Amneh Yacoub
Overview
Amneh Yacoub participated in the violent disruption of a pro-Israel event at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), alongside activists from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCLA.As of October 2018, Yacoub’s LinkedIn page said she was a Research Assistant at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior since August 2018, and an Emergency Department Scribe at ScribeAmerica since December 2015.
Yacoub’s LinkedIn also listed her as having received a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science at UCLA in 2018 and said that she was a student at Dalhousie University (Dalhousie) in 2016.
As of October 2018, Yacoub was listed as a Zeta Class member of the “The Empowered Arab Sisterhood” at UCLA.
SJP at UCLA - Violent Disruption of Pro-Israel Campus Event
On May 17, 2018, Yacoub [00:42:26], along with SJP UCLA activists and affiliates, disrupted [00:00:47] an event hosted by Students Supporting Israel (SSI) on the UCLA campus. The event, titled "Indigenous People Unite," provided a forum for Jewish, Kurdish, and Armenian indigenous communities “to share the stories of their people.”Approximately 41 minutes into the lecture, SJP at UCLA members and Antifa activists invaded [00:41:16] the forum. Protester Armen Adamian walked toward the speakers and tore the Armenian flag off the wall. Adamian then threw [00:41:24] the Armenian panelist’s notes off the speakers’ table and leaned over him.
Other protesters chanted [00:43:01]“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” as well as [00:42:29] “We don’t want two states, we want ‘48!” and [00:45:08] “1,2,3,4 Open up the prison doors; 5,6,7,8 Israel is a terrorist state!!”
Protestor Natalie Kamajian ripped the Israeli flag from the wall. When asked to relinquish the flag, she refused [00:46:52].
Campus security eventually escorted [00:50:05] the protesters out of the classroom, into an adjacent hallway. There, the protesters pounded [00:521:2348] on the door and continued [00:08:32] chanting.
Later, when the door was reopened, the protesters continued their disturbance, screaming [00:33:15] obscenities, using [00:14:27] a megaphone and physically blocking [00:13:52] the door from being closed.
Following the disruption, students attending the SSI event reported feeling intimidated and fearing for their physical safety. SSI chapter president Hirmand Sarafian, the Armenian panelist, reported that he felt physically threatened “throughout the whole thing, from the beginning to the end.”
SJP at UCLA reportedly denied initiating or having “a significant hand in organizing the demonstration” and claimed that “none of our board members attended the event.”
However, SJP at UCLA’s 2018 primary signatory Robert Gardner was filmed taking a leadership role in the disruption, alongside SJP at UCLA signatory Gurutam Thockchom, and fellow SJP at UCLA activists Burkan Aranki, Sarena Khasawneh, John Abughattas, and Tamara Khoury.
On May 18, 2018, both SWANA-LA and the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) in Austin specifically praised SJP at UCLA and SJP at UCLA Alumni’s role in disrupting the SSI event. PSC is an alternative name for SJP.
On May 24, 2018, UCLA chancellors Jerry Kang and Monroe Gorden published anofficial denunciation of the incident in the Daily Bruin, UCLA’s campus newspaper.
The chancellors’ statement condemned the intimidation of panelists and audience members and declared that the university would “refer all evidence of wrongdoing” of non-UCLA students “to local prosecutors to determine whether they have broken the law.”
A June 14, 2018 article, published by the Jewish Journal, reported that half a dozen students said they would file formal complaints against the disruptors for “criminal disruption of a meeting, as well as disturbing the peace and conspiracy.”
An August 8, 2018 article in the Algemeiner reported that the Los Angeles city prosecutor was investigating the disruption, and had “requested additional investigative materials from the UCLA Police.”
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.
