Amena Othman

Amena Othman participated in anti-Israel activism and spread incitement while serving as president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay), part of the City University of New York (CUNY), from 2015-2017.

As of May 2019, Othman’s LinkedIn profile said she was a member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Arab Student Union (ASU) at John Jay.

As of May 2019, Othman’s LinkedIn profile said she was an intern at the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) in New York City and that she graduated from John Jay with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government in 2017.

In 2015, Othman was reportedly part of the Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee (RSCC): “an organization uniting revolutionary-minded youth and students throughout the CUNY system in NYC.”

In 2015-2016, Othman used the name “Mena Ottoman” on Facebook.

As of February 2019, Othman’s Facebook page had been deleted.

Anti-Israel Activism

On March 7, 2017, Othman participated in a John Jay SJP event called: “The Emerging One-State Reality.” The event featured a discussion with Josh Ruebner, Policy Director of the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

The “one-state solution” has been denounced from the Right and the Left as a scheme to dissolve Israel as the Jewish State.

On May 11, 2017, Othman participated with John Jay SJP in taking the “Saltwater Challenge.”


On April 18, 2016, Othman co-hosted a John Jay SJP event featuring Lamis Deek, who was a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in New York and has expressed support for [00:01:15] Hamas terrorists and the destruction of Israel.

On April 24, 2015, Othman promoted on Facebook a John Jay SJP event featuring the film: “Roadmap to Apartheid.” The film was narrated by Alice Walker, who has compared Israeli soldiers to Nazis and excused suicide bombings.

Spreading Anti-Israel Incitement

Othman retweeted a September 13, 2015 tweet from Linda Sarsour that said: “Israeli forces storm courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. May God protect my people from the occupiers.”

On September 13, 2015, masked Palestinian rioters barricaded themselves inside the Al Aqsa Mosque. They set off fireworks, starting a small fire, and threw stones and debris stored inside the mosque at Israeli police. The police later found pipe bombs the rioters had prepared to launch at Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount plaza.

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda served as the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence that flared in the fall of 2015 and incited Palestinians to attempt mass casualty attacks on Israeli civilians in July 2016.. 

Othman retweeted an October 13, 2015 tweet that asked: “What if Muslims wanted to destroy the Vatican and replace it with a Mosque, How would the world react? #HandsOffAlAqsa.”

John Jay SJP - Calling for the Destruction of the Jewish State

On April 27, 2016, John Jay SJP posted a graphic on Facebook, showing the map of Israel overlaid entirely with the colors of the Palestinian Flag and superimposed with the text "Je Suis One State."

On October 6, 2015, John Jay SJP posted an NYC SJP statement on the BDS movement” which stated that the goal is the “the eventual establishment of a single Palestinian national state covering all of historic Palestine.”

On October 22, 2012, John Jay SJP founder and President Leena Widdi launched the group’s first event expressing her excitement to introduce speakers who would promote a "re-set" and a “very important shift” from focusing upon the “occupation of 1967…” to focusing on what she called the “Zionist Apartheid state that exists in all of Palestine” by insisting upon a Palestinian “right of return” — and the dissolution of the Israel as a Jewish State.

Widdi opined that the right of return is “the biggest threat” to Israel — therefore “advocating for the Palestinian right of return is central to the struggle to dis-assemble the Apartheid state and replace it with a single state throughout historic Palestine.”

John Jay SJP - Supporting Hamas

On October 8, 2014, John Jay SJP members organized a "die-in" at John Jay, where SJP members expressed unqualified support for Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist organizations’ so-called “resistance in attacking Israeli soldiers ” The SJP agitators also spread the blood libel that Israel committed “genocide” against Palestinians in Operation Protective Edge.

Chants at the die-in included "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." 

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle 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.

Other SJP members held posters claiming that “U.S. dollars kill one child in Gaza every hour” and urging “Intifada,” another call for violence against Jews.

Shortly after the die-in, John Jay President Jeremy Travis issued an announcement to all students, alumni, faculty and staff, stating that he was "deeply troubled, both personally and professionally, by recent reports that Jewish students at John Jay College have felt intimidated and harassed on our campus."

John Jay SJP - Embracing Violence

On October 10, 2015, John Jay SJP shared an NYC SJP “statement of solidarity” with a “Day of Rage” rally held at the Israeli consulate in New York on October 6, 2015. The event was co-sponsored by a number of Israel-hating organizations including NY4Palestine, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and NYC SJP and urged support for a “Day of Rage” called for by “Palestinian forces.” At the bottom of that statement was a graphic of a Palestinian throwing a rock, with the caption “Let the Intifada pave the way for People’s war!” 

The “Days of Rage” in October of 2015 were heralded by Hamas as the advent of a new intifada. They directly resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians by shootings, stabbings and car rammings.

Protesters at the rally alternately screamed slogans “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”,  “Long Live the Intifada! Intifada! Intifada!” and “Settler settler go back home, Palestine is ours alone!"

On March 8, 2016, John Jay SJP shared photos to “honor and celebrate the women of Palestine who have been resisting the colonial occupation and leading the people's uprising.” The photos showing numerous Palestinian woman firing slingshots, collectinglarge rocks and holdingguns.  

John Jay SJP - Promoting Jew Hatred and Anti-Semitic Violence

On May 13, 2016, John Jay SJP promoted an event that was co-sponsored by NYC SJP titled “Nakba Day March for Resistance and Return.” At the march, held on May 15, 2015, NYC SJP members incited against Jews who moved from New York to Israel. One rally leader announced to the crowd: “The Brooklyn Settlers, the New York Settlers are the most violent.” (0:04).

Scripted chants, distributed before the rally, were recited by agitators, who screamed - for the destruction of Israel. After bellowing "Intifada Intifada" and “5-6-7-8 Smash the Settler Zionist State”, the demonstrators also yelled: We don't want a two-state [solution]; we want ‘48!” — and “There is only one solution; Intifada, revolution”. One chant in Arabic (2:16) voiced explicit support for Islamist terror — lauding the “shahid,” the Arabic word for “martyr.”

Protesters at the rally held signs which read: "Israel = Racism and Genocide," “FREE PALESTINE From The River To the Sea” and “End Racist Occupation From NYC To Palestine,” RESISTANCE until Return & Liberation.” Wanted Terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu for Crimes Against Humanity & The Planet” and “RESIST Zionist Imperialism.”

On October 17, 2015 — during a month of Palestinian incitement and murderous attacks on Israeli civilians via shootings and stabbings and car rammings — John Jay SJP promoted a protest "in “Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising." The protest was called specifically to preempt a “Jewish Lives Matter” rally scheduled to take place in Times Square on October 18, 2015. On October 19, 2015, the group posted a photo from its event calling it a “complete success.”

John Jay SJP - Spreading Lies

On April 3, 2016, John Jay SJP shared a post by Lamis Deek, claiming that “Black Palestinians...are doubly attacked by zionists for being Black and Palestinian.” The post continued that “The buildings they call home are 900-year old structures which became known as “The Blood Prison” a century ago, when the Ottoman Empire converted them into a prison for jailing and executing the condemned.”

On December 18, 2015, John Jay SJP posted on Facebook a misleading AJ+ video demonizing Israel. The video’s presenter, Dena Takruri, mischaracterized Israel’s security fence — 97% of which is a low chain link barrier — as an 8 meter-high wall running 280 miles. The video also falsely insinuated that a non-binding advisory opinion on the security fence issued by the International Court of Justice is binding international law.

On January 23, 2016, John Jay SJP shared an article from Iranian government propaganda mouthpiece PressTV on Facebook, with the fraudulent headline “Israeli doctors torturing Palestinians.” The article misquoted Israel Medical Association (IMA) representative Dr. Ze'ev Feldman who stated during a Knesset Science and Technology Committee meeting on the subject of boycotts against Israeli academic institutions that “the professional British journals have adopted the idea of letters to the editor that libel Israel doctors...They claim our doctors perform medical torture on Palestinian patients.” The PressTV article also misleadingly used a photo from a raid to capture a Hamas-linked terrorist to support the blood libel.

On May 14, 2016, John Jay SJP posted an Al-Jazeera video, titled: "Where did the Palestinians Go?" — subsequently exposed as featuring serial falsehoods. The video fraudulently implied that Palestinians have no political representation, and that Palestinian Arabs were not offered Israeli citizenship until 1967. In fact, Arabs enjoyed citizenship and full rights from the very first Israeli election in 1948.

John Jay SJP - Supporting Terrorists

On April 25, 2016, John Jay SJP shared on Facebook a BDS South Africa post featuring pictures of Dima Al-Wawi, — a 12-year-old attempted-murderer who said she had dreamed of becoming a “martyr” — after she was released from Israeli custody. The post characterized Al-Wawi as a “political prisoner” commenting: "To date, al-wawi was one of the youngest Palestinian prisoners, many others (including over 400 other Palestinian children) still languish as political prisoners in Israeli prisons, torture centers and detention facilities.”

Al-Wawi was arrested on February 9, 2016 for trying to stab an Israeli security guard. Al-Wawi admitted that she intended to kill the security guard, hoping to be killed in the process. “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred,” she said.

Al-Wawi claimed she was influenced by other young Palestinians who stabbed or tried to stab Israeli soldiers and civilians. 

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

John Jay SJP - Exploiting Feminism to Glorify Palestinian Terrorism

On March 5, 2016, John Jay shared an NYC SJP event and blog post on Facebook to “commemorate International Working Women’s Day as an inseparable aspect of the fight for Palestinian liberation.”

The NYC SJP blog post about the event spread the blood libels that "Israel is a state that was built on the murder and rape of Palestinian women" and that “the state forces women to give birth at checkpoints, where more than half of the babies died as a result.”

The event description, excerpted from the blog post, slammed Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir for "colonizing Palestinian land through zionist Ideology", and praised International hijacker Leila Khaled for “committing her life to be a freedom fighter in the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”

Khaled is a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau.

Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister. 

NYC SJP’s blog post went on to praise PFLP member Khalida Jarrar. 

Jarrar is a senior member of the the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),a designatedterrorist organizationby the European Union, Canada, the United States and Israel.

Jarrar was arrested in April 2015 on charges including PFLP membership, inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. Jarrar was later sentenced to 15 months in jail as part of a plea deal when she confessed to all of the charges leveled against her. She was released early in June 2016.

The blog post’s promotion of female terrorists also featured praise for unrepentant terrorist-murderer Rasmea Odeh. 

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.

SJP’s post mischaracterized Odeh’s federal conviction for lying on her immigration application as part of a "concentrated state effort to suppress the support she has been extending the Arab population of Chicago."

The post concluded "Smash the Patriarchy! Smash the Settler Zionist State! Free Palestine, and Free Women EVERYWHERE!"

On January 29, 2016, John Jay SJP shared a video of Odeh, misleadingly labeling her arrest and prosecution part of a "broader pattern of persecuting Arabs and Muslims who are outstanding and outspoken leaders in their communities throughout the U.S."

John Jay SJP - Supporting a Terrorist 

On August 16, 2015 John Jay SJP promoted on Facebook a protest by Within Our Lifetime, formerly known as New York City SJP, supporting Mohammad Allan, who was then on a hunger strike.

Allan, was an operative of the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). PIJ’s objective is “the destruction of the State of Israel” and has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.

Allan was jailed in 2006 “for recruiting suicide bombers” and in 2014 was detained for being “in contact with other PIJ terrorist operatives in order to promote terrorist attacks.” Allan then went on hunger-strike to protest his detention.

Allan’s hunger strike was reportedly inspired by Khader Adnan is a senior member of the PIJ, who also went on a hunger strike to protest his detention. Adnan has praised and encouraged suicide bombings.

While Allan was released due to deteriorating health resulting from the hunger strike, he was re-arrested in 2015.

Allan’s father reportedly said his son was “energized by the fight against Israel during the second Palestinian intifada” and “had on social media supported the Islamic State, as defenders of oppressed Sunni Muslims.”

At the John Jay SJP protest, on August 18, 2015, Mohammed’s relative Ziad Allan condemned the United States and Israel, claiming [00:00:29]: “Israel is the only state on Earth that the laws of humanity does not [sic.] apply to, whatsoever.”  

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.

MSA

The MSA was  established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations." 

The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.

The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.  

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/100008620572296 [Deleted]

Twitter: https://twitter.com/StllAnEmpress__ [Deleted]

https://twitter.com/Empressof__ [Deleted]

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/amena-othman-20b45287

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aka_jefa/ [Private]

https://www.instagram.com/empressof__/ [Deleted]