Simone Rimmon Zimmerman (born November 30, 1990) [1] is a Jewish American activist who is opposed to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. She is the founder of the lobby group IfNotNow. [2] [3] [4]
Simone Zimmerman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Simone Rimmon Zimmerman 30 November 1990 |
| Education | BA in Middle Eastern Studies |
| Alma mater | University of California |
| Occupation | anti-occupation activist |
| Years active | 2009 - present |
| Movement | IfNotNow |
Zimmerman was the Jewish outreach coordinator for Bernie Sanders for 30 hours. [5] [6] [7] She was terminated due to her use of inflammatory language on social media, and drew additional criticism for editing her messages after their discovery. [8]
Zimmerman was featured in the 2023 documentary called Israelism . [9] [10] She describes how it feels being a young U.S.-born Jew in an American life of pro-Israel “indoctrination” and “mass mobilization” that demands young Jewish Americans to be pro-Israeli even in instances of obvious human rights violations by the Israeli government. [11] [12] She recalls how Abe Foxman branded her as "anti-Israel" and pushed for Sanders to dismiss her as the outreach co-ordinator, [13] which Sanders did - some hours after hiring her. She says in the documentary:
As more and more American Jews are speaking out in support of Palestinian freedom, now they just say instead we're overt anti-semites, we hate all Jewish people or even worse that we're not Jewish at all.
Zimmerman studied at the University of California, Berkeley. [14] [15] [16] When she arrived at the university in 2009, she was involved with the pro-Israel advocacy group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and was later the national leader of the anti- occupation group, the J Street U before co-founding IfNotNow. As of July 2019, Zimmerman was the Director of B'Tselem USA, a nonprofit organization that documents human rights violations in the Israel-Palestine conflict. [17]