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Introduction

This ad currently appears on MUNI buses in San Francisco:

The two co-sponsors are:

SeaMAC

  • SeaMAC is a Seattle, Washington-based non-profit that uses “direct education through public forums, church presentations, school presentations, and other face to face presentations to discuss how U.S. support for Israel enables Israel’s continued oppression and subjugation of the Palestinian people.”
    • SeaMAC supports the Palestinian claim of a “right to return” and accuses Israel of “war crimes,” “apartheid,” and “ethnic cleansing.” The group supports boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel.
    • The same ad appeared on buses in Portland, Oregon. That campaign was sponsored by SeaMAC, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights.
    • Funding transparency: SeaMAC does not disclose its funding sources and is non-transparent.  It raises funds on its website to pay for billboard and bus ads in cities in the U.S.  Its Donate page states, “YOUR DONATION NOW will be MATCHED up to $10,000.”  The source of this matching grant is unidentified.

Paul Larudee

  • The domain ‘NoTaxDollarstoIsrael.com’ is registered to Paul Larudee who is also the website’s administrator.
  • Larudee’s extremism includes the promotion of antisemitic themes, rationalization and justification of terrorism, and meeting with and receiving a medal of honor from leaders of Hamas.  Hamas is listed as terrorist organizations by the EU, the US, the UK, Canada, and many other countries.
  • Larudee has written of Jewish/Zionist “control” over US “media” and “government”:
    • In his article Strangler Fig Nation, Larudee’s main theme is that Israel, through the American Jewish community, is a “parasite”1 feeding off the host/victim nation – the United States – by “controlling” key U.S. institutions. The article includes the following points (links in the original):
      • “the Israel Lobby has grown with few constraints, fed by its domination of the American Jewish community, extensive control of publishing and the media, the establishment and control of strategic think tanks that provide governmental advisers, and by a well-coordinated and lavishly funded political campaign machine.”
      • “Israel now controls US policy in the Middle East.”
      • “Israel has thus constructed a strangler fig network of roots and vines that is feeding itself from the resources of world’s most powerful nation while gradually starving that nation… if a strangler fig is allowed to thrive, its host will wither and die, and only its form will remain as an empty shell for as long as the parasite continues to survive.”
    • Larudee linked the phrase “domination of the American Jewish establishment” to the website of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR). IHR is described by the Anti-Defamation League as “the world’s single most important outlet for Holocaust-denial propaganda.” The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the IHR’s “real purpose is to promote Holocaust denial and defend Nazism.”
    • In an interview on official Iranian media outlet Press TV Larudee “noted that the Western media is controlled by pro-Zionist propagandists and this is why the international community does not react to the Israeli crimes.”
    • In another Press TV interview (Dec 1, 2013) Larudee said, “Well, any non-Jew is a threat to Israel. So they need to be gotten rid of one way or another.”
    • In another Press TV interview (July 6, 2014) Larudee said, “I think I can say with confidence that the United States will defend its citizens to the extent that it is permitted to do so by the Israeli government. The United States never goes any farther than Israel is willing to accept.”
  • Larudee has expressed support for terrorism, euphemistically called “armed resistance”:
    • In an interview on the Berkeley, California radio station KPFA, Larudee said:
      • “Although we2 are totally dedicated to non-violence, we recognize that not everybody that we work with in the Palestinian community is necessarily devoted to non-violence. And under international law, it is permitted for oppressed and occupied peoples to resist using armed resistance. This is permitted and we recognize their right to do so.”

Larudee, the Free Gaza Movement and Hamas

  • Larudee was a leader in the Free Gaza Movement (FGM)3. In 2007 he was the recipient of an official letter of invitation from Hamas to “come to Gaza in solidarity with the Palestinian people.”

  • The following year, 2008, he and the FGM “broke” the Israeli “siege” and were honored by Hamas.
  • Along with Greta Berlin and Mary Hughes Thompson,4 the FGM was co-founded by Larudee,5 who was recruited through the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement (ISM).6 The FGM had its “maiden voyage” in August 2008. At that time, Israel allowed the two FGM boats to land in Gaza. Photos published by Reuters and AP show FGM members at a special ceremony at the home of Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, where Haniyeh awarded them medals of honor at a celebratory meal.

Photos of Larudee meeting with Hamas leadership in Gaza

AP Photo

AP Photo: Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh second right, shakes hands with American Paul Larudee as he stands with members of the U.S.-based Free Gaza group, which left Cyprus by boat on Friday, during a meeting at his house in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008. Two boats carrying dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade on Saturday.

Reuters Pictures

Reuters Photo: Senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh presents medals of honor to international activists during their visit to his house in Gaza August 24, 2008. Two boats carrying activists challenging an Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip reached the shore of the Hamas-controlled territory on Saturday. The 44 “Free Gaza” activists from 17 nations, who had set out on Friday from Cyprus in two wooden boats, were met by thousands of Palestinians who cheered along the shoreline at their arrival.

AP Photo

AP Photo: Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, center, sits with members of the U.S.-based Free Gaza group, which left Cyprus by boat on Friday, during a meeting at his house in Gaza City, Sunday, Aug. 24, 2008. Two boats carrying dozens of international activists sailed into the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade on Saturday.

 

Screen capture from Free Palestine Movement homepage highlighting solidarity meeting with Hamas leaders.  Larudee is seen front row, 2nd from left wearing medal awarded by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh (center).  (Screen cap downloaded February 8, 2015)