Avigyle Carmeli
Overview
Avigyle Carmeli (Ava Carmeli) has called for the end of Zionism, demonized Israel, participated in anti-Israel activity and supported the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Movement (BDS).In 2012, Carmeli was the president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), while a student at Ithaca College (Ithaca). As of 2019, Carmeli was a member of the Syracuse Peace Council (SPC) board.
Carmeli gained notoriety in 2019 for publicly suggesting [00:00:40] the use of violence to “fight against Zionism” was “the answer for some people” and announcing [00:03:30] “I think Zionism needs to end. There can’t be a Zionist state; I think it’s really wrong.“
As of February 2019, Carmeli’s LinkedIn page said she was a manager at Pewter Spoon Cafe in Cazenovia, NY.
Her LinkedIn also said that Carmeli graduated from Ithaca College in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Radio and Television.
Carmeli has used the name “Ava” on Facebook and other social media.
Calling for the End of Zionism
Carmeli attended an SPC event on January 22, 2019, called: “Palestine: Behind the Wall.”The Facebook event description said: “We'll discuss the Israeli's military's systematic ill-treatment of Palestinian children through detention and imprisonment and learn from one another about actions we can take... Other topics covered may include BDS, the crippling blockade of Gaza and recent Great March of Return movement.”
Speakers and attendees at the event were filmed by a pro-Israel watchdog group. During the talk, Carmeli said: [00:00:41] “I think Zionist [sic] is a racist ideology” and that [00:00:47] "I am not a violent person and I don't really condone violence, but I think that fighting a racist ideology and sometimes with violence might be the answer for some people."
Carmeli also said [00:01:23]: “I think Palestinians can do whatever they decide to do and whatever they see fit” and [00:03:00] “I don’t think there should be a country or a state for only Jewish people. She concluded by saying [00:03:31] “I think Zionism needs to end. There can’t be a Zionist state. That’s just really wrong.”
Another attendee maintained (00:00:17) that Hamas has done “a lot of good for Palestinians” while still another quoted anti-Israel professor Norman Finkelstein in asserting Palestinians “actually have a right to use violence.”
Demonizing Israel
On May 15, 2016, Carmeli reportedly spoke at an SPC event called: “Nakba: Then and Now.” Carmeli was scheduled to talk about a “November 2015 Olive Harvest delegation to Occupied Palestine” and “about the continuing Nakba, which if left unchecked, the land grabs by Israel and violence against the Palestinian people which to fulfill the goal of many early and present-day Zionists of an exclusively Jewish homeland.”The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
On March 8, 2012, a president of SJP, Carmeli wrote an article for Ithaca’s campus newspaper, titled: “Israel Independence Day event poses much historical controversy.”
In her article, Carmeli said that when she grew up in Israel and celebrated Israel Independence Day: “There were musical performances, dancing, games and fireworks. There was, however, no mention of the history behind the day.”
She went on to claim: “When the state of Israel was created, 700,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and forced to flee to make room for the incoming Jewish population.” And alleged that those on campus who celebrate Israel Independence “probably do not know of the atrocities surrounding Israeli independence.”
Carmeli also announced: “Students for Justice in Palestine will be present at this event in protest to remind those in attendance of…the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.”
On April 26, 2012, Carmeli tweeted: “Israel is an apartheid state #israelday.”
The same day, Carmeli tweeted: “Israel displaced over 700,000 Palestinians #israelday.”
Anti-Israel Activity
As of 2019, Carmeli was a member of the SPC board. SPC is listed as one of 14 “internship sites” granting college credits to students from Syracuse University. It is under fire for promoting “the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign.”In April 2018, the group “was involved in the disruption of an on-campus speech by an Israeli diplomat and critics charge the group “has been engaged in a troubling pattern of virulent anti-Israel and in some cases antisemitic, activism” and should no longer be included in a university-sanctioned and accredited program.
Carmeli indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an event co-sponsored by the SPC, called: “No Good Morning, No Good Night: Witnessing the Ongoing Nakba in Palestine” on September 16, 2018.
The SPC’s description said the event featured four members of the anti-Israel SPC discussing “their recent visit to the West Bank, and their accounts of occupation, oppression, and popular resistance to the ongoing Nakba in Palestine.”
Carmeli indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an SPC event on July 12, 2018, called: “Ice Cream Social - Fundraiser for Children of Gaza!” The event’s Facebook description said the goal of the event was to “fundraise for the Women's Boat to Gaza...The Women's Boat to Gaza is a Freedom Flotilla which seeks to challenge the blockade and highlight the strength of Palestinian women in the struggle for justice.”
The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
On February 18, 2018, Carmeli tweeted: “Join me& @occupyaipac in DC to counter #AIPAC w/ creative actions, speakers &more! http://occupyaipac.org #occupyAIPAC #Palestine.”
Occupy AIPAC is co-organized by anti-Israel groups such as: CODEPINK and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO), which is a coalition of anti-Israel NGOs.
It is a “weekend long series of events to put a spotlight on the abusive practices” of AIPAC because they have “a dangerous stranglehold over U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East” and give “unrelenting support for the illegal policies of the Israeli government.”
On March 7, 2014, Carmeli traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the “Summit to Reassess the Special Relationship between the US and Israel” as a representative of Central New Yorkers Working for a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel (CNY WJPPI), a part of the SPC.
The summit was co-organized by If Americans Knew (IAK).
On June 9, 2012, Carmeli was featured in a photo posted to Facebook posted by SJP at an event called: “Protest at Israel ‘Independence’ day.” In the photo, Carmeli was dressed in all black, wearing a keffiyeh and placing a piece of masking tape with the letters “IDF” on her mouth and carried a sign that said: “Remember the Nakba”.
Other students wore tape across their mouths with the words “U$” and “Apartheid” while others carried signs that said: “Stop Israeli war crimes.”
On March 6, 2012, Carmeli was featured in a Facebook photo from her SJP chapter, that showed Carmeli leading a crowd in anti-Israel chants at “Occupy AIPAC.” The photo's caption read: “Ava uses the Mic to lead the group in chants against war with Iran and for the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
On March 5, 2012, Cameli tweeted: “#OccupyAIPAC this weekend. Move over AIPAC.”
Support for BDS
On August 7, 2017 Carmeli signed a change.org petition urging U.S. Senator from New York Kirsten Gillibrand to “rescind her sponsorship of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act,” claiming “it seeks to criminalize support for the Palestinian call to boycott” and compared the call for BDS in Israel to that of the boycott against apartheid South Africa.The Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.720/H.R. 1697) declared that U.S. policy opposed a March 24, 2016 UN Human Rights Council Resolution which called to boycott and divest from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
On July 5, 2014, Carmeli posted a graphic on Facebook that said: “Stop Israel’s Human Rights Abuses. Boycott Israel Now.”
On April 27, 2012, Carmeli tweeted: “Hey #globies Don't support apartheid.” Her tweet was part of a BDS campaign to pressure the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team to cancel a scheduled trip to Israel. The campaign page urged people to
“Contact:http://twitter.com/#!/globies.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/628676976Twitter:https://twitter.com/AvaCarmeli
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/avigyle-carmeli-b8a04579/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/carmeliava/ [Private]
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
