Adalah-NY

Activities

• Adalah-NY is a fringe organization that operates in the New York area. It is one of the most vocal proponents of anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns in the U.S., most commonly in the form of small protests.
• Was a signatory on the campaign “#DroptheADL.”
• In September 2022, Adalah-NY participated in protests against Google and Amazon, opposing “their companies’ contracts with #ApartheidIsrael’s military and government” and calling for “No Tech for Apartheid.”
• In June 2022, Adalah-NY called for individuals to sign a letter to the Biden administration to “rise with Palestinians in Masafer Yatta to stop ethnic cleansing and defend their ancestral homeland.”
• In September 2017, Adalah-NY was a signatory on a call to restaurant chefs to “Take Apartheid off the Menu” and cancel their participation in the Tel Aviv “Round Tables Tour” as it “uses the time-honored tradition of sharing culinary experiences as a means for whitewashing widespread violation of Palestinian fundamental rights, including the right to food.”
• Accuses the Jewish National Fund of the “Judaization of Palestine” and “prevent[ing Palestinian] refugees from returning to their land.”

BDS Activities

• According to Adalah-NY’s website, “Since November 2007, Adalah-NY has been conducting one of the most successful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns in the United States in line with the call for BDS by Palestinian Civil Society.”
• Publishes open letters to artists, urging them to cancel their planned appearances in Israel. Warns that artists who perform in Israel are helping to “whitewash Israel’s violations of international law and project a false image of normalcy.”
• Urges international audiences to boycott Israeli artists such as the Batsheva Dance Company and the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, which it accuses of “normalize[ing] the occupation of Palestinian territories and the oppression of Palestinians.”
• Advocates sanctions through “an end to US military and financial aid to Israel.”
• In September 2022, Adalah-NY “celebrate[d] the hundreds of musicians raising their voice…refusing to perform at Israel’s complicit cultural institutions.”
• In April 2022, Adalah-NY was a signatory on a call to “boycott activities greenwashing Israel and to affirm Palestine is an environmental justice issue.”
• In December 2021, Adalah-NY launched a campaign titled “Boycott Brooklinen: Apartheid’s Favorite Sheets.” According to the campaign, Brooklinen and its Israeli parent company’s “taxes fund Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.”
• In October 2021, Adalah-NY launched “Amplify Palestine,” a “digital resource for artists and audiences to learn about and support BDS.”
• In February 2020, Adalah-NY held a protest against Brooklinen due to its “Israeli production partners’ involvement in Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people.” According to Adalah-NY, “Brooklinen wants to sell a lifestyle of comfort, but it’s hiding some uncomfortable truths under its sheets. Palestinian civil society calls on people of conscience to boycott the products of Israeli companies that are complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, to pressure Israel to comply with international law. Brooklinen must end all dealings with complicit Israeli companies.”
• In November 2019, Adalah-NY launched a campaign calling for the New York Society for Ethical Culture to cancel a concert with Idan Raichel as “Whitewashing Apartheid Isn’t Ethical.” According to Adalah-NY, “Raichel’s actions support the Israeli government’s Brand Israel public relations campaign, which uses art and music to distract from Israel’s systematic repression of the Palestinian people.”
• In May 2018, Hannah Mermelstein, a member of Adalah-NY, participated in an event titled “Philly, Don’t Orchestrate Apartheid.” Mermelstein spoke on a panel about “What is a cultural boycott? How and why do they work? What are some strategies for an effective cultural boycott campaign?”
• In September 2018, Adalah-NY members “presented at the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights conference in St. Paul, Minnesota, about building BDS campaigns, with a focus on cultural boycott.”
• On April 19, 2017, Adalah-NY and other politicized groups such as War on Want, American Friends Service Committee, CODEPINK, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Israel Coalition against House Demolitions, sent a letter to FIFA member associations urging them to “Expel Israeli Settlement Clubs.”
• In May 2016, Adalah-NY joined a coalition of over 100 groups to send a letter to members of the New York Legislature, “urging lawmakers to oppose bills that would effectively create blacklists of individuals and entities that boycott companies based in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territory.”
• In September 2015, Adalah-NY was a signatory on a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging the UN to “end its relationship with G4S due to the company’s clear and active role in human rights abuses.”