Aiyah Sibay

Overview

Aiyah Sibay has accused Israel of poisoning Palestinian water wells. She made the accusation when writing on behalf of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Maryland, College Park (SJP UMD).

On April 24, 2016, Sibay wrote “water wells built without the permission of the Israeli government, which is seldom granted, are poisoned.” She made the claim in an open letter she wrote in support of an SJP UMD protest against an Israeli cultural event at UMD, discussed later in this profile.

On March 31, 2016, Sibay said about the Israeli military: “If your attire or your behavior was something that they felt uncomfortable from, then they felt free to shoot at you.”

On March 7, 2017, Sibay organized an event promoting SJP UMD’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

Sibay worked for the United Nations World Food Programme in the West Bank, during the summer of 2015.

On February 17, 2017, Sibay listed herself as a senior at UMD, majoring in English.

Disrupting an Israeli Cultural Event

On April 19, 2016, Sibay helped organize an SJP UMD “die-in” disrupting the annual Israel Fest celebration — a non-political event held at UMD to celebrate Israeli culture. Sibay created propaganda posters for the disruption.

During the die-in, students lay on the ground near the Israel Fest participants and blocked student walkways. Several SJP UMD activists refused police requests to get off the ground and clear the area. Many demonstrators continued to occupy the space, in defiance of university rules and engaged in heated confrontations with campus police.

After the die-in, Sibay waved a Palestinian flag in front of a police officer’s face while chanting against “Israeli apartheid,” which prompted the officer to physically remove her.

The demonstration began with a rally outside McKeldin Library where leading SJP UMD activist Mohammad Sajjad Soltanmohammadi — a supporter of both Hezbollah and Hamas — led chants of “when people are occupied, resistance is justified.”

SJP UMD co-president Shane James led the chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The chant, a standard feature at SJP rallies, calls for the dismantling of Israel as a Jewish state.

When some onlookers challenged SJP UMD for spreading propaganda, one SJP activist conjured the conspiracy theory: “When the textbooks are written and taught by the Jewish or the Israeli faculty? Of course they’re biased!” Another SJP UMD activist accused Israel of “genocide.”

Soltanmohammadi led the chant: “Netanyahu what do you say, how many kids did you kill today?” The demonstrators called for shutting down Israel’s “border wall” and accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and having “racist policies.” Some demonstrators held signs painted with simulated blood stains, reading: “Zionism Kills.”

Following the rally, Soltanmohammadi led the protestors in a march on Israel Fest, where — against campus rules — they laid down on an adjacent walkway for the die-in. During the march toward Israel Fest, they chanted: “Israel is an apartheid state. Israel is a terror state. Israel is a racist state.”

Vilifying Israel

On March 20, 2016, Sibay shared photos on Facebook from an anti-Israel protest where marchers held signs reading “Israel = Ku Klux Klan.”

Another photo showed protesters holding signs reading “Free Palestine — Support the Right of Return.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

On March 24, 2016, Sibay shared a series of maps on Facebook that presented lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” purportedly stolen by Israel. In February of 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled and destroyed copies of a college level textbook that contained the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, the United States cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

On September 25, 2016, Sibay started a petition titled, “END BIRTHRIGHT CAMPAIGNS” that was addressed to Hillel at UMD (Maryland Hillel). Birthright Israel is a series of Jewish heritage trips to Israel for Jewish young adults.

Her petition stated: “Let us gather together to stop this false campaign which continues to further the idea that Jewish individuals born outside of Israel are entitled to a land which has been forcibly taken from and denied to its original inhabitants.”

On February 12, 2017, Sibay wrote an opinion piece in a UMD student newspaper where she said that “Birthright” was a “personally and deeply offensive title.” She attempted to divorce the State of Israel from all manner of Jewish identity and added that Israel was “a country established by the forceful grab of land and a brutal manner of conquer.”

Participating in Anti-Israel Rallies

On March 26, 2017, Sibay was listed on Facebook as having attended a rally in Washington, D.C., organized by Al-Awda — The Palestine Right to Return Coalition. Sibay promoted the rally to the SJP UMD Facebook page on February 22, 2017.

The rally demonized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and featured a lineup of speakers who have spread anti-Semitism. Among them was the rally’s lead organizer, Al-Awda co-founder Abbas Hamideh, who has been called out for promoting anti-Semitism on his Twitter account, by a prominent pro-Israel blog.

The rally’s Facebook page accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and demanded: “End the illegal occupation of Palestine from the River to the Sea!.” The chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” — which Hamideh confirmed as a call to eliminate Israel — was a constant refrain at the rally.

Another speaker at the rally was Ryan Dawson — a denier of Nazi gas chambers. Dawson mocked ancient Jewish Scriptures and attacked Jewish historical claims to the Land of Israel. Dawson’s comments were greeted with cheers. Dawson also said: “If I can give something across to the scumbags inside … AIPAC is a virus … AIPAC is a parasite.” Those comments were also greeted with shouts of approval.

Anti-Israel activist and author Miko Peled also spoke at the rally, claiming: “We know very well that the Palestinian resistance is not terrorism. Palestinian resistance is legitimate resistance. And all of us today are part of that resistance.” Peled’s comments were met with applause and shouts of approval from the crowd.

On March 20, 2016, Sibay shared photos on Facebook from another Al-Awda rally in downtown Washington, D.C., where marchers held signs reading “Israel = Ku Klux Klan.”

Another photo she posted showed protesters holding signs reading “Free Palestine — Support the Right of Return.”

At that rally, secret service officers had to intervene to move agitators away from the White House. That rally, too, attempted to shut down the annual AIPAC conference in Washington, D.C. Demonstrators again carried signs produced by Al-Awda reading: “Israel = Racism & Genocide.”

UMD MASC and SJP UMD - Marginalizing UMD Jews for Supporting Israel

On April 27, 2017, UMD MASC and SJP UMD posted a co-authored letter on Facebook that promoted an anti-Israel rally at UMD. The “boycott” rally was timed to coincide with “Israel Fest” — an annual Israeli cultural event held at UMD, on Israeli Independence Day. The groups called the annual celebration of Israel’s independence on campus “unnecessary” and “insulting.”

UMD MASC and SJP UMD called for a “Mass Boycott of Israel Fest” and stated in their letter: “Our efforts may be wrongly confused with anti-Semitism, but we urge those who conflate this action with that sentiment to rethink the accusation … It is the country and its discriminatory policies that we oppose, and not the Jewish people.”

The letter said that Israel is “undeniably responsible for the displacement, imprisonment, and killing of thousands of Palestinians.” The letter added that Israel was an “apartheid state” that was “founded on the forced displacement of thousands of individuals” and that Israel was “the very country responsible for their suffering.”

UMD MASC and SJP UMD went on to demand that UMD’s Jewish Student Union (Maryland JSU), the festival organizer, prove that the event is “in fact a celebration of Jewish culture.” They also demanded that Maryland JSU change the festival’s name and remove tables promoting Birthright Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Birthright Israel is a series of Jewish heritage trips to Israel for Jewish young adults from the United States, Canada and other countries around the world.

UMD MASC and SJP UMD ended their letter, stating: “We urge you to stand with Muslim and Arab Terps as their allies. We urge you to stand with justice.”

On May 2, 2017, UMD MASC and SJP UMD co-hosted their “boycott” of Israel Fest. The rally featured a barrier, emblazoned with “ISRAELI APARTHEID WALL” and promoted BDS. The barrier also featured text that said “FREE GAZA” and “NO BORDERS.” SJP members chalked "Boycott Israel Fest" all over the campus in the week preceding the festival.

UMD MASC and SJP UMD - 2017 Divestment Resolution

On April 10, 2017, Sarah Eshera — UMD MASC founder and SJP UMD activist — announced on Facebook that the UMD Student Government Association (UMD SGA) scheduled a vote on an anti-Israel divestment bill for April 19, 2017. Eshera stated that UMD MASC and SJP UMD jointly introduced the anti-Israel resolution.

On February 12, 2017, the UMD student newspaper reported on the launch of the BDS campaign and interviewed SJP UMD’s president, Miranda Mlilo. The newspaper wrote: “Mlilo said SJP doesn't know what organizations this university may be invested in, but that they may file a public records request to find out.”

As of May 23, 2017, the UMD student newspaper had no reportage about the scheduled divestment vote.

UMD MASC and SJP UMD - Promoting Anti-Israel Propagandists

On April 18, 2017, UMD MASC and SJP UMD co-hosted a BDS event featuring Taher Herzallah and Kareem El Hosseiny, in anticipation of a divestment vote reportedly scheduled for the the following day.

Herzallah serves as the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing for American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Hosseiny is the AMP Government Relations Coordinator.

On November 27-29, 2014, Herzallah — at the seventh annual AMP conference — accused “progressive community” allies of viewing only Muslim “freedom fighters” who employed violent means as practicing “terrorism.” Herzallah then rhetorically asked: “What if, as Muslims, we wanted to establish an Islamic state? Is that wrong? What if, as Muslims, we wanted to use violent means to resist occupation? Is that wrong?...”

The April 18, 2017 event was originally billed as “A Conversation with Yousef Munayyer.” Munayyer is the Executive Director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO).

However, on April 16, 2017, UMD MASC wrote on the Facebook event page that Munayyer could not attend and that “in his place we will have Taher Herzallah from American Muslims for Palestine. We're so happy to be hosting him!”

SJP UMD - Demonizing Israel

On February 26, 2017, SJP UMD released an online petition, titled “OFFICIAL STATEMENT ON BDS,” addressed to the UMD SGA and UMD President, Wallace Loh. The petition was circulated in anticipation of the anti-Israel divestment bill that was co-authored by UMD MASC and SJP UMD and announced on Facebook by Sarah Eshera — UMD MASC founder and SJP UMD activist, on April 10, 2017.

The petition alleged that Israel committed murder and claimed: “Innocent children are forced from their homes to make room for Israeli settlers.” The petition also condemned Israeli checkpoints, which were built to stop suicide bombings and other terror attacks.

The petition also cast Israel in the role of apartheid South Africa and stated: “In 1989, our university boldly stood against South African apartheid by divesting from the institutions which supported racist policies in that country. Our goal is to have our university take a strong stand against injustice again.”

SJP UMD - Misrepresenting BDS

SJP UMD’s online February 26, 2017, BDS petition, mentioned above, concluded with a paraphrased 2010 quote from BDS’ founder, Omar Barghouti: “The global BDS movement for Palestinian rights presents a progressive, antiracist, sophisticated, sustainable, moral, and effective form of nonviolent civil resistance to apartheid.”

Barghouti’s original quote spoke of “resistance for Palestinian human rights,” only. SJP UMD replaced that phrase with “resistance to apartheid.” The petition also prefaced its paraphrased Barghouti quote with the statement: “To ensure the safety and equality of Palestinians is to ensure the safety and equality of all.”

However, as early as December 13, 2003, Barghouti made clear that his goal is to create a “unitary state, where, by definition, Jews will be a minority.”

On May 31, 2009, Barghouti also said: “I am completely and categorically against binationalism because it assumes that there are two nations with equal moral claims to the land and therefore, we have to accommodate both national rights.”

SJP UMD’s online petition concluded with a core BDS demand, stating: “As proponents of BDS, we call for Israel to respect the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their home country from which they are currently exiled, as stipulated by UN Resolution 194.”

The BDS movement’s selective appeal to U.N General Assembly Resolution 194 (Article 11) has been discredited as a subterfuge to eliminate Israel. The non-binding resolution made no mention of the refugees’ ethnicity — either Jewish or Arab — indicating it was aimed at all refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Resolution 194 urged that refugees be allowed to return to their pre-war homes, provided they were “willing to live in peace with their neighbors.” The Arabs unanimously rejected Resolution 194.

SJP UMD - Supporting Terrorists

As of August 1, 2016, an image in support of Rasmea Odeh was the group’s Facebook cover photo.

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

On March 3, 2014, SJP UMD tweeted an article in support of 21-year-old Musab Moussa al-Zaaneen who was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The article stated that al-Zaneen and others were “preparing to launch rockets” at Israel.

SJP UMD’s said in the tweet: “RT @allissonCD ‘An hour ago the Israeli air force dropped two bombs on #Gaza. A 21 year old was killed. http://tinyurl.com/mlqhahb ’ #AIPAC14.”

On November 15, 2013, SJP UMD shared an article from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) praising Yasser Arafat’s 1988 declaration of Palestinian independence. The story showed photos of ISM agitators joining Palestinian militants to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Arafat’s declaration — by breaching Israel’s security fence, using sledgehammers and bolt cutters.

Yasser Arafat was the former leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and is known by some as the “father of modern terrorism.” Under Arafat, the goal of the PLO was the violent destruction of Israel.

The post also slandered Israel with unsupported allegations that Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as human shields in its three-week Operation Cast Lead (OCL) against Hamas in 2008-2009. To support its claim, SJP UMD cited unsubstantiated and anonymous testimonies from the discredited anti-Israel organization, Breaking the Silence.

SJP UMD - Celebrating the Disruption of Israeli Officials

On April 19, 2016, SJP UMD held a “die-in” disrupting the annual Israel Fest celebration — a non-political event held at UMD to celebrate Israeli culture.

During the die-in, students lay on the ground near the Israel Fest participants and blocked student walkways. Several SJP UMD activists refused police requests to get off the ground and clear the area. Many demonstrators continued to occupy the space, in defiance of university rules and engaged in heated confrontations with campus police.

The demonstration began with a rally outside McKeldin Library where leading SJP UMD activist Mohammad Sajjad Soltanmohammadi — a supporter of both Hezbollah and Hamas — led chants of “when people are occupied, resistance is justified.”

SJP UMD co-president Shane James led the chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The chant, a standard feature at SJP rallies, calls for the dismantling of Israel as a Jewish state.

When some onlookers challenged SJP UMD for spreading propaganda, one SJP activist conjured the conspiracy theory: “When the textbooks are written and taught by the Jewish or the Israeli faculty? Of course they’re biased!” Another SJP UMD activist accused Israel of “genocide.”

Soltanmohammadi led the chant: “Netanyahu what do you say, how many kids did you kill today?” The demonstrators called for shutting down Israel’s “border wall” and accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and having “racist policies.” Some demonstrators held signs painted with simulated blood stains, reading: “Zionism Kills.”

Following the rally, Soltanmohammadi led the protestors in a march on Israel Fest, where — against campus rules — they laid down on an adjacent walkway for the die-in. During the march toward Israel Fest, they chanted: “Israel is an apartheid state. Israel is a terror state. Israel is a racist state.”

SJP UMD - Spreading Propaganda on Campus

On October 22, 2015, SJP UMD hung posters on campus of a map that showed lands that were controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian Land” stolen by Israel.

In February of 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled and destroyed copies of a college level textbook that contained the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, the United States cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

SJP UMD - Supporting Steven Salaita's Hate Speech

On October 8, 2014, SJP UMD tweeted its support for Steven Salaita, the Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

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.

SJP UMD’s tweet claimed that Salaita was “unfairly targeted on the job” due to “his support for Palestine.”

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.

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.