Charana Jayatilaka
Overview
Charana Jayatilaka spread anti-Israel propaganda and was an activist within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. He was also an organizer with Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at Carleton University (Carleton).As of May 2018, Jayatilaka was an administrator of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at the University of Ottawa (UOttawa)’s Facebook group: “SPHR Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights uOttawa 2018-2019.”
SAIA and SPHR are alternative names for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Jayatilaka was affiliated with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Carleton, and is a member of more than a dozen anti-Israel Facebook groups.
As of November 21, 2015, Jayatilaka’s NextUp profile indicated he was an undergraduate student at Carleton, studying Political Science.
Spreading Anti-Israel Propaganda
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
SAIA Carleton’s post read: “Free Ahed Tamimi and all political prisoners.”
Pushing BDS
BDS Support
As of April 29, 2018, Jayatilaka was a member of four pro-BDS Facebook groups, including “Call for Cultural Boycott of Israel (BDS),” “We are BDS Ottawa Canada” and: "Buy this, not that…A guide to BDS approved products."On March 13, 2018, Jayatilaka indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a “Say Yes to BDS!” event co-hosted by SPHR Uottawa, to push through a divestment resolution, during the Students Federation at the University of Ottawa (SFUO) General Assembly (GA)’s winter session.
This divestment proposal called on the SFUO to revise its policy manual and mandate that the SFUO “support this [BDS] movement as well as take a Pro-Palestine stance.” The proposal also called for the SFOU to “put pressure on the Board of Governors of UOttowa to support BDS campaigns.”
The proposal called for the SFUO to divest from companies “complicit in violation of Palestinian human rights,” to boycott Israeli artists and to “work for the cancellation of all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.”
The divestment proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds majority to pass, with 241 votes for and 231 votes against.
After the vote, SPHR posted on Facebook ”... this moment remains a victory for all students who stand in solidarity with Palestinian human rights.”
On March 25, 2018, SPHR UOttawa attempted to push the failed BDS motion at another SFUO BOA meeting. Once more, it failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the resolution.
The following day, UOttawa President and Vice-Chancellor, Jacques Frémont, released a statement strongly denouncing the SFUO BDS campaign:
“This issue is divisive and a detriment to an open and welcoming campus environment,” said Frémont. “The University of Ottawa will have no part of the BDS movement nor any movement that boycotts academic institutions.”
Anti-Israel Campus Activism
Jayatilaka indicated on Facebook that, from 2014 - 2018, he “went” to eighteen anti-Israel events hosted or co-hosted by SAIA Carleton, SPHR UOttawa, or SPHR at Concordia University (Concordia),On April 22, 2018, Jayatilaka appeared in a photo posted on Facebook by SAIA Carleton activist Rana Nazzal, with the comment: “#GreatReturnMarch.”
Jayatilaka was holding a sign that read “We stand with Palestine,” alongside SAIA Carleton activist Celeste Charlotte, who was holding a sign that said “We Support Palestine’s Right to Resist.”
In March of 2018, Jayatilaka attended several Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) events hosted by SAIA Carleton as well as events hosted by SPHR UOttawa.
Jayatilaka indicated on Facebook that he “went” to an IAW 2017 event hosted by SAIA Carleton and to a volunteer meeting for IAW with SPHR UOttawa. He also indicated on Facebook that he attended SPHR Concordia’s “BDS” week.
Jayatilaka also reportedly organized SAIACarletons’s IAW 2016.
On March 22, 2016, Jayatilaka told the Leveller, a student newspaper, that SAIA Carleton’s aim for IAW 2016 was to host “events that compare Israeli and Canadian colonialism” and to make connections between Israel and Canada based on “SAIA’s commitment to opposing apartheid in all its forms.”
Anti-Israel Facebook Groups
Jayatilaka is a member of twelve anti-Israel Facebook groups; several are detailed below:Jayatilaka is a member of the anti-Israel Facebook group “Americans For Justice In Gaza.” The group description accuses Israel of committing a “bloodbath” and “crimes against humanity” and calls on its members “to hold our government accountable for funding and aiding Israel's massacre on the Palestinian people.”
Jayatilaka is a member of the anti-Israel Facebook group “International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.” The group’s description calls for a “struggle against Zionism” and its “historic and ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people” as part of the commitment to the struggle against “colonization and imperialism.”
Jayatilaka is a member of the anti-Israel Facebook group “Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Zionist, Not Anti-Jewish” that labels Israel “apartheid” and a “Jewish Supremacist” state, and calls to “End Israel's purposeful targeting of civilians for genocide!”
Jayatilaka is a member of the anti-Israel Facebook group “In Solidarity with Palestinian Detanees Hunger Strike” which supported the 2012 Palestinian prisoners hunger strike. The group specifically named Khader Adnan as a “detainee” who went on strike.
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.
The 2,000 Palestinian prisoners who took part in the 2012 hunger strike included terrorists such as Tha'er Halahleh and Bilal Diab — both members of PIJ — and Samer Issawi, who received a 26 year prison sentence for shooting at Hebrew University students and Israeli police in 2002.
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.
MSA
The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/CharanaJayatil1
