Amira Mattar

Overview

Amira Mattar has glorified violence, demonized Israel and spread anti-white hatred, on social media.

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

In 2014, Mattar co-sponsored a divestment resolution at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle that was launched by Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at UW — an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Mattar attended the 2019 National SJP Conference.

National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”

Mattar is a 2015 graduate of UW, where she majored in Political Science. Mattar’s undergraduate thesis was titled: “Contingent Claims: A Diverged Path Towards Palestinian Self-Determination.”

On May 30, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “I was a highly active divestment senator. Was notoriously rebuked by faculty/staff. BUT, it got me into the honors program & law school.” On June 18, 2016, Mattar tweeted that she “ended up staying in Seattle for law school.”

On February 28, 2017, Mattar was listed as a “UW Student Leader” speaking at the Gates PSL (Public Service Law) Community Dinner, at UW School of Law.

As of April, 2017, Mattars’ Facebook profile said she worked at the Seattle Office of
Immigrant Refugee Affairs.

As of March 2021, Mattar was the Michael Ratner Justice Fellow at Palestine Legal since September 2019.

Palestine Legal is part of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO), whose activities include lobbying Congress to end aid to Israel, promoting BDS, organizing Israel Apartheid Week on college campuses and initiating publicity-generating campaigns to demonize Israel.

As of the same date, Mattar’s LinkedIn page said that she received a Juris Doctor (JD) from UW’s School of Law in 2019.

Glorifying Violence

On May 8, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “#HappyInternationalWomensDay to the women who taught me what is is th be a Palestinian.” The tweet featured a photo of masked female Palestinian militants throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers taken during October 2015.

Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.

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.

Demonizing Israel

On January 18, 2017, Mattar tweeted: “israeli military attacks on syria are wickedly hypocritical but I would expect no less from f**king garbage.”

On September 16, 2016, Mattar tweeted a photo of herself holding up her middle finger to the Israeli flag.

On August 25, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “The article details international law’s dictation of genocide. With which Israel’s actions meets the criterion.”

On July 5, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “This article is kinda misleading. Israel *currently does* kill Palestinian children without criminal repercussions.”

On June 29, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “Reasons why Israel is an apartheid, colonialist brutal police state: Here’s today’s story. My two friends were detained this evening.”

On February 27, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “@giftary will be gifting Oscar runner-ups w/ a $55,000 trip to Israel. Nothing says defeat like supporting apartheid & illegal occupation.”

On January 12, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “BUT ACTUALLY LASTLY a magical middle finger to the colonialist f**kery that is Israel. May you have blue balls for the rest of your days.”

Anti-White Hatred

On March 24, 2017, Mattar tweeted: “i hate D.C. this place is so white and people have f**king staring issues.”

On July 9, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “If it were up to America’s founders, black folk would never share the same land or even breathe the same air as White folk.”

On March 31, 2016, Mattar tweeted: “I f**king hatedddd political theory classes in college. They gave me white authors & white theories to study. They all felt unattainable.” Matter continued: “But then I found critical race theory. It gave me the tools $ language to credibly refute the bulls**t that is white America.”

Promoting BDS

In 2014, Mattar was a student senator at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and co-sponsored BDS resolution R-20-39, which failed by 8-59 with 11 abstentions, after a lengthy debate. The initial submission of the resolution to the student senate was scheduled for the first day of Passover, when religiously observant Jewish students would not be able to attend the hearing.

The hearing was then reportedly rescheduled to take place on Israel’s Independence Day.

The BDS campaign at UW was launched as the #DawgsDivest campaign by SUPER UW.

On May 5, 2014, Mattar featured [00:02:35] in a video posted to Vimeo by SUPER UW promoting SUPER UW’s divestment campaign.

SUPER UW - Defending A Terrorist

On February 3, 2015, SUPER UW posted an article to Facebook defending Rasmea Odeh and committed to “participate in local action” during the “National Week to Defend Rasmea” prior to her sentencing on March 12th for immigration fraud.

On December 8, of 2014, SUPER UW again posted to Facebook in defense of Odeh. calling on followers to telephone the St. Clair County Sheriff and “ask that Odeh be released “from solitary confinement immediately.”

SUPER UW - Glorifying Militants

On May 18, 2016, SUPER UW announced on Facebook the first “Ghassan Kanafani Scholarship,” offering a “creative arts and writing scholarship to three Palestinian youth in the diaspora”.

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.

The scholarship was offered by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM USA). PYM’s website states “Our liberation…will be gained with the path that was written with the blood of our martyrs. We reaffirm that the only path that we are concerned with is the path that explicitly heads towards the liberation of our land and the return of our people to Palestine… All Palestine.”

On June 30, 2015, SUPER UW encouraged students to “please take action” and sign a petition calling on Israel to free Khader Adnan, who was in his 54th day of a hunger strike at the time.

Khader Adnan was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” In May 2023, Adnan died in prison after refusing medical treatment during a hunger strike.

SUPER UW - Promoting Incitement

On October 13, 2016, SUPER UW shared an article on Facebook that accused Israel of arresting Palestinian Astrophysicist and Professor at Al Quds University Imad Barghouthi for getting “likes and shares on facebook,” trivializing the effects of Barghouthi’s incitement. The article was published by the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada.

Palestinian Astrophysicist Professor Imad Barghouthi of Al Quds University was sentenced in 2016 to seven months in prison for incitement to violence.

Barghouthi is a vocal supporter of Hamas's military wing — the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — and has called for killing and being killed in the name of Islam.

An October 22, 2014 video showed Barghouthi at an Al-Quds university Hamas rally, draped in a Hamas banner, [00:00:33] urging students to design precision guided missiles, and sniper rifles as [00:01:11] “weapons ofthe resistance” to [00:02:35] kill “zionist soldiers” in their bedrooms.

On May 18, 2016, SUPER UW encouraged students to sign a petition to Israel to release Barghouthi from jail. Barghouthi was sentenced to prison for seven months for incitement to violence.

On July 13, 2016, SUPER UW also invited students on Facebook to sign a petition calling on Israel to release Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour from house arrest.

In October 2015, Tatour was placed under house arrest for incitement to violence and for support of a terrorist organization on social media. Tatour had supported the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and posted to Facebook: “I am the next shahid [martyr].”

Attending the National SJP Conference

On November 6, 2019, Palestine Legal posted a photo of Mattar and other activists to Instagram, and wrote: “We had a great time at the @NationalSJP conference hosted by @sjpumn last weekend!”

The 2019 National SJP Conference was held at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3. The Conference themes centered on support for BDS as well as the rejection of Israel and Zionism.

The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.

2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS

The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.

During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”

The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.

2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism

The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”

The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.

Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.

2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy

The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”

Members of allied student groups could register only as part of an SJP chapter delegation which, in turn, needed to be “vouched for by their campus’s SJP” for “security culture and accountability reasons.”

The Conference also restricted media access to journalists “registered and confirmed by our Media Committee in advance to attend the conference. Absolutely no exceptions will be made.”

During the Conference, National SJP reportedly covered the windows of the conference hall.

2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations

National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.

Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari.

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.