Brant Roberts

Overview

Brant Roberts has expressed support for terrorists and defended terror financiers. He has disrupted campus events, demonized Israel, and glorified violent protesters.

Roberts has also promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In June 2018, Roberts was a trainer for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) members and in April 2018, Roberts was reportedly the Public Relations Chair for SJP at the University of Houston (UH).

In April 2017, Roberts was reportedly the 2016 Director of Public Relations for SJP UH.

Roberts 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.”

Roberts also co-organized the 2017 National SJP Conference at UH.

As of October 2017, Roberts’ Facebook page said he was majoring in World History at UH and studying World History/Politics, English and Russian Literature and French, from January 19, 2016 to 2018. In May 2018, Roberts indicated on Twitter that he was “graduating.”

Roberts said in a January 14, 2019 tweet that he was “in this transition period between undergrad and law school” and on January 18, 2019 he tweeted that he was studying for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT).

Expressing Support for Terrorists

On April 20, 2018, Roberts tweeted: “Using Kanafani to explain ideology.” The tweet featured a photo of Roberts with a slide projected onto a screen behind him that featured Ghassan Kanafani.

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.

As of November 28, 2016, Roberts set an image of Leila Khaled as his Twitter cover photo.

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

On May 6, 2014, Roberts tweeted: “F**k that sh*t! I support what the PFLP & PLO [Palestine Liberation Organization] have done in their cause to free the Palestinians.”

Defending Terror Financiers

Roberts retweeted a November 24, 2018 tweet by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) that read: “10 years ago today, 5 Palestinian-Americans who were pillars of their communities were convicted on false charges of “providing material support for terrorism” https://bit.ly/2OVtahj #FreeTheHLF5 #10YearsTooLong #FreePalestine #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners.”

The Holy Land Five (HL5) were five individuals associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) indicted for funneling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid. The men were all convicted and sentenced in 2009 to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.

Disrupting Campus Events

On May 22, 2018, SJP activists, including [00:02:17] Roberts and disrupted a speech given by then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

Mid-speech, Mohammed Fattouh, an SJP UH activist, shouted [00:00:11] “Nikki Haley! The blood is on your hands! You continue to sign off on the genocide of a native people! You are an accomplice to terrorists and colonizers.”

Another SJP UH activist led protestors in chanting [00:00:25] “Nikki Nikki can’t you see? You allowed a killing spree” as well as [00:00:33] “Haley Haley you can’t hide, you signed off on genocide!” and [00:00:56] “Nikki Haley you will see, Palestine will be free!”

After security officials escorted them out of the auditorium, SJP UH protestors chanted [00:01:55] “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.

On November 3, 2017, Roberts led a crowd of SJP activists who disrupted a lecture at the University of Houston (UH) given by David Horowitz.

SJP activists stood up and yelled [00:07:04] at Horowitz: “Zionists! Off our campus! Racists! Off our campus! Islamophobes! Off our campus!” and walked out of the lecture hall, as they continued to chant.

The protesters included members of other campus organizations that comprised the Cougar Voice Coalition (CVC), such as the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), United Muslim Relief (UMR) Houston and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) Houston.

Following the disruption, Roberts accused [00:06:55] Israel of ethnically cleansing Palestinians and claimed [00:06:48] that Horowitz “targeted” SJP UH because the group promotes BDS. Roberts urged [00:07:30] the crowd to support BDS and to “pressure” UH to “sign a divestment bill” to boycott [00:06:58] Israel and divest [00:07:04] from companies that allegedly “profit from ethnic cleansing.”

Demonizing Israel

On May 29, 2018, Roberts tweeted: “Israel...it's a settler-colonial state founded on the ethnic-cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians, not some bastion of freedom defending itself from terrorism.”

On May 24, 2018, Roberts tweeted: “I hope there was some time for self-criticism after inviting Nikki Haley to UH. #NikkiSidesWithGenocide.”

Robert’s tweet embedded a tweet by UH President Renu Khator, that read: “Board of Regents’ retreat/orientation starts in few minutes. Regents’ day-long meeting tomorrow with budget and salary raise on agenda!”

On April 27, 2018, Roberts wrote an article published in UH’s student newspaper, The Cougar that demonized Israel. Roberts wrote that Palestinians “have faced waves of ethnic-cleansing by Israel” and are living “under an apartheid regime” with “shootings of innocent Palestinians occurring on a daily basis.”

On April 12, 2018, Roberts tweeted: “There is no other way to deal with moderates. You're either down with Palestine or you're complicit in ethnic-cleansing and apartheid. That's it. Its not open for discussion.”

On April 12, 2018, Roberts posed for group photos next to a “mock apartheid wall,” meant to represent Israel’s security barrier, posted on Facebook by SJP UH. The wall at UH, meant to represent Israel’s security barrier, demonized Israel.

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

Roberts co-authored an article published in The Cougar on April 11, 2018, with fellow SJP activists Dina Hamadi and Sarah Tawashy. The article was titled: “Roundtable: How is the US involved in Palestinian ethnic cleansing?”

In the article, Roberts wrote: “I highly encourage my fellow students read ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ by Ilan Pappé.”

In 2011, Pappé was discredited as “one of the world’s sloppiest historians; at worst, one of the most dishonest” by fellow historian Benny Morris.

On March 26, 2018, Roberts wrote on Facebook: “The best week of the year #CoogsAgainstApartheid.” The post featured a graphic that promoted SJP UH’s Israel Apartheid Week (IAW).

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

On April 1, 2014, Roberts tweeted: “Just got 4 followers out of the blue who are big on Palestine. Y'all have my solidarity! Zionism is a disease that needs to end.”

On February 7, 2014, Roberts tweeted: “Watching this documentary on Human Organ Trafficking. Israel takes in more illegally gained organs than any other nation. F**king Zionists.”

On January 1, 2014, Roberts tweeted: “@RedAmerican Right! It's never enough for the Zionist scum of the earth... They'll get what's coming to them soon I'm sure.”

Glorifying Violent Protesters

On April 9, 2018, during the violent March of Return, Roberts wrote an article, also published in The Cougar, titled: “The Israeli definition of peace is a massacre in Gaza.”

On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The March of Return was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.

Agitators threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.

On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during a May 14 protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.

Roberts wrote: “The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) sent sharpshooters to attack peaceful Palestinian protesters who were demonstrating near the border of Gaza and Israel last friday. In total, at least 17 protesters were killed and more than 1,400 protesters were wounded. Only one word can describe the attack: massacre.”

Most of the Gazans who died between March 30 and April 6, 2018, were identified as terror operatives who were killed while carrying out terrorist attacks, rioting against IDF forces or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Roberts also wrote that Israel committed: “mass-bombings of hospitals, schools, power plants and basic infrastructure in 2009, 2012 and 2015.”

Israel commenced Operations Cast Lead (OCL), Pillar of Defense (OPD) and Protective Edge (OPE) in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014, respectively, in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.

Attending the 2018 National SJP Conference

On November 19, 2018, Roberts appeared in a group photo taken during the 2018 National SJP Conference.

On October 4, 2018, Roberts tweeted: “Proposed a workshop for the SJP conference in November and I’m pretty psyched about it!”

2018 National SJP - Celebrating Violence

During the 2018 National SJP conference, anti-Israel activist Mohammed Nabulsi led the attendees in the chant [00:00:52] “Long Live the Intifada! Intifada! Intifada!”

Since the early 2000’s, the term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence. The second intifada was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.

Anti-Israel activist Omar Zahzah also reportedly [00:00:07] led National SJP attendees in chanting, in Arabic, “With our bodies and our blood, we will free Palestine.”

As of November 2018, the 2018 National SJP website glorified “radical hope and upfront defiance of Zionism,” citing as examples the “early revolts through the Intifadas to the Great Return March.”

The Great Return March of 2018 was organized and funded by the terror group Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

Tens of thousands of rioters gathered on Israel’s Gaza border, attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with leaders andparticipants declaring their intention to harm Jews.

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

On October 27, 2018, National SJP said the kite signified “the power in the Gaza March of Return.”

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.

2018 National SJP - Undermining U.S. Support for Israel

On November 18, 2018, the US Palestine Community Network (USPCN) posted on Facebook the 2018 National SJP keynote speech by Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN’s co-founder.

Abudayyeh has supported [00:08:45] convicted terrorists, praised terror organizations, called for Israel’s destruction and is an activist in theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In his 2018 National SJP Keynote, Abudayyeh said [00:53:01] that the “specific role” of Palestinian and Arab students was to organize [00:53:42] in order to weaken “Zionist Israel” and force [00:54:23] the U.S. to “no longer provide it with diplomatic, political, financial and military cover and support.”

Abudayyeh predicted [00:55:37] that once U.S. support to Israel ends, National SJP attendees would return to Palestine as “conquering heroes,” end [00:54:38] the “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands including the Golan Heights” and replace “Zionist Israel” with a Palestinian state.

2018 National SJP - Whitewashing Terror Organizations

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh also painted [00:14:01] terrorist organizations as “liberation movements” and “resistance organizations,” stating [00:14:21] “what we also know is that the majority of the resistance organizations in Palestine are on the U.S. state department list of foreign terrorist organizations.”

Abudayyeh also celebrated [00:52:00] that all of the “armed resistance” organizations in Gaza are part [00:52:14] of a “unified resistance in Gaza, that includes all of the resistance organizations, working together under a unified military command.”

2018 National SJP - Defending Terrorist Rasmea Odeh

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh claimed [00:08:28] that pro-Israel organizations “go after students like you,” adding [00:08:20] “just like they went after my friend and colleague, Rasmea Odeh.”

Odeh was a key military operative 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.

Abudayyeh added that he was asked [00:08:45] to talk about Odeh’s case, and praised SJP and SDS students who organized [00:09:15] “absolutely valuable” events on behalf [00:9:11] of Odeh, “as she was fighting to stay in the U.S.”

2018 National SJP - Demonizing Israel and Jews

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh defended [00:27:25] the “Irvine 11” — eleven Muslim Student Union (MSA) members who were arrested in 2010 for repeatedly shouting down former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren during an address at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine).

Abudayyeh referred [00:27:37] to Oren as a “racist fascist speaker, representative of a racist, fascist country.”

Abudayyeh went on to claim [00:29:48] that “today, even in the United States, Israel is finally being seen as the criminal, apartheid, racist state that it is.”

Abudayyeh also called for increased action in the face of President U.S. Donald Trump, and referred [00:48:41] to Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior advisor, as “that pig son-in-law of his.”

2018 National SJP - Excluding Students

The 2018 National SJP Conference welcomed only students who were verified and vouched for by an SJP (or otherwise named campus Palestine solidarity group). Media requests needed to be “approved by the NSJP press team” prior to the conference.

A November 7, 2018 Columbus Jewish News article reported that the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on UCLA to cancel the 2018 NSJP conference, stating that a “public university should not allow any group to implement a litmus test for event participation on their campus.”

On November 12, 2018, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that criticized National SJP’s exclusion of members of pro-Israel student groups.

Attending the 2017 National SJP Conference

On November 2, 2017, Roberts was acknowledged as a co-organizer of the 2017 National SJP Conference.

The 2017 National SJP Conference was held October 27-29, 2017 in Houston, TX. The conference was themed “A Reimagined World: Dismantling Walls from Palestine to the Rio Grande.” Per the National Students for SJP 2017 Conference website, the conference aimed to strengthen “collaborative efforts within all regions to pass BDS” and envision “pathways to achieving sanctions in the future.”

Roberts wrote in the 2017 National SJP Conference April newsletter that his “assignment” as SJP UH’s Director of Public Relations was to “form a coalition of student organizations on campus,” because “the only chance we have to pass BDS is to work with other organizations and work in their struggles as well.”

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.