Agatha Palma
Overview
Palma was the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) director on the board of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), from 2013-2015.
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
On November 15, 2014, Palma changed her profile photo on Facebook to a photo of Rasmea Odeh, superimposed with the UCLA Divest logo.
Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.
In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.
On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.
Demonizing Israel
On May 13, 2014, Palma changed her Facebook profile picture to a poster promoting an SJP UCLA event called Nakba Week on Facebook.The poster promoted a May 19, 2014 event titled: “Refugees &The Right of Return: A Teach-In.”
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.
The poster also promoted a May 21, 2014 event, titled: “Hear Us Speak: Stories on the Nakba & Exile.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
Palma co-hosted a November 6, 2014, Facebook event titled: “From Despair to Hope: The Crisis in Palestine and Student Responsibility.” The event page advertised a presentation by anti-Israel professor Sherene Seikaly about Palestinian struggles, “followed by a primer on Divestment by activist Nasser Barghouti.”
On November 8, 2013, Palma was featured in a Facebook photo, posted by SJP UCLA that said: “Our very own BDS Director Agatha Palma speaking during tonight's Divestment event! #PAWFall2013.”
The photo showed Palma speaking at an SJP UCLA divestment event during their 2013 Palestine Awareness Week.
Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding for American audiences of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), originally presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Promoting an Anti-Israel Agitator
On November 7, 2014, Palma was featured in a Facebook photo by CODEPINK with Steven Salaita.In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.
BDS Activism
The resolution, titled: “A Resolution to Divest from Companies Engaged in Violence against Palestinians,” was eventually endorsed by the UCLA student government and called on the University of California Board of Regents to divest from a list of companies allegedly tied to violence against Palestinians.
On July 22, 2014, Palma changed her Facebook profile picture to a poster promoting UC Divest, the campaign to pass the BDS resolution.
On November 4, 2013, Palma wrote an article in the UCLA student newspaper titled: “UCLA’s failure to divest harms its Palestinian students.”
On October 30, 2013, Palma changed her profile picture on Facebook to a photo promoting an SJP UCLA event titled: “The Time is Now: A Moral Case for Divestment.” Details on the photo said the event was a discussion on the tactic of boycotts divestment and sanctions used against South African apartheid used in the context of Palestine and the UC.” The photo also featured the words “Bury Apartheid.”
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.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/aepalma
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- California-Los-Angeles
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- SJP
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025