Ayesha Khan

Overview

Ayesha Khan has demonized United States-Israel cooperation and was a campus activist within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. She served as the 2015 external affairs director for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Khan also attended the 2018 National SJP Conference.

The 2018 National SJP conference was held on November 16-18, 2018 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The conference was themed “Radical Hope: Resistance in the Face of Adversity.” The conference website stated: “[t]he reason we can have hope is that Zionism...can be destroyed.”

Khan was also an organizer for the 2017 National SJP Conference, held October 27-29, 2017 in Houston, TX and attended the 2016 SJP National Conference, held at George Mason University (GMU) in November of 2016.

On August 24, 2018, Khan indicated on Facebook that she was the Media Relations Coordinator with the Association of Minority Biomedical Researchers (AMBR) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).

As of February 2019, Khan’s LinkedIn page said she was pursuing a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at UTHealth, since August 2015. Her LinkedIn also said she was a 2015 graduate of UCLA, from which she received a bachelor’s degree in Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics.

As of September 2019, Khan used the name “Eye-sha Can” on Facebook and “A.K” on Instagram.

Demonizing US-Israel Cooperation

On January 20, 2019, Kahn heavily quoted from and shared on Facebook a New York Times opinion piece titled: “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.”

The piece claimed: “[US] elected representatives, who operate in a political environment where Israel's political lobby holds well-documented power” and Israel has: “adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.”

The piece promoted anti-Israel organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), and IfNotNow (INN).

On July 18, 2018, Khan shared a JVP post on Facebook praising Teen Vogue for publishing an article titled: “How Policing in the U.S. and Security in Israel Are Connected.”

Khan also quoted the article: “‘American law enforcement and Israeli military and law enforcement share more than similar modes of policing; they share responsibility for what many perceive are numerous human rights abuses and civil rights violations.’”

In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange (DX)” campaign, which accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] U.S.-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.

Promoting BDS

In 2014, Khan served on SJP’s “divestment committee” when the chapter proposed and wrote a student government resolution titled: “A Resolution to Divest from Companies Engaged in Violence against Palestinians.”

The resolution, co-sponsored by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the Muslim Students

Association (MSA) called on the UC Regents to pull funding from five companies doing business with Israel, including Caterpillar, Cemex, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), General Electric (GE), and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The resolution claimed that they “provided weapons used” by Israel “in attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,” and that investment in these companies “shows implicit support” for “the killings of civilians.”

On November 18, 2014, the undergraduate student government adopted the divestment resolution with a vote of 8-2-2.

On September 14, 2018, Khan posted to Facebook celebrating NY State Senator Julia Salazar’s securing the Democratic nomination in the race for the 18th District. Khan called Salazar: “An incredible candidate...pro BDS movement.”

Attending the 2018 National SJP Conference

Kahn extensively promoted the 2018 National SJP Conference on Facebook.

On October 28, 2018 Kahn promoted the 2018 National SJP Conference and described the convention’s newly released logo as “The California Bear, the kites to signify the power in the Gaza March of Return, the Kuffiyeh, and the birds of freedom leading our way with radical hope towards liberation for all and a Free Palestine.”

2018 National SJP originally promoted a conference logo featuring a keffiyeh-wearing bear, looking toward a kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag.

Since March 2018, March of Return participants and Hamas’s “Kite Unit” have sent hundreds of kites bearing incendiary devices and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) across the border into Israel to terrorize Israelis. The kites are often marked with swastikas.

By the time National SJP produced its 2018 conference logo highlighting the kites in October 2018, Gazan terror kites and balloons had ignited more than 1,300 fires in Israel, over seven months.

On October 30, 2017, Kahn promoted the upcoming 2018 National SJP Conference on Facebook, and encouraged her followers to suggest a workshop, register and donate.

On November 19, 2018, Kahn posed in a group photo taken at the 2018 National SJP Conference, and posted the photo to Facebook, adding: “We did that. Thank you and let’s continue to build.National SJP ❤️.”

On November 22, 2018, Khan posed for a photo with fellow 2018 National SJP Conference steering committee members.

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.