduates of the Jewish day school system who feel that they were not properly educated about Israel, the group initiated the “You Never Told Me” campaign that calls for the inclusion of Palestinian narratives within the American Jewish education system.

INN’s spotlight on Jewish education is also the focus of “Israelism,” a 2023 documentary film that claims that Jewish educational institutions lie about Israel and then build a Jewish identity around that lie.

Along with its education initiative, INN also runs training seminars for counselors at Jewish summer camps so that they can introduce Palestinian narratives to their campers.

As a self-identified Jewish organization, IfNotNow co-opts various Jewish rituals as a means of spreading its political message. Examples include reciting the Kaddish mourner’s prayer in public, organizing “liberation Seders,” using the Tashlich ritual to “repent” for the sins of Jewish communal organizations, and blowing the shofar outside the offices of the ADL.

IfNotNow Goes to Washington: INN and American Politics

IfNotNow advocates against Israel in the national political sphere. Examples of this include:

• Campaigning for American politicians to skip the AIPAC policy conference.
• In 2017, INN took part in the disruption of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s confirmation hearings for David Friedman’s nomination as US ambassador to Israel.
• Petitioning Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to “condemn Israeli violence against Palestinian protesters” in 2018, while ignoring the fact that these protests were marred by the use of Molotov cocktails and violent attempts to breach the security barrier between Gaza and Israel.
• Supporting Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s (D-MN) bill that would condition military aid to Israel.
• During a 2021 Congressional debate on replenishing Israel’s defensive Iron Dome system, INN spoke out against the United States’ “unconditional military aid to Israel.”

In addition to the above, at least two IfNotNow members have had formal associations with leading American politicians.

Max Berger, a co-founder of INN, was director for progressive partnerships for Elizabeth Warren (D-MA)’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, while Simone Zimmerman, another co-founder, served briefly as Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) Jewish outreach coordinator.

Mourning Terrorists and Whitewashing Terror

When it comes to Palestinian violence and terrorism, IfNotNow seems to have an ambivalent attitude toward the threat facing Israeli civilians and security personnel.

As mentioned above, during a Congressional debate on replenishing Israel’s defensive Iron Dome system, INN spoke out against America’s “unconditional military aid to Israel.”

Similarly, INN has campaigned for an end to the Israeli blockade of Gaza, ignoring the fact that the blockade is in place to deny material support to Gaza-based terror groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Along with its seeming lack of concern regarding the threat posed by Palestinian terrorism, IfNotNow also blurs the line between Palestinian terrorists and civilians.

In both 2014 and 2021, INN held public readings of the Kaddish mourner’s prayer for Israelis and Palestinians killed during Israeli counter-terror operations in Gaza. However, listed among the names of those whom they were mourning were members of the internationally recognized terror groups, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Similarly, in May 2019, INN responded to a tweet about five Palestinians killed during an Israeli operation to counter a rise in Gazan rocket attacks, saying that it was “heartbreaking.” Among those Palestinians listed in the tweet was Mohammad Nseir, a member of the small Islamist group Kataeb Humat al-Aqsa’s rocket-launching unit.

In August 2022, HonestReporting revealed that Hosam Salem, a Gaza-based photographer who had worked for The New York Times, had a history of glorifying terror attacks on his social media accounts, including a Jerusalem bus bombing and an attack at a Jerusalem synagogue.

In response to his firing by the Times after this revelation, INN effectively whitewashed Salem’s history by tweeting that he was fired for “speaking out against Israel’s apartheid system” and advocating Palestinian rights (INN subsequently deleted this tweet).

In addition to the above, IfNotNow also doesn’t let anti-Israel violence and terrorism stop them from endorsing certain authors or partnering with certain organizations.

As part of its education initiative, INN released its “Liberation Syllabus,” providing a list of books from both Palestinian and Israeli writers for integration into Jewish education systems.

One of these recommended books was authored by Ghassan Kanafani, a spokesperson for the internationally recognized Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror organization.

INN has also teamed up with American Muslims for Palestine, a Chicago-based organization that endorses anti-Israeli violence and terrorism as legitimate forms of “resistance.”

IfNotNow’s Fight Against (Right-Wing) Antisemitism

When it comes to IfNotNow’s fight against rising antisemitism in America, the organization takes a strong stance against the Jew-hatred on the right of the American political spectrum.

However, in doing so, INN ignores or plays down antisemitism found within left-wing and progressive circles. Examples of this include:

• INN condemned leaders of the Women’s March for meeting with Louis Farrakhan. However, the organization also granted them the benefit of the doubt and defended them from the condemnations of mainstream Jewish American organizations.
• Following the spray painting of the phrase “Free Palestine” outside a Kenosha, Wisconsin, synagogue during a Black Lives Matter protest, INN initially condemned the act. However, INN then retracted its condemnation following a backlash.
• INN supported the banning of the Jewish pride flag during the D.C. Dyke March because, with its Star of David, it resembled the Israeli flag.
• INN opposes the widely accepted IHRA definition of antisemitism, claiming that it is “destroying the progressive movement.”

Thus, while IfNotNow’s condemnations of antisemitism are admirable, their limiting these condemnations to the right-wing while ignoring or diminishing antisemitism on the left leaves the impression that the organization is not serious about fighting all forms of Jew-hatred and is content with using the fight against antisemitism as a tool against its political opponents.