Im Tirtzu

Im Tirtzu describes its mission in terms of strengthening Zionist discourse and pursuing a “second Zionist revolution” through intellectual, cultural, media, and political activity.[7] Also known by the fuller name “Im Tirtzu – Zionism: To Be or Not to Be,” it is an Israeli nonprofit engaged in public advocacy, deepening Zionist consciousness, and opposing trends it regards as post-Zionist.[8]

Campus advocacy is a central component of the movement’s work, encompassing student organizing, supplementary educational programs, and campaigns concerning the political positions of university faculty.[7][4][5] In 2019, the organization said it was active on 20 Israeli campuses and described its campus role as protecting Zionism against attacks within Israel.[1]

The founders described the movement as centrist and said its commitment to Zionism could accommodate different political positions, including disagreement about whether Israel should retain or leave territories captured in 1967.[3] Its public campaigns have included allegations concerning the New Israel Fund, criticism of foreign-government funding of Israeli NGOs, and efforts to identify academics it regards as promoting anti-Israel activity.[9][10][11]

Ronen Shoval and Erez Tadmor, classmates at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, founded Im Tirtzu in 2006.[3] The movement began during the Second Lebanon War, when its members supported IDF reservists seeking better conditions and organized campus rallies from northern to southern Israel.[2] Its name linked the initiative to Herzl’s words, while the designation “The Second Zionist Revolution” expressed its ambition to renew Zionist activity.[2]

By February 2010, Shoval and Tadmor had built a nationwide student network with chapters at nine Israeli universities.[3] That year, the movement undertook prominent campaigns concerning the New Israel Fund and the Politics and Government department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.[9][5]

Its Program for Zionist Thought began at Hebrew University in 2012 and subsequently expanded to four other universities.[4] Later initiatives included the December 2015 “Planted Ones” video, a January 2016 campaign concerning cultural figures, and the May 2019 launch of the “Know Your Professor” website.[12][13][11]

The Program for Zionist Thought sought to supplement university education with pro-Israel, Zionist, and Jewish knowledge.[4] By 2016, it operated at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Bar-Ilan University, and the University of Haifa.[4] Its format consisted of eight lectures over an academic semester, with speakers including Nobel laureate Yisrael Aumann and retired major general Yaakov Amidror.[4] CEO Matan Peleg said the program was intended to provide an alternative perspective rather than recruit students to a right-wing ideology.[4]

In August 2010, Im Tirtzu wrote to Ben-Gurion University president Rivka Carmi alleging an anti-Zionist bias in the university’s Politics and Government department.[5] Its report claimed that nine of the department’s eleven academic staff participated in political activity expressing what the movement called “extreme left” positions, and cited faculty members and doctoral students who had signed petitions concerning academic boycotts.[5] The movement sought changes to staff composition and course syllabi, saying it would ask donors to place contributions in escrow and urge students to avoid the university if its demands were not addressed within 30 days.[5]

In May 2019, the movement launched “Know Your Professor,” a Hebrew-language website listing approximately 85 academics.[11] Im Tirtzu alleged that those listed had participated in activities such as promoting BDS, encouraging international pressure on Israel, or accusing the IDF of war crimes.[11] The site also allowed students to submit complaints about professors and alleged anti-Zionism in academia.[11]

Another major strand of its advocacy concerned Israeli NGOs and their funding.[9][10] In 2010, Im Tirtzu published a report and newspaper advertisements alleging that organizations supported by the New Israel Fund had contributed substantially to the Goldstone Report on Israel’s conduct during the Gaza war.[9] Its numerical claim was that 92 percent of allegations criticizing the IDF came from 16 Israeli NGOs that had received approximately $7.8 million from the fund.[9] The movement’s document was described as 69 pages long, with 43 pages of appendices, and one advertisement declared, “Without the New Israel Fund, there could be no Goldstone Report.”[14] Another full-page advertisement in The Jerusalem Post featured a caricature of NIF president Naomi Chazan.[14]

The December 2015 “Planted Ones” video featured four human-rights activists: Yishai Menuhin of the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and Yesh Gvul; Avner Gvaryahu of Breaking the Silence; attorney Sigi Ben Ari of the Hamoked Center for the Defence of the Individual; and B’Tselem executive director Hagai El-Ad.[12] It portrayed them as assisting terrorists or working against Israel and called for a proposed “Planted Ones Law.”[12] The video associated its accusations with activities including representing suspects in court and criticizing Israeli military actions.[12] Policy chief Alon Schwartzer defended it as based on the movement’s report and research and rejected its characterization as incitement.[12]

Im Tirtzu representative Douglas Altabef argued that Breaking the Silence’s criticism of the Israeli military could damage Israel’s image abroad and make diaspora Jews targets.[15] The movement also supported legislation requiring disclosure of foreign-government funding, arguing that foreign governments should communicate their agendas directly to the Israeli government rather than advance them indirectly through funding civil society.[10]

Israel’s 2016 NGO law required organizations receiving more than half their funding from foreign governments to disclose that fact in official publications, websites, public campaigns, and other public communications.[10] Im Tirtzu strongly supported the law while receiving a majority of its own funding from foreign private donors.[10]

In January 2016, the organization extended its “planted” terminology to dozens of artists and cultural figures associated with events involving Breaking the Silence or with B’Tselem.[13] Those named included Gila Almagor, Yehoshua Sobol, Amos Oz, Sarit Vino-Elad, and Rivka Michaeli.[13] The “Moles in Culture” campaign also named David Grossman, A.B. Yehoshua, Rona Keinan, and Chava Alberstein, accusing cultural figures of supporting left-wing organizations receiving some foreign-government funding.[6]

On April 4, 2018, Im Tirtzu released a video accusing NIF’s then-president Talia Sasson of “battling against the IDF and supporting terrorists.”[10] The New Israel Fund experienced increased threats following that video and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s statement the previous day.[10]

Im Tirtzu expanded from nine university chapters in early 2010 to a claimed presence on 20 campuses in 2019.[3][1] Its activities brought together student organizing, supplementary Zionist education, public advertising, online campaigns, and advocacy concerning NGO funding.[4][9][10][11]

The founders presented Zionism as a basis for cooperation across political differences, while their campaigns placed the movement within wider disputes about the boundary between criticism of Israel and anti-Zionism.[3] Its university initiatives made academic discourse and institutional responses a recurring focus of its work, alongside its stated objective of strengthening Zionist values in Israeli public life.[5][1]

The movement’s allegations about the New Israel Fund’s contribution to the Goldstone Report were disputed, and NIF’s CEO characterized the campaign as an attempt to quash free speech within the human-rights and civil-rights community.[9] Ben-Gurion University rejected the demand to balance faculty by political views as “McCarthyism,” maintaining that appointments and course oversight followed institutional and external review processes.[5]

The 2015 video drew criticism even from some critics of Breaking the Silence.[15] The 2016 cultural campaign prompted condemnation across political lines: Netanyahu opposed calling political opponents traitors, and defense minister Moshe Ya’alon called the initiative “obnoxious and dangerous.”[6] Im Tirtzu withdrew the cultural post and acknowledged a mistake; four days after the controversy began, Peleg suspended himself from the leadership and accepted responsibility.[13] He distinguished criticism of organizations from labeling individuals “planted,” saying the broader organizational campaign would continue.[13]

Supporters of the NGO law described it as a transparency measure, while critics objected that it covered foreign-government funding but not foreign private donations.[10] The sequence of threats against NIF in April 2018 did not establish that Im Tirtzu’s video caused them.[10]

A separate dispute arose from Im Tirtzu’s 2010 lawsuit seeking NIS 2.6 million from founders of a Facebook page that called it fascist.[16] In 2013, Jerusalem District Court Judge Refael Yacoby distinguished resemblance to some characteristics of fascism from complete identity with it, ruled in favor of seven defendants, and found that one defendant’s separate post could be libelous.[16] A later account in 2020 described a subsequent Supreme Court outcome in Im Tirtzu’s favor, stating that it dismissed the lower-court ruling.[16]