“Money, from JVP and others, is flowing to the campus for BDS activities, but the amounts, at least those that are visible, appear relatively trivial…”

SJP also gets free assistance, according to the ICC, from the National Campus BDS Support Team, which it describes as “a group of professionals from various anti-Israel organizations tasked with aiding campus BDS campaigns.” This allows several groups to “pool” their campus resources in one place.

In addition to WESPAC and Tides, a variety of organizations have sponsored SJP events and support BDS campus activities. American Muslims for Peace (AMP), for instance, is described by the Anti-Defamation League as “the leading organization providing anti-Zionist training to students and Muslim community organizations in the U.S.”

Money, from JVP and others, is flowing to the campus for BDS activities, but the amounts, at least those that are visible, appear relatively trivial; this is especially true when compared to the investments of the pro-Israel community, which are growing following the announcement of plans by the Israeli government and American philanthropists to spend tens of millions of dollars to preempt, deter and defeat BDS campaigns.

Here is a sample of the student funds provided to SJP in the 2014-15 school year from some of the more challenging campuses:

University of California, San Diego: $1,479

University of California, Berkeley: $600

University of California, Los Angeles: $267

University of New Mexico: $1,151

University of California, Riverside: $1,093

San Diego State University: $800

University of California, Irvine: $600

University of Michigan: $900

The main activity of the national SJP is to organize national conferences, starting with Columbia in 2011, followed by Michigan, Stanford and Tufts. To give a sense of the budget for the SJP conference, in 2012, the fundraising goal was $25,000 and, as of the day before the meeting, they had raised $20,000. The endorsements for these conferences reads like a “Who’s Who” of Israel’s detractors, including Ilan Pappe, Hatem Bazian, Omar Barghouti, Ali Abunimah, Cornell West and Norman Finkelstein. (The Jewish Week reached out to a member of the National SJP Conference Organizing Committee, Hanna Alshaikh, but did not receive a response.)

It does not appear that the national SJP has the resources to fund SJP chapters, and there is no evidence that it coordinates them; what it can offer at the conferences is training and guidance for chapter leaders on BDS activities.

Mitchell Bard, “BDS Money Trail Suggests Opaque Funding Network”, The Jewish Week (16 October 2015), 30.