Ayman Mehai
Overview
In 2019, Mehai was affiliated with the UMD Organization of Arab Students (OAS). In an April 24, 2019 Instagram post, Mehai indicated that he was a member of the “campus community” at UMD.
Promoting BDS
On April 24, 2019, Mehai was featured [03:14:01] in a video posted on Facebook by theUMD Student Government Association (SGA), urging the SGA to pass a BDS bill. The bill was launched by Divest UMD.Divest UMD is a campaign that calls on UMD to divest from companies that do business with Israel.
In the video, Mehai said [03:14:06]: “So perhaps one way this may affect us, divesting from certain companies that is... that this bill may have impacts to our professional lives in the near future, and here’s the opportunity.”
Mehai continued [03:14:16]: “We do not lose by divesting, but UMD gains new opportunities to invest elsewhere. New careers, new internships and new fields of studies. With divestment comes reinvestment, creation, growth, hardship and ease.
On April 25, 2019, Divest UMD announced on Facebook that following a UMD student government meeting to vote on the Divest UMD BDS bill held a day earlier, the bill failed with “a vote of 9 for, 25 against, and 2 abstentions.”
On April 24, 2019, Mehai wrote on Instagram: “#DivestUMD #BDS Tomorrow 5pm Stamp Colony Ballroom!!! #DivestUMD is a campaign initiated by UMD's students, faculty, and organizations calling for the University of Maryland to remove its investments from companies that commit or profit off of human rights violations. We the campus community call on our leaders to commit to the principles of freedom, justice, and equality for all human beings. #DivestUMD has assembled a list of entities that are complicit in egregious abuses of human rights; now is the time to stand with oppressed groups across the globe in order to bring about a better world for all.”
The post featured a promotional video produced by Divest UMD.
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.
- Status:
- Unknown
- University:
- Maryland
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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