Chandni Desai
Chandni Desai glorified the Hamas terrorism of October 7, 2023. Desai has also denied Hamas atrocities and expressed support for terrorists. She has spread hatred of Israel online and in the classroom as a professor at the University of Toronto (UofT).
Desai attended an event at the pro-Hamas student encampment at UofT in June 2024. She also showed support for the encampment in May 2024.
Desai attended an event at the pro-Hamas student encampment at UofT in June 2024. She also showed support for the encampment in May 2024.
Desai is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of January 2024, Desai had been an activist with Faculty For Palestine Canada (F4P Canada), since 2014. She was listed as an organizer for the group in 2021.
As of May 2024, Desai served on the steering committee for the “Hearing Palestine” initiative at U of T, where she was an assistant professor of “Academic Programs in Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity.” Hearing Palestine states its mission is to “Provide an intellectual hub for the study of Palestine.”
In 2023, Desai was affiliated with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). She was also affiliated with PYM from 2019 to 2020.
In 2019, Desai was reportedly a member of the International Israeli Apartheid Week Coordinating Committee and a co-founding member of the University of Toronto Divestment Campaign (UofT Divest).
In 2014, Desai was a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at U of T. SAIA is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Desai was affiliated with the SAIA chapter at the U of T St. George campus in 2018 and 2021.
Desai hosted the Liberation Pedagogy Podcast from June 2020 to March 2021.
As of April 2024, Desai’s LinkedIn said she was located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The tweet said: “Palestinians break into separation fence w/Israel, dozens of Israelis captured and brought into Gaza... In 2011, Israel released 1,027 prisoners for an Israeli soldier, many here see this as a rare chance for +550 Palestinians sentenced to life to be released in a similar deal.”
Desai also retweeted an October 7, 2023 tweet that said: “Malcolm X: ‘You don't get freedom peacefully. Freedom is never safeguarded peacefully. Anyone who is depriving you of freedom isn’t deserving of a peaceful approach by the ones who are being deprived of their freedom.’”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
Denial of the Hamas war crimes of October 7, 2023, among anti-Israel activists has been likened to Holocaust denial among neo-Nazis.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas raped women next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways.
Desai retweeted an October 10, 2023 tweet that claimed: “The Israeli army has now said it has no information to confirm that ‘Hamas beheaded babies.’”
Hamas terrorists murdered Israeli Jewish babies during its October 7, 2023, terror attacks. Some of the babies were beheaded and some were murdered in front of their parents.
The second intifada (2000-2005) was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
The ceremony was organized by UofT Occupy for Palestine, which according to their Instagram is a body of “Students calling for divestment from entities sustaining the attacks on Gaza + the occupation, apartheid, and illegal settlements of Palestine.”
On May 2, 2024, UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) activists “stormed down” fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas and pro-BDS encampment called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.” Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. Activists chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
After the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle -
- became a Hamas symbol. It appeared on large signs at the encampment and was featured in other encampment-related activism. Openly pro-Hamas marches began elsewhere in the city and ended at the encampment. In one incident, pro-Hamas activists punched a Jewish man, stole his Israeli flag and shouted anti-Semitic slurs.
Protesters occupied [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT warning they were trespassing. On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at UofT’s request, requiring the encampment to be cleared. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote a statement that ended: “Long live the intifada.”
Desai also showed support for the encampment by signing on to a statement put out by UofT community members in May 2024 [row 21, third photo]. The May 20, 2024 statement was part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The statement backed all the encampment’s demands, including divesting from the alleged “apartheid policies of the state of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
To show support, Desai submitted a “support selfie,” where text beside her face said: “DISCLOSE. DIVEST. CUT TIES.”
University Website 2:https://utoronto.academia.edu/ChandniDesai
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/chandni83
Twitter:https://twitter.com/4cdesai
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/chandni.desai4/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandni-desai-65b49a1a3/
LinkedIn 2:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandni-desai-8095b176/
As of January 2024, Desai had been an activist with Faculty For Palestine Canada (F4P Canada), since 2014. She was listed as an organizer for the group in 2021.
As of May 2024, Desai served on the steering committee for the “Hearing Palestine” initiative at U of T, where she was an assistant professor of “Academic Programs in Critical Studies in Equity and Solidarity.” Hearing Palestine states its mission is to “Provide an intellectual hub for the study of Palestine.”
In 2023, Desai was affiliated with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). She was also affiliated with PYM from 2019 to 2020.
In 2019, Desai was reportedly a member of the International Israeli Apartheid Week Coordinating Committee and a co-founding member of the University of Toronto Divestment Campaign (UofT Divest).
In 2014, Desai was a member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at U of T. SAIA is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Desai was affiliated with the SAIA chapter at the U of T St. George campus in 2018 and 2021.
Desai hosted the Liberation Pedagogy Podcast from June 2020 to March 2021.
As of April 2024, Desai’s LinkedIn said she was located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Glorifying the Hamas Terrorism of October 7, 2023
Desai retweeted an October 7, 2023 tweet that included a video of terrorists driving tractors through Israel’s border fence with Gaza, shouting: “Allahu Akbar [God is great]!”The tweet said: “Palestinians break into separation fence w/Israel, dozens of Israelis captured and brought into Gaza... In 2011, Israel released 1,027 prisoners for an Israeli soldier, many here see this as a rare chance for +550 Palestinians sentenced to life to be released in a similar deal.”
Desai also retweeted an October 7, 2023 tweet that said: “Malcolm X: ‘You don't get freedom peacefully. Freedom is never safeguarded peacefully. Anyone who is depriving you of freedom isn’t deserving of a peaceful approach by the ones who are being deprived of their freedom.’”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Desai signed an October 2023 statement titled: “Feminists For a Free Palestine. Stop the Genocide. End the Occupation.” The statement said: “We are for the liberation and self-determination of colonized people, without exception. We believe that colonized people have the right to choose their means of resistance, within the boundaries of international law, without exception.”
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
As of October 19, 2023, Desai was listed [no. 286] as a signatory of a statement titled: “Artists & Academics in Canada: Statement of Solidarity with Palestine.”
The statement said: “We understand that the events of this week did not occur in a vacuum…The whole world understood in the case of Ukraine that resistance to military occupation is justified. It is in fact a right guaranteed by international law. The militant reaction from Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, 2023, is a result of decades of cruel and oppressive treatment.”
The statement also accused Israel of “brutal massacres and weapons testing” and “war crimes” in Gaza. It further said: “As artists, cultural workers, and academics, we stand strong in support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and against all forms of racism and settler-colonial violence.”
On November 22, 2023, Desai tweeted: “A beautiful reflection from Mauna Kea to Gaza. / ‘Let Gaza change you’ /…@uahikea.” Desai’s tweet linked to a blog post by U of T professor Uahikea Maile that said he had a “feeling of jubilation” upon hearing of the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, which he said was part of a “liberation struggle.”
The statement said: “We understand that the events of this week did not occur in a vacuum…The whole world understood in the case of Ukraine that resistance to military occupation is justified. It is in fact a right guaranteed by international law. The militant reaction from Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, 2023, is a result of decades of cruel and oppressive treatment.”
The statement also accused Israel of “brutal massacres and weapons testing” and “war crimes” in Gaza. It further said: “As artists, cultural workers, and academics, we stand strong in support of the Palestinian struggle for freedom and against all forms of racism and settler-colonial violence.”
On November 22, 2023, Desai tweeted: “A beautiful reflection from Mauna Kea to Gaza. / ‘Let Gaza change you’ /…@uahikea.” Desai’s tweet linked to a blog post by U of T professor Uahikea Maile that said he had a “feeling of jubilation” upon hearing of the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, which he said was part of a “liberation struggle.”
Denying Hamas Atrocities
Desai retweeted an October 11, 2023 tweet that said: “...claims are circulating…re Hamas’ crimes including beheadings/rape. ISR military did not confirm such claims…”Denial of the Hamas war crimes of October 7, 2023, among anti-Israel activists has been likened to Holocaust denial among neo-Nazis.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas raped women next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways.
Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape. Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
Desai retweeted an October 10, 2023 tweet that claimed: “The Israeli army has now said it has no information to confirm that ‘Hamas beheaded babies.’”
Hamas terrorists murdered Israeli Jewish babies during its October 7, 2023, terror attacks. Some of the babies were beheaded and some were murdered in front of their parents.
Hamas is a designated terrorist organization founded in 1987 that is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing Jews. Since 2001, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and on October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped over 200 hostages, including children and the elderly.
Support For Terrorists
On May 15, 2023, Desai tweeted a video that celebrated terrorism against Israel, including [00:00:44] the second intifada and [00:01:19] rocket attacks from Gaza.The second intifada (2000-2005) was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
Desai wrote in the same May 15, 2023 tweet: “The Nakba ongoing for over 75 years…Yet, Palestinian resistance to colonialism also ongoing for over 100. #Nakba75.”
The modern State of Israel was founded 76 years earlier, in 1948.
On May 2, 2023, Desai tweeted: “
& tears flow across PS& the world as Israeli authorities murder #KhaderAdnan while in their captivity. A revolutionary that endured 12 detentions,8 yrs in prison,5 hunger strikes & his final for 87 days against unlawful colonial administrative detention, without charge or trial.”
On August 9, 2022, Desai tweeted: “Israeli occupation forces brutally invaded Nablus this morning, martyring 3 people- Ibrahim Nabulsi, Islam Sabouh, Husain Jawal- & injuring 40…Palestinians are slaughtered all over Palestine…”
Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, a “commander” of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, was known as “the lion of Nablus.” On August 9, 2022, he was killed [p. 5] in a gun battle with Israeli forces. The Brigade is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.
On May 3, 2021, Desai published an article in the Journal of Palestine Studies, titled:“Disrupting Settler-Colonial Capitalism: Indigenous Intifadas and Resurgent Solidarity from Turtle Island to Palestine.”
In the article, Desai wrote [p. 18] that the first and second intifadas emphasized “the importance of organized resistance and its ability to disrupt settler-capitalist economies, as well as the tactics and discourses—such as reconciliation and peace—used by nation-states to suppress and pacify defiant opposition.”
Desai also wrote [p. 19] that “the past fifty years” have affirmed “that our joint struggles in the form of direct action and popular resistance to disrupt settler economies are effective.” She concluded that “Activists and movements should also be mindful of…the complicity entailed in advancing colonial and neoliberal politics of recognition and peace.”
On October 22, 2020, Desai was featured in a PYM panel event titled: “Ghassan Kanafani and the Legacy of Palestinian Resistance Arts,” to “honor the legacy of Ghassan Kanafani, the…freedom fighter.”
During the October 2020 event, Desai said [01:04:31] “What would it be to hand Kanafani to also the people that we’re in solidarity with. I think that that needs to happen, you know, and I know that I try that, you know, here in the context of Toronto, and apart from the Zionist sort of narrative of terrorism and whatever, it's remarkable to see a new generation also start to relate to that.”
During the same event, Desai said [01:02:10] she had served as a judge for PYM’s annual Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship in 2019 and that she would be judging the scholarship competition again in 2020.
In the academic years 2023-2024 and 2022-2023, Desai taught a course titled “Rethinking Palestine: Colonialism, Revolution and Transnational Solidarity.”
In December 2023, Desai told the student newspaper The Varsity that the course allowed for the “contextualization of 75 years of what has been happening, [and the idea] that things don’t just happen in a vacuum.” In January 2024, Desai was reportedly “teaching about settler colonialism and genocide in Palestine.”
On January 19, 2024, Desai featured in a Faculty for Palestine webinar titled: “Palestine Prohibited.”
In the webinar, Desai claimed [01:12:55]: “Israel is enacting scholasticide, the systematic destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, including universities and schools, the killing of faculty and students, the targeting and destruction of Palestinian archives and cultural heritage. As of this week, the settler colonial apartheid state of Israel has destroyed all of Gaza’s universities in its genocidal war.”
Desai also claimed [01:21:27]: “...Israeli universities are indispensable in aiding the Israeli colonial regime's genocidal program. They are complicit in developing weaponry, architectural plans, military doctrines and strategies and surveillance technology for sustaining the colonial occupation and apartheid state…”
Desai also said [01:22:13]: “This is why academics and students need to support and get involved with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.”
On December 8, 2023, Desai tweeted: “mosques, historical buildings, spaces of art, cultural and media production. / Mass murdering people coupled with the targeting and destruction of cultural heritage is genocide. @UNESCO / This is genocide. /
#StopTheGenocideInGaza.”
Desai retweeted an October 25, 2023 tweet by anti-Israel agitator Mohammed El-Kurd that claimed Israel “can put people in a concentration camp, gas them, and we’re not allowed to make the analogy? Nazis.”
On May 10, 2023, Desai tweeted: “when the Zionist state is in internal political crisis, their solution = bomb Gaza. just sick. / murdering people can never make an illegal settler project and occupying apartheid state legitimate. just fact.”
On March 25, 2022, Desai tweeted that she was “Co-hosting the 2022 Global Rally Against Israeli Apartheid,” which the BDS movement described as “the global flagship event for #IsraeliApartheidWeek.”
The modern State of Israel was founded 76 years earlier, in 1948.
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”
On May 2, 2023, Desai tweeted: “
& tears flow across PS& the world as Israeli authorities murder #KhaderAdnan while in their captivity. A revolutionary that endured 12 detentions,8 yrs in prison,5 hunger strikes & his final for 87 days against unlawful colonial administrative detention, without charge or trial.”Khader Adnan was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” In May 2023, Adnan died in prison after refusing medical treatment during a hunger strike.
On August 9, 2022, Desai tweeted: “Israeli occupation forces brutally invaded Nablus this morning, martyring 3 people- Ibrahim Nabulsi, Islam Sabouh, Husain Jawal- & injuring 40…Palestinians are slaughtered all over Palestine…”
Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, a “commander” of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, was known as “the lion of Nablus.” On August 9, 2022, he was killed [p. 5] in a gun battle with Israeli forces. The Brigade is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.
On May 3, 2021, Desai published an article in the Journal of Palestine Studies, titled:“Disrupting Settler-Colonial Capitalism: Indigenous Intifadas and Resurgent Solidarity from Turtle Island to Palestine.”
In the article, Desai wrote [p. 18] that the first and second intifadas emphasized “the importance of organized resistance and its ability to disrupt settler-capitalist economies, as well as the tactics and discourses—such as reconciliation and peace—used by nation-states to suppress and pacify defiant opposition.”
Desai also wrote [p. 19] that “the past fifty years” have affirmed “that our joint struggles in the form of direct action and popular resistance to disrupt settler economies are effective.” She concluded that “Activists and movements should also be mindful of…the complicity entailed in advancing colonial and neoliberal politics of recognition and peace.”
On October 22, 2020, Desai was featured in a PYM panel event titled: “Ghassan Kanafani and the Legacy of Palestinian Resistance Arts,” to “honor the legacy of Ghassan Kanafani, the…freedom fighter.”
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.
During the October 2020 event, Desai said [01:04:31] “What would it be to hand Kanafani to also the people that we’re in solidarity with. I think that that needs to happen, you know, and I know that I try that, you know, here in the context of Toronto, and apart from the Zionist sort of narrative of terrorism and whatever, it's remarkable to see a new generation also start to relate to that.”
During the same event, Desai said [01:02:10] she had served as a judge for PYM’s annual Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship in 2019 and that she would be judging the scholarship competition again in 2020.
Hatred of Israel Online and in the Classroom
On December 2, 2024, Desai posted on X: “The only people who stand with Israel today are fascists, imperialists, racists, orientalists, colonialists, tyrants, compradors, xenophobes, Zionists, normalizers, collaborators and possibly idiots.”
In December 2023, Desai told the student newspaper The Varsity that the course allowed for the “contextualization of 75 years of what has been happening, [and the idea] that things don’t just happen in a vacuum.” In January 2024, Desai was reportedly “teaching about settler colonialism and genocide in Palestine.”
On January 19, 2024, Desai featured in a Faculty for Palestine webinar titled: “Palestine Prohibited.”
In the webinar, Desai claimed [01:12:55]: “Israel is enacting scholasticide, the systematic destruction of Palestinian educational institutions, including universities and schools, the killing of faculty and students, the targeting and destruction of Palestinian archives and cultural heritage. As of this week, the settler colonial apartheid state of Israel has destroyed all of Gaza’s universities in its genocidal war.”
Desai also claimed [01:21:27]: “...Israeli universities are indispensable in aiding the Israeli colonial regime's genocidal program. They are complicit in developing weaponry, architectural plans, military doctrines and strategies and surveillance technology for sustaining the colonial occupation and apartheid state…”
Desai also said [01:22:13]: “This is why academics and students need to support and get involved with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.”
On December 8, 2023, Desai tweeted: “mosques, historical buildings, spaces of art, cultural and media production. / Mass murdering people coupled with the targeting and destruction of cultural heritage is genocide. @UNESCO / This is genocide. /
#StopTheGenocideInGaza.”
Desai retweeted an October 25, 2023 tweet by anti-Israel agitator Mohammed El-Kurd that claimed Israel “can put people in a concentration camp, gas them, and we’re not allowed to make the analogy? Nazis.”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.
On May 10, 2023, Desai tweeted: “when the Zionist state is in internal political crisis, their solution = bomb Gaza. just sick. / murdering people can never make an illegal settler project and occupying apartheid state legitimate. just fact.”
Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)
On May 2, 2023, Desai was featured as the keynote speaker for an event by Palestinian Studies at Brown University titled: “The Art of Revolution: An Exhibit on Palestinian Resistance and Solidarity, 1948-1982.”On March 25, 2022, Desai tweeted that she was “Co-hosting the 2022 Global Rally Against Israeli Apartheid,” which the BDS movement described as “the global flagship event for #IsraeliApartheidWeek.”
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 January 28, 2016, Desai was featured on a “divestment panel” by U of T Divest.
Participating in the Pro-Hamas UofT Encampment
Desai participated [slide 8] in an anti-Israel ceremony organized by the UofT encampment on June 3, 2024, graduation day at UofT. Protesters held the event to “honour all of those who could not graduate because of the genocide their university is funding.”The ceremony was organized by UofT Occupy for Palestine, which according to their Instagram is a body of “Students calling for divestment from entities sustaining the attacks on Gaza + the occupation, apartheid, and illegal settlements of Palestine.”
On May 2, 2024, UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) activists “stormed down” fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas and pro-BDS encampment called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.” Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. Activists chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
After the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle -
- became a Hamas symbol. It appeared on large signs at the encampment and was featured in other encampment-related activism. Openly pro-Hamas marches began elsewhere in the city and ended at the encampment. In one incident, pro-Hamas activists punched a Jewish man, stole his Israeli flag and shouted anti-Semitic slurs.Protesters occupied [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT warning they were trespassing. On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at UofT’s request, requiring the encampment to be cleared. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote a statement that ended: “Long live the intifada.”
Desai also showed support for the encampment by signing on to a statement put out by UofT community members in May 2024 [row 21, third photo]. The May 20, 2024 statement was part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The statement backed all the encampment’s demands, including divesting from the alleged “apartheid policies of the state of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
To show support, Desai submitted a “support selfie,” where text beside her face said: “DISCLOSE. DIVEST. CUT TIES.”
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 Student 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
University Website:https://www.newcollege.utoronto.ca/biography/desai-chandni/University Website 2:https://utoronto.academia.edu/ChandniDesai
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/chandni83
Twitter:https://twitter.com/4cdesai
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/chandni.desai4/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandni-desai-65b49a1a3/
LinkedIn 2:https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandni-desai-8095b176/
Videos
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Photos & Screenshots
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Infamous Quotes
“Israeli universities are indispensable in aiding the Israeli colonial regime's genocidal program…This is why academics and students need to support and get involved with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.”
“...our joint struggles in the form of direct action and popular resistance to disrupt settler economies are effective…Activists and movements should also be mindful of…the complicity entailed in advancing colonial and neoliberal politics of recognition and peace.”
“The Nakba ongoing for over 75 years…Yet, Palestinian resistance to colonialism also ongoing for over 100. #Nakba75.”
