Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a malicious student group who target Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus.

This Canary Mission report includes profiles on 21 individuals
involved in the May violent disruption of a pro-Israel event.

SJP at UCLA was involved in two major incidents during 2018:

• The violent disruption of a pro-Israel event in May
• The hosting of the National SJP conference in November,
  an event that was mired in controversy and filled with opposition

National SJP's "Incendiary" Logo

The controversy surrounding SJP at UCLA playing host to the National SJP 2018 conference can be seen in the accompanying VIDEO in this report. 

In a shocking turn of events, National SJP chose to include in the graphic of their logo, the image of a “terror-kite,” recalling those used by Palestinian terrorists during the summer of 2018 to burn thousands of hectares of land in Israel.

After being served a cease-and-desist from UCLA, National SJP removed the reference to the university, but kept the image of the kite.

Robert Gardner has expressed support for violence against Israelis and participated in a May 2018 violent disruption of a pro-Israel event, as the primary signatory for SJP at UCLA. Gardner also defended anti-Israel agitators and supported BDS.

On June 1, 2018, Gardner tweeted: “FYI: I support both non-violence AND violence.Kill apartheid before it kills you. #FreePalestine.”

Felipe Bris Abejón has published an anti-Semitic cartoon in the UCLA’s student newspaper and has spread hatred of Israel online. Abejón served as the education and resources director of SJP at UCLA in 2015-2016.

On November 25, 2015, Abejón co-authored an article in the Daily Bruin that accused Israel of carrying out a “systematic attempt to uproot a groupof 5.5 million people from their ancestral land on the basis of their race and religious beliefs.”

For more click here.

Omar Zahzah has called for intifada violence against Israel, expressed support for terrorists, demonized Zionism and defended the violent harassment of pro-Israel students and campus events. Zahzah was the president of SJP at UCLA in 2014-2015.

During his time as SJP president, Zahzah introduced a BDS resolution on UCLA’s campus. As of September 2018, Zahzah was a National Board Member of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). 

On December 14, 2017, Zahzah posted to Facebook a video of himself criticizing [00:01:25] United States President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. He  signed off  [00:06:11] with “Hands off Jerusalem, free Palestine, long live Palestine and long live the intifada!”

For more click here.

Yacoub Kureh has led intimidation efforts against a UCLA student, supported Hamas’s violent “March of Return” and spread hatred of Israel as the President and Chairperson of SJP at UCLA. 

Kureh was an organizer with the Cambridge University Palestine Society at Cambridge University (Cambridge) in 2014, and an organizer with the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at Harvard University (Harvard) in 2013. PSC is an alternative name for SJP. 

Kureh promoted a 2015 BDS resolution on UCLA campus while working as a teaching assistant in the UCLA department of math and as the head steward of United Auto Workers (UAW) union Local2865, representing 13,000 graduate student workers across the University of California (UC) system.

For more click here.

Shawndeez Davari Jadalizadeh [Shawndeez Davari Jadali] whitewashed terrorists, spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories and demonized Israel. 

Jadalizadeh was an affiliate of SJP at UCLA in 2015-2016, and promoted BDS. 

On August 27, 2014, Jadalizadeh wrote an article in which she claimed “One cannot be anti-racist and not be anti-zionist as well.” 

According to her blog, Jadalizadeh was a research fellow with anti-Israel Professor Hatem Bazian’s “Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project” at UC Berkeley.

For more click here.

Saliem Shehadeh [Saleem Shehadeh] excluded a Jewish group from a student fair while serving as an organizer with the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) at San Francisco State University (SFSU). 

Shehadeh was affiliated with SJP at UCLA in 2017-2018, and a member of SJP at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) in 2014, where he was the organizing chair of BDS activity on campus.

Marcelo Clark has spread bigotry and hatred of Israel on Twitter. Clark also participated in the violent disruption of a pro-Israel event at UCLA alongside activists with SJP at UCLA.

On February 26, 2018, Clark tweeted: “the group of zionist on my floor can f**kin choke.”

For more click here.

Amneh Yacoub has participated in the violent disruption of a May 2018 pro-Israel event at UCLA alongside activists with SJP at UCLA. For more click here. 

More SJP Videos