Aasiyah Jaffer

Overview

Aasiyah Jaffer served as the advocacy chair of the Palestinian Student Association (PSA) for the 2022-2023 academic year at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The University of Central Florida is located in Orlando, Florida.

In February 2024, Jaffer’s LinkedIn profile said she was employed as a behavior health technician at Teaching Interventions Keeping Individuality since July 2023.

As of May 2023, Jaffer was registered as a behavioral technician in Florida, National Provider Identifier (NPI) number 1427740554.

Jaffer is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Jaffer graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communication sciences and disorders from the UCF in December 2023.

As of August 2024, Jaffer’s LinkedIn said she was located in Sanford, Florida.

Anti-Israel Activism (UCF-PSA)

On March 2, 2022, Jaffer was tagged [slide 5] in Instagram photos participating [slide 7] in a UCF-PSA rally on campus.

The rally was titled: “ALL EYES ON SHEIKH JARRAH,” where UCF-PSA said activists would be “shedding light on the ongoing displacement & ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah.”

In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

Incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers from May 10 to 21, 2021. In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.

In one video from the protest, Syria Lutfi, then-PSA President, led the crowd in chanting [slide 6]: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” At the same rally, activists chanted [slide 6] again: “From the river to the sea, Palestine...”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

The crowd also chanted [00:00:01]: “End Israeli apartheid! Free, free Palestine! Free, free Palestine! Free, free Sheikh Jarrah!”

Tala Salameh, another PSA board member, led [00:00:15] a chant about Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque: “Be-ruh be-dam nifdik ya Aqsa [With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you, Aqsa]!”

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

The chant: “Be-ruh, be-dam, nifdik ya Aqsaبروح ودم نفديك يااقصى [With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you, Aqsa]” can be heard [00:01:14] at anti-Israel rallies [00:02:19] in America. Yasser Arafat popularized the chant [00:00:23], which is invoked by anti-Israel protesters regarding a variety of causes.

On September 18, 2022, during Jaffer’s tenure as the UCF-PSA advocacy chair, the UCF-PSA promoted the Florida premiere of a film titled: “Boycott” that demonized anti-BDS legislation.

On November 26, 2022, the UCF-PSA hosted a virtual “Teach-In” featuring Hakeem Abunda, the founder of the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) of Tampa.

The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF) was reportedly set up to “provide urgent humanitarian care for Gaza’s children.” It has been financially linked with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which was shut down by the U.S. government for funneling donations to terrorist organizations.

On February 25, 2023, UCF-PSA posted on Instagram a video from one of its events that featured imagery in support of the “right of return.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

BDS

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.

One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”

Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”

In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”

The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.

BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.

The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.

Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.

BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.