Simone Zimmerman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Simone Rimmon Zimmerman 30 November 1990 |
| Education | BA in Middle Eastern Studies |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | anti-occupation activist |
| Years active | 2009–present |
| Movement | IfNotNow |
Simone Rimmon Zimmerman (born November 30, 1990) [1] is a Jewish American anti-Zionist activist who opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. She is the founder of the lobby group IfNotNow, created to defend the human rights and dignity of Palestinians. [2] [3] [4] As of July 2019, Zimmerman was the director of B'Tselem USA, a nonprofit organization that documents human rights violations against Palestinians in the Israel-Palestine conflict. [5]
Zimmerman was the Jewish outreach coordinator for Bernie Sanders for 30 hours in 2016. [6] [7] [8] She was terminated due to making what some considered inflammatory remarks about Benjamin Netanyahu and Hillary Clinton on social media. This was after Abe Foxman and Malcolm Hoenlein had called for her firing. [9]
Simone Zimmerman was raised in a Ashkenazi Jewish community in Los Angeles, California. She attended a Jewish day school and participated in cultural and religious programs that emphasized a strong connection to Israel. Zimmerman was involved with Conservative Jewish Zionist organizations in her youth and a member of her campus's Israel Action Committee during her early college days. [10] As part of an exchange program, Zimmerman lived in Israel for a period, during which her engagement with the country deepened. She gained prominence as an activist advocating for Palestinian rights and a critical reassessment of the American Jewish community's relationship with Israel. Initially active in mainstream Jewish organizations like the pro-Israel advocacy group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Zimmerman became disillusioned with what she viewed as a one-sided portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Zimmerman studied at the University of California, Berkeley. [11] [12] [13] When she arrived at the university in 2009, she was involved with AIPAC and was later the national leader of the anti-occupation group J Street U before co-founding IfNotNow. IfNotNow, which challenges Israeli policies and advocates for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territories, solidified her reputation as a leader in the Jewish left. [14]
Zimmerman has criticized pro-Israel lobbying organizations like AIPAC, arguing that they push a narrative that discourages any critical dialogue about Israel. She has spoken out about how many Jewish schools and institutions promote unconditional support for Israel while marginalizing voices that advocate for Palestinian rights. [14]
Zimmerman's views have drawn both praise and criticism. Critics, including some in the Jewish community, view her activism as overly critical of Israel, while supporters see her as part of a broader movement advocating for justice and human rights. Her participation in protests, including sit-ins at pro-Israel organizations, and her criticism of the Birthright Israel program have been central to her activism. [14]
Her story is featured in 2023 documentary Israelism , a film that examines the indoctrination of young American Jews into pro-Israel activism and highlights people who underwent political transformations after engaging with Palestinian perspectives. In the film, Zimmerman describes her realization of the many complexities and contradictions in the narrative she grew up with and her eventual shift toward activism for Palestinian rights. [14] [15] [4] She describes how it feels to be a young U.S.-born Jew in a country of pro-Israel indoctrination and mass mobilization that demands that young Jewish Americans be pro-Israel even in instances of obvious and unambiguous human rights violations against Palestinians. [16] [17] She recalls how Abe Foxman branded her as anti-Israel and pushed for Sanders to dismiss her as his outreach coordinator, [18] which Sanders did on April 14, 2016, 30 hours after hiring her. [19] 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.
In 2025, Zimmerman interviewed actress Hannah Einbinder for Zeteo. [20] She appeared on the Matt Bernstein podcast A Bit Fruity speaking in support of Zohran Mamdani and against the ADL. [21]
Zimmerman's perspective on Israel shifted at the University of California, Berkeley, where she encountered Palestinian students sharing personal accounts of their experiences during a heated debate over a divestment resolution. Realizing the absence of meaningful responses from her own community to this testimony, Zimmerman started questioning the narratives she had long accepted. In 2013, her journey toward activism intensified after a visit to Israel, where she witnessed firsthand the impact of occupation in East Jerusalem, particularly in Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families faced brutal evictions. [22]
In 2014, Zimmerman co-founded IfNotNow, a movement of young American Jews advocating an end to U.S. support for Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. The group emerged as a response to the 2014 Gaza War and challenged mainstream Jewish institutions, such as AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League, for their unconditional support of Israeli policies. IfNotNow organized protests and sit-ins, demanding accountability from American Jewish leaders and institutions that, in its view, ignore Palestinian suffering. Zimmerman's activism brought her both support and backlash; critics called her anti-Israel and self-hating, while she gained a following among young Jews disillusioned with U.S. Jewish organizations' traditional pro-Israel stance. [23]
Zimmerman's advocacy gained national attention in 2016 when she was briefly appointed as the Jewish outreach coordinator for Bernie Sanders's presidential campaign. But past social media posts in which she criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led to her suspension from the campaign, highlighting the controversy surrounding her outspoken stance. Despite the backlash, Zimmerman continued her activism, and her story became emblematic of a generational shift in the American Jewish community. [23]