Are These Protesters Really for Justice in Palestine?
Students for Justice in Palestine at Temple University in Philadelphia has a simple message: “The Jews must go!”
This was the message at their most recent rally on August 10, 2022 at Philadelphia’s City Hall: the ethnic cleansing of Jews through violent means. This is also known as genocide. It’s a far cry from justice in Palestine.
One speaker for the group declared, “We must deny their very existence.” Another declared, “We must shut it [Israel] down … finally.”
In its flyers for the event, Students for Justice in Palestine stated the purpose of the rally:
“Stand up for Palestine and end the blockade on Gaza, support Palestinian resistance, debunk “Israel’s right to defend itself”, and honor the martyrs.”
Who Are the Martyrs That Students for Justice in Palestine Is Honoring?
The “martyrs” are terrorists with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
Why the rally?
PIJ terrorists are continually killing and maiming Israeli civilians. In response, Israel arrested a senior PIJ leader. Next, after a threat of an imminent attack on its civilians, Israel killed two prominent PIJ leaders in pre-emptive strikes. A three-day conflict followed, with PIJ firing 1,100 rockets from Gaza against Israel’s civilian population. Two hundred of those rockets fell inside Gaza, killing Palestinian civilians. During the three-day campaign, Israel killed 24 more PIJ terrorists with 11 civilian casualties.
“Debunking Israel’s right to defend itself” is a call for Israel to just roll over and allow its citizens to be killed. In short, a call for ethnic cleansing.
Supporting “Palestinian resistance” means Students for Justice in Palestine is supporting the terrorists who kill and maim Israelis.
Students for Justice in Palestine – Leading Activists
Nada El-Hillal [Nada Rayman] led chants calling for violence and for Israel's destruction at an anti-Israel rally. El-Hillal has also promoted a neo-Nazi, expressed hatred of Israel and spread anti-Semitism.
Johara Shamaa called for violence and for Israel’s destruction at an anti-Israel rally while she was the primary contact for the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Temple University (Temple SJP).
Brice Patterson [Brice Armond Patterson] has also called to dismantle Israel, glorified a terrorist, expressed support for violent resistance, and spread hatred of Israel, America and the West.
Mai Gaafar spread incitement and hatred of Israel while participating in a 2022 rally co-hosted by a coalition that included Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Temple University.
Sumayyah Nabiyeva and called for Israel’s destruction and showed support for “intifada” as a participant in an August 2022 rally. Nabiyeva has also demonized Israel on Instagram.
Baraa Saleh participated in an August 2022 anti-Israel rally where protesters burned an Israeli flag and led chants calling for violence and for Israel’s destruction.
Negin Abadi spread hatred of Israel while participating in a 2022 rally. Abadi was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Temple University in 2022.
Ahmed Shaat called for Jews to be expelled from Israel, helped burn Israeli flags and led multiple anti-Israel chants at a 2022 rally in Philadelphia.
Sunny Singh [Sandeep Singh] has spread hatred of the police, demonized Israel, engaged in anti-Israel activism and promoted a domestic terrorist. Singh is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Mohammad Omaren burned Israeli flags and led chants in support of violence and calling for Israel's destruction at an August 2022 rally in Philadelphia.
Institutional Anti-Semitism in Philadelphia
The Students for Justice in Palestine rally comes amid a number of troubling events in Philadelphia over the past year.
Philadelphia Inquirer Promotes Athletics Trainer Fired for Antisemitism
On August 23, 2022, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a lengthy article supporting Natalie Abulhawa. In November 2021, Abulhawa was fired from her job as a school athletics trainer for posting vile antisemitism, threats and endorsements of violence on social media. The Inquirer rebranded her antisemitism as “pro-Palestinian activism” and portrayed her filring as grossly unfair.
Abulhawa caught the attention of Canary Mission in 2017. Afterward, she was hired by the Agnes Irwin School (a private K-12 facility in suburban Philadelphia). Abulhawa’s profile gained the attention of faculty and parents.
Read our blog for the whole story.
Philadelphia Public Library System Pushes Anti-Zionist Content
The public library system in Philadelphia systematically tried to indoctrinate children and parents against Israel through recommendations of books, videos and resource links. The Free Library of Philadelphia is America’s 13th-largest public library system. The indoctrination was discovered in the summer of 2021.
“I started looking, and I kept finding more and more disturbing content that was first of all directed at young people—children, middle-school age or maybe even younger frankly—and that it was all of an anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist nature,” said Steve Felman, the executive director of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA).
Philadelphia Director of Commerce Makes Antisemitic Remarks
The director of commerce for the city, Michael Rashid, resigned in October 2021 after making antisemitic remarks and creating a hostile environment for staff. Rashid called the movie Schindler’s List, which is set during the Holocaust, “Jewish propaganda.”
More Anti-Semitism in Philadelphia
Israeli Vendor Disinvited
In June 2021, an Israeli food vendor was disinvited from a “Taste of Home” Father’s Day event in the city. According to the Israeli vendor Moshava, “The organizers of the event heard rumors of a protest happening because of us being there and decided to uninvite us from fear that the protesters would get aggressive and threaten their event.”
In announcing the decision, one of the organizers stated the reason they nixed Moshava was “in order to best serve our guests.”
Philadelphia Head of NAACP Posts Antisemitic Meme
Rodney Muhammad, the president of the Philadelphia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) declined to resign in 2020 after posting an anti-Semitic meme on social media. Although the NAACP announced that Muhammad had apologized, Muhammad himself did not issue an apology. Instead, Muhammad said that black people were being silenced by cries of anti-Semitism by “agencies with other agendas.”
Muhammad has also praised the Nation of Islam’s virulently anti-semitic leader on social media. In a 2012 interview, Muhammad lashed out against Jews for speaking against Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism. Muhammad is also the minister of a mosque whose Facebook page is filled with anti-Semitic posts.
“Those of you who say that you are Jews, I will not give you the honor of calling you a Jew; you are not a Jew! You’re So-Called [a Jew], you are Satan and it is my job now to pull the cover off of Satan so that every Muslim, when he sees Satan, [will/should] pick up a stone,” reads one post from Muhammed Mosque No.12 in Philadelphia.