Bayan Nada

Overview

Bayan Nada [Bayaan Muhammed] spread incitement as an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at San Jose State University (SJP at SJSU) in 2014. Nada has also expressed support for the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and she endorsed an anti-Israel agitator.

Nada supported a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement campaign in 2015 that was organized by SJP at SJSU.

In May 2015, Nada was affiliated with the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) chapter of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), an anti-Israel organization.

As of October 2021, Nada’s LinkedIn page said she was a “User Experience Researcher” at SAP Ariba, a software and information technology services company in Palo Alto, California, since August 2017.

Also as of October 2021, Nada’s LinkedIn page said she received a master’s degree in Human Factors and Ergonomics Engineering from SJSU in 2016 and a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from SJSU in 2013.

Nada went by the name “Bayaan Muhammed” on Facebook from 2012 to 2015. As of October 2021, Nada used the name “Bayan M.” on LinkedIn.

Spreading Incitement

Nada was listed as a co-host on a Facebook event page for a November 21, 2014, SJP at SJSU event, titled: “Hands off Al Aqsa and Palestine.”

In the fall of 2014, Palestinian leaders and media incited a wave of violence against Israelis with the lie that Israel intended to desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. This resulted in the November 18, 2014 Har Nof massacre, in which terrorists murdered six people in a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers.

On November 19, 2014, Nada promoted the event to Facebook and wrote: “Salam [Hi everyone], Students for Justice in Palestine at SJSU will be having a protest this Friday to protest Israeli restrictions on Prayer in Masjid Al Aqsa…Please come out and join us.”

According to a November 23, 2014 article, Abid El-Miaari, the co-founder of SJP at SJSU, led the group to San Jose City Hall and presented the Mayor’s office with a “list of demands.” One of the demands was for the U.S. government to “stop its complicity with the violations of international law by ending U.S. military aid to Israel."

At the march, activists reportedly chanted: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.

Support for Muslim Brotherhood

On August 19, 2013, Nada posted to Facebook a Muslim Brotherhood (MB) symbol called the “R4BIA.”

The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is a transnational Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928. It was designated as a terrorist organization by Egypt (2013), Saudi Arabia (2014), the United Arab Emirates (2014) and Bahrain (2017). Among its offshoots is Hamas, a terrorist group dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

Endorsing an Anti-Israel Agitator

On November 11, 2015, Nada promoted to Facebook an AMP event titled: “A Night with Palestinians in Gaza.” The event featured anti-Israel agitator Mads Gilbert as a speaker.

Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership.

In 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 Gilbert was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site. During that time he acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza.

In 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert expressed support for the terror acts as a “legitimate response.” In December of 2009, Gilbert was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

Nada wrote in the same November 2015 post: “He is an amazing human being who has worked as a volunteer Doctor in Gaza for 10 years and will be sharing his experiences including those from last summer's attack. Try your best to come out. Please share and spread the word!”

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Anti-Israel Activism

On July 20, 2014, during OPE, Nada appeared and was tagged in a Facebook photo, standing at the front of an anti-Israel protest. She held up a sign that read: “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”

Nada was listed as an attendee for a November 12, 2014, SJP at SJSU event titled, “Dr. Steven Salaita: Academic Freedom and Palestine.”

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Steven Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: “You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”

The event page description for the Salaita event claimed: “Infuriated by Israel's 50 day assault on Gaza this past summer... professor Steven Salaita decided to speak out via Twitter. Unfortunately, Dr. Salaita's right to free speech was violated.”

On May 27, 2015, Nada appeared in an AMP-Bay Area Facebook group photo where she was listed as one of the “volunteers on the night of our AMP AIQuds Fundraiser.” The photo also featured anti-Israel activist Taher Herzallah.

Herzallah is the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). He has expressed support for violence against Israeli Jews, spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory and posted pro-terrorist imagery to social media.

Nada was listed as an attendee for an October 21, 2015, SJP at SJSU event titled “David Sheen - The Bullet, the Ballot, & the Boycott: Racism in Israel Today.”

David Sheen is an anti-Israel activist and filmmaker who works to portray Israel as an extremist racist state. To this end, Sheen has been accused of purposefully mistranslating Hebrew articles and other media to make Israelis appear racist.

The Facebook event page description said: “The core of the presentation concerns the dehumanizing discourse towards Palestinians… by top Israeli political and religious leaders, and the vigilante attacks they inspire, which spiked during last summer's assault on the Gaza Strip.”

Supporting BDS

On October 30, 2015, Nada promoted SJP at SJSU’s divestment campaign on Facebook. The campaign was promoted using the hashtag “#SJSUDivest.”

The BDS resolution, titled “15/16-01 In Support of Divestment from Companies That Profit from the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories,” called on the Board of Directors of the Tower Foundation to divest SJSU’s holdings in a number of companies doing business with Israel.

According to SJSU’s website, the Tower Foundation assists with the investments and banking of all “SJSU philanthropic donations.”

The BDS resolution claimed that the listed companies violated international humanitarian law by: “Maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation… Facilitating Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians… Facilitating state repression against Palestinians by Israeli security forces.”

The resolution was submitted by El-Miaari to SJSU’s University Affairs Committee of the Associated Students (A.S.) and it was endorsed by 27 other SJSU student groups.

On November 4, 2015, the resolution was approved with a vote of5-2-0 in the University Affairs Committee, making the resolution move on to the A.S. Board of Directors.

On November 18, 2015, Nada attended the “SJSU Divestment Hearing and Vote” held by the A.S. Board of Directors. The resolution passed with a 10-5-0 vote, reportedly making SJSU the first campus in the CSU system to pass a divestment measure.

On the same date, Nada was tagged as “Bayan MN”in a Facebook post, posing with fellow SJP activists holding a sign that read “SJSUDIVEST.” The Facebook post read: “We are literally making history. SJSU is the FIRST CSU to pass the divestment. I am so happy to be a part of this moment. Alhamdulilah [praise be to God].”

On December 15, 2015, Board Members of SJSU’s Tower Foundation unanimously rejected the divestment resolution.

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.

AMP

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was founded by UC Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian as a vehicle to generate mainstream support in the United States for the Palestinian national cause.

On its website, the organization lists Bazian as the chairman of its national board and describes itself as “a national education and grassroots-based organization, dedicated to educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused AMP of promoting “extreme anti-Israel views and has at times provided a platform for anti-Semitism under the guise of educating Americans” about Palestinians. The ADL further stated that AMP is directly involved in campus-based anti-Israel activity through Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Prior to founding the AMP in 2006, Dr. Bazian created SJP together with fellow UC Berkeley Professor Snehal Shingavi in 2001. The close working relationship between AMP and SJP has been documented several times over the years by several organizations, including NGO Monitor and StandWithUs.

In addition to providing financial, public relations and legal assistance to SJP, AMP has also been accused of having connections to Hamas. The AMP national board includes former members of both the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) and Holy Land Foundation (HLF), both of which were found liable for aiding and abetting Hamas. The IAP was founded by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas.

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.