South Florida Elected Official Targets 2 Constituents Who Are JVP Activists

When Miami Beach activist Donna Nevel was leafleting for Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) last year at one of the biggest art fairs in the country, she was shocked to see a billboard-bearing truck emblazoned with her name and photo, along with the words “Jew hater.”

Now, JVP is alleging that Miami Beach City Commissioner David Suarez spent $4,000 of his own money on three billboard trucks to target Nevel and another outspoken JVP member as well as the local chapter of the organization. JVP unearthed a receipt paid by Suarez to the billboard company as part of a lawsuit it has lodged against the city over its suppression of speech and organizing in solidarity with Palestinians. For his part, Suarez defended his action, telling The Intercept in an email that, “as a jew, I can spot a jew hater a mile away.”

Both Nevel and Alan Levine, the other individual targeted, are seasoned, long-term organizers who have been doing anti-Zionist work for decades. Nevel is a writer, community psychologist, and educator, and Levine is a civil rights attorney.

The truck, which included the pair’s names and faces prominently displayed, was meant to disrupt a JVP protest near the entrance of Art Basel Miami Beach. The annual three-day festival, which began in Basel, Switzerland, in 1970, is billed as “the preeminent global market for art,” and features work by established and up-and-coming painters, sculptors, and visual creatives.

Art Basel first came to Miami Beach in 2002 but only became a site of JVP protest in 2023 when the group learned that sponsor UBS has deep ties to Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer that has played a key role in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.

Nevel spoke to reporter Eleanor J. Bader in mid-May following the discovery that Suarez had personally paid for the truck.

Eleanor J. Bader: Let’s start with the protest at Art Basel Miami Beach. Tell me about what you and other JVP members were doing outside the convention center where the event was taking place.

Donna Nevel: Art Basel Miami Beach is one of the largest art festivals in the world. This is why we wanted to be visible, to be outside with leaflets and use the opportunity to publicize what is happening to the Palestinian people. This year, we were barred from being directly in front of the convention center and had to stand a little way down the block, which they said was for security reasons. We knew this was nonsense, that it was about our political perspective. This, along with an anti-protest ordinance that the city had passed in 2023, led JVP to initiate a lawsuit against the city in September. We were committed to being at Art Basel, together with partnering groups, to show that we stand against the genocide and Miami Beach’s complicity in it.

Tell me about JVP South Florida’s work.

I’ve lived in South Florida for 10 years and I’ve seen the JVP chapter grow dramatically. We’re part of a beautiful social justice community that includes people who are working on, among other critical issues, abolition, racial justice, immigrants’ rights, environmental justice, and of course, justice in Palestine. In our Palestine organizing we are part of a coalition, including wonderful Palestinian, Muslim, Jewish, and student groups. We in JVP believe that it is important to hold the Jewish community accountable and take responsibility for what is done in the name of the Jewish people.

JVP is multigenerational, with people in their teens and early 20s and people in their 80s. We make sure that whenever a Zionist speaker comes to town, we show them that not everyone in Miami Beach welcomes them. We’ve protested speeches by Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League, the Israeli consul general, and Donald Trump ally Alan Dershowitz. We have also protested at the Jewish National Fund and Birthright conferences. We leaflet at the Miami Book Fair and obviously at Art Basel. Our goal at these events is to engage with people and do political education in order to build community.

One of our campaigns, together with community members from different organizations, is called Break the Bonds Miami. It aims to end Miami-Dade County’s Israel bond holdings. The county currently holds $151 million in Israel bonds. Neighboring Palm Beach County owns $700 million worth, the largest amount of any area in the U.S. We are demanding that this money be used to fund community needs instead of paying for apartheid and genocide.

Our Eyes on the West Bank Project is focusing on the increasing repression, land theft, and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. One part of this effort is focused on the Falic family, who live in South Florida. They own Duty Free Americas, the airport shop chain, and are one of the main families in the U.S. that are bankrolling Israel’s continuing Nakba in the West Bank.

We have also started protesting against Palantir. In February 2026, Palantir moved its headquarters from Denver to Miami, and we’ve joined with others to protest their work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Ongoing community education is central to what we do as are a range of events and programs to build anti-Zionist community in South Florida. Of course, we’re also part of a global movement since Jewish anti-Zionist organizing for Palestinian justice extends well beyond South Florida and the U.S. I am a JVP representative to Global Jews for Palestine, which brings anti-Zionist Jewish organizations from 25 countries together. We have fought the conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and from our diverse countries, we are committed to strengthening our organizing solidarity with the Palestinian people and are united in standing up against rising fascism around the globe.

Tell me more about the conflict between JVP and Commissioner Suarez, Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner, and other local officials.

We show up at many monthly city commission meetings to listen and testify, and the mayor often shouts at us and turns the mics off when we get up to speak. They consistently interrupt us at meetings and have also interrupted our press conferences.

And it’s not just JVP they’ve gone after. In March 2025, Miami’s O Cinema scheduled a screening of No Other Land, an Oscar-winning feature documentary about Palestine. Mayor Meiner sent a letter to the theater ahead of the screening and threatened to cut off city funding to them. He also threatened to terminate their lease in the city-owned building that housed them. This brought out an unprecedented coalition — the arts community, free speech supporters, pro-Palestine activists, and community folks came together to force the mayor to rescind the threats, which he ultimately did.

During our Art Basel protest this year, we stood where they told us to stand, so we were shocked when three trucks showed up with large billboards mounted on them denouncing JVP as well as me and Alan as “Jew haters.” I could not even look at them because I did not want to be derailed from my purpose at the protest. I did not want to stop talking to people or stop handing out leaflets about the genocide and our role in standing against it. It was only after concerned person after concerned person came up to me that the impact of the messaging began to hit me.

Did you immediately know that it was Suarez who had hired the trucks?

No! Suarez is an elected public official, so while we thought he might be connected, none of us thought that he could possibly have paid for the mobile billboards, at least not in his name. Sure, I’ve always seen him as truly awful, but it wasn’t until the lawyers subpoenaed the billboard company that we found out that Suarez had paid $4,000 to specifically target JVP and the two of us individually. We then quickly called a news conference to announce what he’d done.

Has the coverage you’ve received from the Florida press been sympathetic to you or supportive of Suarez?

For the most part, the media coverage has been supportive of us. People have been shocked that two Jewish activists have been smeared as “Jew haters” and the media here has more often than not been sympathetic to our protests.

Any idea why you and Alan were specifically singled out by Suarez?

Alan and I are both visible here. We speak at city commission meetings and Alan is prominent as one of the lawyers who is suing the City, Suarez, and Mayor Meiner. I’ve done a lot of media work for JVP. Perhaps that’s it.

Have you gotten support from non-activists?

A lot of people, including many who do not share our politics, have been horrified by the mayor and by Suarez because of their bullying behavior. People tend to respect JVP and believe we have the right to speak out on these issues.

At the same time, we know that the right clearly has a lot of momentum in Florida and the state is full of people who think Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump, and Gov. Ron DeSantis are terrific. We’re up against a lot of reactionary people. Nonetheless, JVP has been growing at an incredible rate and the organization has boosters all over South Florida who support us.

The doxxing was pretty intense. Has it changed your behavior or caused you to become more cautious in your activism?

I grew up in Miami and left when I was 18, but I love the ocean, and since my husband and I can work from anywhere, about 10 years ago we decided to return. I’m glad we’re here. As soon as we came down, we connected with many committed and caring organizers and activists.

Nonetheless, I have to admit that after the trucks roared past me, I felt shaky. I imagined people looking at me and wondering if I really am a “Jew hater.” What Suarez did literally put a target on me and on Alan. We’re local residents. This is where we live. We’re also Suarez’s constituents. This, and his consistently unethical and bullying behavior, is why we feel strongly that he should not be a public official.

Still, I’m lucky, as is Alan, to be part of a very embracing community. We know what and whom we’re up against and we’re going to continue standing with others for justice in the U.S., in Palestine, and in other parts of the world. We also know that we’re far from alone and that people all over the U.S. who support Palestinian sovereignty have been doxxed, fired, and threatened in far more serious ways. We’re here for each other and are building strong, loving communities. That means the world to me.

When I was growing up, South Florida was full of Holocaust survivors whose stories I heard. I had a strong Jewish education. My father was a deeply compassionate man and a leader in the Jewish community. The major lesson I learned from him and my mom is to follow the truth and let justice lead the way.

That said, even though I know who Suarez is, when I awaken in the middle of the night, the words “Jew hater” can unsettle me.