Share:
Arwa Ali
Arwa Ali [Arwa Abdelaziz Ali] disrupted an Israel Day celebration with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Cornell University (Cornell) in 2015 and participated in Cornell SJP’s 2014 anti-Israel protest. Ali remained affiliated with Cornell SJP in 2019.
As of March 2022, Ali’s LinkedIn profile said she was a substitute teacher at Fairfax County Public Schools in Alexandria, Virginia, since February 2019.
Ali’s LinkedIn also said she was a web developer looking for an opportunity in that field and a Board Member of Cornell’s Worship Coordination Committee from June 2015 to December 2018.
As of March 2022, Ali had a website where she displayed her web development projects.
Ali’s LinkedIn also said she graduated from Cornell with a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2018, and that she was located in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland.
On April 23, 2015, Ali participated in a Cornell SJP march and “die-in” protest during Hillel’s Israel Day at Cornell. Protesters lay on the floor, simulating corpses, in front of Hillel's Israel Day tables, while holding a banner that read: “Celebrating 67 years of Independence Genocide.”
Ali held a sign demonizing Israel that read: “Celebrating Genocide,” while another demonstrator held a sign that read: “Celebrating Apartheid.”
In November 2014, Ali participated in an anti-Israel protest organized by Cornell SJP.
On November 19, 2014, Cornell SJP held an anti-Israel protest in Cornell’s Ho Plaza.
Cornell SJP organized the demonstration the day after six people were murdered by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) operatives using a gun, axes, and a butcher knife during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The attack became known as the Har Nof Massacre.
During the protest, Kat Yang Stevens, a professional anti-Israel agitator, verbally assaulted [00:00:09] a group of pro-Israel students. Stevens repeatedly taunted [00:00:34] one student, saying: “Go ahead, slap me, b**ch, slap me” and [00:01:52] “Shut your f**king pie-hole.” Stevens also yelled [00:01:32]: “Aggression will be met with aggression.”
One of the anti-Israel demonstrators told [00:00:07] the pro-Israel students: “F**k you, Zionist scum.” Other slurs and insults reportedly used by Cornell SJP activists during the assault were: “Apartheid is f**king apartheid” and “There’s no logic to Zionism.”
Pro-Israeli students reported that Cornell SJP activists ripped one of their signs and smeared ketchup on another.
Cornell SJP activists also placed posters condemning Cornell’s partnership with the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) throughout the campus, including a placard hung in front of the entrance to Cornell’s Ho Plaza that read: “C / #1 IN / FUNDING APARTHEID / END CORNELL + TECHNION / SUPPORT BDS / FREE PALESTINE.”
On November 21, 2014, Cornell SJP posted a photo of Ali and another anti-Israel activist taken during the protest to their Facebook page. Ali held a banner that condemned Cornell’s relationship with the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, suggesting they were “engineering Oppression.”
The banner also urged a boycott of Sabra, an Israeli-owned food company, as well as other companies providing Israel with security-related products.
Cornell SJP has dismissed anti-Semitism, supported anti-Israel violence, and whitewashed terrorists. The student group has also disrupted Israel Day campus events multiple times, demonized Israel, and campaigned for the BDS movement.
Cornell SJP activists wrote an anti-Israel statement and presented it at Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA) in May 2021.
Cornell SJP created its Facebook page on April 25, 2013.
On August 20, 2014, Cornell SJP tweeted: “Arrest of Odeh is part of the systematic criminalization of Palestinian organizing #Justice4Rasmea.”
Rasmea Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08] 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 November 6, 2014, Cornell SJP tweeted: “Cornell SJP is in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh!” accompanied by a link to their statement titled: “Justice For Rasmea Odeh, Justice For Palestine.”
In their statement, Cornell SJP claimed that Israel detained Odeh “on a spurious accusation of terrorism” and added: “Rasmea Odeh is the type of citizen that American leaders should be honoring.”
On March 16, 2015, Cornell SJP posted to Facebook and Instagram: “#justiceforrasmea #CornellSJP #resistance #freepalestine” and attached a photo of Cornell SJP activists holding a large banner that read: “Justice for Rasmea.”
Cornell SJP also posted a blog post to their WordPress titled: “Justice Denied: Rasmea Odeh Sentenced To Prison And Subsequent Deportation” that condemned the U.S. court’s decision to sentence and deport Odeh and labeled the decision “the repression of Palestinian activists.”
On May 2, 2017, Cornell’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, reported that Cornell SJP disrupted Cornell Hillel’s Israeli Independence Day celebration in Anabel Taylor Hall by holding a “die-in” protest in the middle of the event.
Cornell SJP activists were granted entrance to the event venue after they assured campus police they would not disrupt the Hillel event. However, within minutes of entering the hall, four members of Cornell SJP held up a sign that read: “Celebrating 69 years of Genocide,” while others handed out flyers or lay on the floor, simulating corpses.
Cornell SJP members reportedly distributed flyers that said: “the modern day Jewish state was founded on the expulsion of the indigenous population.”
On February 12, 2018, Cornell SJP held a protest rally on behalf of anti-Israel agitator Ahed Tamimi, calling for her release from Israeli detention. During the event, protesters held signs that said: “Free Ahed,” “Free Palestine” and “Israeli Occupation is Apartheid.”
Ahed Tamimi, who has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers, was detained after she was filmed punching and kicking Israeli soldiers. She is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is notorious for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.
On February 21, 2018, Cornell SJP hosted a “letter writing for Ahed Tamimi” event. That same day, Cornell SJP posted to Facebook: “Letter writing for Ahed Tamimi happening right now on Ho Plaza! Stop by anytime before 4pm!!”
Later that day, Cornell SJP posted to Facebook: “Thank you for all of you who stopped by to write some words of support in solidarity with Ahed Tamimi, who has become the symbol of the Palestinian resistance headed the youth and children against the occupation and apartheid in Palestinian Lands.”
In February 2019, Cornell SJP launched an anti-Israel divestment campaign, calling on the University to divest from Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and any companies that Cornell SJP claimed “profit directly from Israeli military occupation.”
Cornell SJP members tried to [00:23:03] deny that the resolution was part of the larger BDS movement, a tactic encouraged [00:58:53] by BDS founder Omar Barghouti. Cornell senators also used a secret ballot to vote on the bill, which ultimately failed to pass.
In October 2019, Cornell SJP moved to direct confrontation, disrupting the quarterly meeting of Cornell’s Board of Trustees and calling on the Board to “sever ties” with the Technion. Cornell SJP also called to eliminate the Board’s power of discretion in investments in “the occupation of Palestine.”
In February 2019, Cornell SJP launched an anti-Israel divestment campaign, introducing and pushing S.A. Resolution 36, “Urging Cornell to Divest from Companies Profiting from the Occupation of Palestine and Human Rights Violation.”
Cornell SJP’s resolution called on Cornell to divest from Cornell Tech’s partnership with the Technion. Cornell Tech is Cornell’s technology, business, law and design campus.
Cornell SJP also called on the university to divest from Tata Motors, Ingersoll-Rand, Raytheon, G4S, Hewlett-Packard and any other companies SJP Cornell claimed “profit directly from Israeli military occupation.”
Cornell SJP also said: “We will publicly name endowment investments…and hold university leadership responsible for complicity in crimes of apartheid.”
On February 18, 2019, Cornell SJP delivered a letter to Cornell’s President Martha Pollack, calling on the University to “divest from companies profiting from morally reprehensible human rights violations in Palestine.”
On April 11, 2019, Cornell SJP presented its divestment initiative to Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA). During the discussion, Mahfuza Shovik, a resolution sponsor, denied [00:23:03] the resolution was part of the BDS movement.
SA senators used a secret ballot to vote in favor of the resolution, but the resolution failed to pass after a “community vote” (SA by-laws, section 7) was cast.
SJP is the leading 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, who has spread anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campus campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks and pushing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, and SJP chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for terrorists.
