Chris Johnson

The Facebook post that Johnson shared was from anti-Israel activist Hala Alkattan, who authored a 2016 BDS resolution at USF, which Johnson campaigned for while attending the university. 

The text in Alkattan’s Facebook post that Johnson shared was from a video by Remi Kanazi. 

Poet Remi Kanazi is known for his aggressively anti-Israel spoken-word performances. He has supported terrorism and has compared Israel to both ISIS and the Ku Klux Klan.

On October 7, 2018, Johnson wrote on his blog that America maintains “support of Israel in the apartheid of Palestinians.” 

Supporting BDS

On January 20, 2016, Johnson wrote an opinion article in the USF Oracle, USF’s school newspaper, in support of a BDS resolution, championed by the USF chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). He called for “divestment from Israel” and suggested that Israel practices “systematic racism” and “oppression.”

On January 25, 2016, Johnson posted to Facebook a video of himself supporting the BDS resolution at USF. In that video, he urged [00:00:36] the “divestment from companies that commit human rights violations in Palestine.”

On January 28, 2016, Johnson posted to Facebook a photo of himself and others promoting the BDS resolution. In the same thread, Johnson promoted SJP USF’s Facebook page and alleged that Israel was “Killing innocent people.”

That same day, in the same Facebook thread, someone posted a link to a 2012 video of anti-Israel Professor Norman Finkelstein, criticizing [00:29:00] the BDS movement’s dishonesty about its ultimate goal of destroying Israel. Johnson responded: “Dude's a Zionist. Next question.”

On February 24, 2016, Johnson posted to Facebook a link from the USF chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which featured a divestment resolution that was part SJP USF’s ongoing BDS campaign. 

According to a January 2016 screen capture, the link that Johnson posted accused Israel of “apartheid” and equated Israel with apartheid South Africa.

SJP USF - Promoting BDS  

On February 10, 2014, SJP USF posted a video to Vimeo promoting its “Divest 2014” campaign. The video claimed that USF invested in companies that made “fighter jets and rockets that the IDF uses against civilians in the Gaza strip.”

On May 28, 2014, the USF Foundation, which manages USF investments from donor contributions, reportedly rejected an SJP USF petition calling on the school to divest from multiple companies doing business with Israel. 

On January 14, 2015, SJP USF purchased [00:05:18] space on a Tampa, Florida billboard to demand that USF stop its investments “in Apartheid Israel.”

On January 20, 2016, the USF Oracle, USF’s student newspaper, reported that a BDS resolution passed in the student government, as a result of SJP USF’s BDS campaigning the previous two years. 

On January 25, 2016, SJP USF President Rahma Elmohd posted a Facebook video urging the USF student government president to sign the resolution.

On January 27, 2016, the USF Oracle reported that the USF student government president and vice president both vetoed the resolution. 

On February 4, 2016, the USF Oracle reported that a second BDS resolution was submitted by USF student senator and member of SJP USF Hala Alkattan. That resolution was identical to the previous one which was supported by SJP USF but was categorized differently so that the USF student government president and vice president could not veto it.

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

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/1118809766/ 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/csjohnson0207 

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Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/chrisjohnson0207

Blog:https://christopherstuartjohnson.com/