Adalah-NY
Adalah-NY, formally known as Adalah-NY Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, is a New York-based group promoting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel. It was founded after the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006 in Lebanon. 1 Its name is based on the Arabic word for “justice” and was created in 2010 from to the merger of two BDS organizations: Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East and the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel. 2 Adalah-NY was first known as the Ad-Hoc Coalition for Justice in the Middle East. 3
Contents
The group is fiscally sponsored by the WESPAC Foundation, a pro-BDS left-wing fiscal sponsorship nonprofit formally known as the Westchester Peace Action Committee Foundation. 4
Mission and History
Adalah-NY was created to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting the international legitimacy of the State of Israel and other efforts to support Palestinians against Israel. The group was launched after Israel responded to rocket attacks by the terrorist group Hezbollah, which was located inside Lebanon but committed armed incursions in Israel to kidnap two soldiers. 5 The kidnapping is not mentioned on Adalah-NY’s website, which blames Israel for the conflict. 3
Adalah-NY considers Israel to have a “racist…regime” against Palestinians. The group also backs the Black Lives Matter movement and opposed the Iraq War. 3
Boycotts
The group primarily focuses on protests, Palestinian-oriented culture events, and political events to draw attention to its message. Boycotts are a key component of its awareness campaigns. The group has announced boycotts against:
- Musical entities and individuals endorsed by and affiliated with Israel, such as the Israeli group Batsheva Dance Company. 6
- SodaStream, an Israeli carbonation device and soda syrup company, and companies which partner with SodaStream. 7
- Israeli land developer and diamond baron Lev Leviev, who in 2019 was sought by Israeli officials for allegedly and illegally avoiding tariffs. 8 9
- Motorola, for its sales to the Israeli military. 10 11
While Adalah-NY’s impact is largely local, its activism briefly reached a national audience in 2017 when its petition for the Lincoln Center Festival to cancel an Israeli play received support from national celebrities. The Festival ignored the petitioners’ request, and one signer, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Greta Gerwig, backed down from signing the petition, saying she had misunderstood the petition’s goal. 12 13
Other Activism
Adalah-NY supports Palestinian activists. In 2019, it exhibited a symbolic table for Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour, who was found guilty of inciting violence against Israel in a Facebook post. 14 15
The group also went through two training sessions to assess how white supremacy impacts its structural makeup and how to overcome bias. It also endorsed a left-of-center, multi-city immigration protest. 14
Its Twitter page includes retweeting a message that called U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “US Gestapo state-sanctioned terrorists.” 16
Financials
The WESPAC Foundation is Adalah-NY’s fiscal sponsor. This allows Adalah-NY to use WESPAC’s administrative and other back-office resources. 17
In 2018 and 2019, Adalah-NY earned $5,460 and $5,237, respectively. $5,643 was spent in 2018 and $8,305 was spent in 2019. Almost all of the group’s expenses went to website and technology management, trainings, and workshops.
WESPAC is a New York-based group which formally backs BDS and is a fiscal sponsor of another anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian group, National Students for Justice in Palestine. 18 19