Ciara Taylor

Overview

Ciara Taylor is the Special Project Coordinator for the Iraq War Tribunal at CODEPINK.

Taylor was a founding member of Dream Defenders (DD) and served as its Director of Political Consciousness.

In January 2015, Taylor participated in a DD trip to Israel in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The trip is detailed below.

Supporting Terrorism Against Israel

On March 2, 2016, Taylor called Israel a "colonial" power in an Instagram post and praised the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) for wanting “the destruction of the zionist state and the return of the Palestinian refugees.”

On March 3, 2016, Taylor shared two images on Instagram referencing the PFLP and showing a map of all of the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River as one unit next to the word "free" - implying support for the eradication of the Jewish state.

Taylor’s above Instagram posts promoted an educational series DD produced in March 2016 which glorifies the PFLP. Intended for sixth to eleventh graders, the curriculum titled "Blacked Out History - Rebellion Curriculum Toolkit," preaches violence under the euphemism of “struggle” (page 6).

The curriculum mentions various violent PFLP strategies (page 25) such as "hijackings, assassinations, car bombings, suicide bombings, paramilitary operations against civilian and military targets" and concludes “[t]hey want to be free from global imperialism. They want liberation. They want equal rights. Just like the Dream Defenders” (page 26).

On January 4, 2015, Taylor posted an Instagram image of Ali Jiddah who planted four hand grenades in downtown Jerusalem in 1968 as a member of the PFLP. Jiddah injured nine Israelis and spent 17 years in prison. Taylor called him "wonderful."

On January 5, 2015, Taylor posed for a photo in front of a mural of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Fatah’s Tanzim militia as well as Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade — which carried out countless armed attacks on Israeli civilians during the Second Intifada. Barghouti has been held in Israeli jail since 2002 on murder charges and is serving five life sentences.

Mission to Israel

In January 2015, DD ran its first trip to Israel, led by its co-founder Ahmad Abuznaid — son of veteran Palestinian Diplomat Dr. Nabil Abuznaid. Abuznaid has claimed the DD trips are intended "to build real relationships with those on the ground leading the fight for liberation."

During the January 2015 and May 2016 trips, the DD delegation met with BDS founder, Omar Barghouti and with former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesperson Diana Buttu. Buttu served in the PLO during the Second Intifada when the PLO — via Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — perpetrated terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

The DD delegation met with artist Ayed Arafah in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp (Dheisheh) near Bethlehem, recognized as a PFLP stronghold. Arafah, later that year, produced art featuring PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani and militant Moataz Zawahreh whom Arafah called a "martyr."

The DD delegation also harassed Israeli soldiers in the city of Hebron and called for BDS in the town square of Nazareth.

Abuznaid claimed that while the group was in Ramallah, they met with Addameer, an organization that advocates on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are either supporters or members of terror groups.

On May 11, 2016, the DD delegation met with PFLP member Mahmoud Jiddeh — who was arrested in 1968 for planting bombs in Israel and spent 17 years in jail. Didier Ortiz, a DD member on the trip, listed Jiddeh as still being a PFLP member.

On May 12, 2016, the DD delegation participated in a protest to demand the Palestinian "right of return," long discredited as a subterfuge to eliminate Israel.

On May 16, 2016, the DD delegation again met with artist Ayed Arafah in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp (Dheisheh) near Bethlehem.

On May 17, 2016, the DD delegation met with Haneen Zoabi — a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) — who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions.

On May 18, 2016, the DD delegation again met with BDS founder Omar Barghouti. Former PLO spokesperson Diana Buttu also joined the May 2016 delegation.

Dream Defenders

Based in Florida, DD was founded in 2012 and aims to create a "new generation" of organizers working to end domestic and foreign wars, free public education, community control of economic resources, release of prisoners from American prisons and an end to the Capitalist system in the United States.

The group later adopted a harsh anti-Israel position, falsely linking Israel’s existence to the same Capitalist system they view as responsible for the issues their communities face. DD has led several delegations to Israel and where they met exclusively with anti-Israel groups and individuals, including militants from the terrorist organization PFLP.

DD is a project (page 3) of the Tides Center, linked to anti-Israel billionaire George Soros and is a leading organization within the Black Lives Matter (BLM)movement that was founded in 2013.

DD has supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as early December 2014.

Anti-Israel Libels

On August 2, 2016, Rachel Gilmer, DD Chief of Strategy co-authored the statement on Israel appearing in the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) Platform — which promotes BDS. The Platform states that: "The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people."

On August 6, 2016, DD published a blog post that doubled down on the accusation of genocide. DD also claimed that Israel is currently committing "ethnic cleansing."

DD implied that Palestinian children are "met with tear gas and rubber bullets as they walk home from school" at random. DD also implicitly denied the ancient Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

In addition, DD condemned as "wolves in sheeps clothing" those who criticized BLM for its adoption of these positions.

DD concluded the blog post with the declaration that anyone who rejects the M4BL Platform for its anti-Israel positions is someone "who no longer stand[s] with Black people."

Code Pink

CODEPINK is a U.S.-based activist group founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and other activists to oppose the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. 

The group actively opposes “U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and has been criticized for maintaining close ties to Hamas. CODEPINK also promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. 

CODEPINK has led a number of solidarity delegations to Gaza under Hamas protection. In March 2014, CODEPINK also helped organize an “International Women's Day” delegation to Gaza. However, upon arriving at the Cairo airport on March 3, 2014, Benjamin was detained by Egyptian authorities and refused entry into Gaza. She was then forcibly deported to Turkey.

CODEPINKBDS campaigns have targeted RE/MAX, Ahava, SodaStream, Hewlett Packard and Airbnb. On November 20, 2016, CODEPINK leader Ariel Gold disrupted a speech given by the actor Ashton Kutcher, an Airbnb investor who defended the company. Gold was escorted off the stage by security.

In September 2008, a number of CODEPINK leaders met with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. CODEPINK reportedly initiated its anti-Israel campaign followeding meeting. In November 2008, Jodie Evans and a CODEPINK contingent visited Iran at the personal invitation of Ahmadinejad. 

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/ciara.taylor.5855[Deleted]

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/kingcidot/[Instagram]

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ciara-taylor-3803594a