Clarissa Bitar

Overview

Clarissa Bitar has spread hatred of Israel and promoted an anti-Israel agitator. Bitar supported two Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement initiatives at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2014 and 2015.

Bitar was affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in 2019 and 2020 and has performed at multiple SJP events, including the 2019 National SJP Conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN) as well as the 2018 National SJP Conference, held at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”

As of January 2021, Bitar’s website bio said she was a Palestinian oud player, composer and teacher. As of October 2020, Bitar reportedly worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles, CA and traveled in the U.S. and abroad to perform and teach oud.

Bitar’s website bio also said she received a bachelor’s degree in Music with an emphasis in Ethnomusicology from UCSB. Bitar’s mother, Mary Bitar, indicated on Facebook that Bitar graduated in 2015.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On April 16, 2019, Bitar posted a photo on Instagram of a baseball hat with the words: “Make Israel Palestine Again.” Bitar commented: “Newest edition to my hat collection 🧢”

On October 4, 2020, the Palestine in America (PiA) blog posted an interview with Bitar titled: “The Oud Is the Cure.” In the interview, Bitar said: “As a child of the Palestinian diaspora my music connects me in ways that surpass physical barriers or borders and to me it can be a powerful way to reclaim traditions that are actively being stolen and erased.”

Promoting an Anti-Israel Agitator

On June 28, 2020, Bitar posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a t-shirt with the words “Spread Truth to Power” and “Re-elect Rashida Democrat For Congress.” Bitar commented: “In 2018 we made history & elected the FIRST Palestinian woman into Congress - — @rashidatlaib uplifts our most vulnerable communities via policy & practices embodying the essence of speaking truth to power in her fight for all PEOPLE-”

Rashida Tlaib was elected to the U.S. Congress in November 2018. She has advocated for a one-state solution, endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and called for reduced foreign aid to Israel. In July 2019, Tlaib co-sponsored a pro-BDS bill in the U.S. Congress introduced by Rep. Ilhan Omar.

On May 4, 2020, Bitar posted to Instagram that she was part of a Rashida Tlaib promotional campaign.

Supporting BDS

On February 14, 2018, Bitar posted a photo of herself on Instagram wearing a T-shirt with text that read: “BOYCOTT ISRAEL FREE PALESTINE.”

Bitar promoted two SJP divestment resolutions on her Facebook page when she updated her Facebook profile picture with the logo from UCSB Divest in 2015 and 2014.

SJP UCSB has supported and advocated for anti-Israel divestment campaigns at UCSB since 2013, which were promoted on social media under the hashtag #UCSBDIVEST. SJP UCSB sponsored unsuccessful divestment initiatives at UCSB in 2015 and 2014.

The 2015 resolution called on the Associated Students (AS) of UCSB to pass a resolution directing the University of California to financially divest from the corporations that the authors claimed “directly profit from human rights violations in Palestine/Israel.”

On April 15, 2015, during Holocaust Remembrance Day, UCSB held a vote on the BDS resolution. The result of the vote was 12 in favor, 12 against, with one abstention. Angela Lau, then UCSB Internal Vice President (IVP), broke the tie by voting no against the resolution.

On April 8, 2015, Bitar appeared [00:00:04] in a USCB Divest Facebook video that was captioned: “Music, fun, and educating the UCSB campus about the UC Divestment student movement! Come on out to the Arbor to learn more”

In April 2014, UCSB Divest also launched a divestment resolution on campus. The resolution was endorsed by the JVP-Santa Barbara chapter. On April 24, 2014, a vote on the BDS resolution took place at UCSB, which resulted in a vote of 8 in favor, 16 against, with 0 abstentions.

On April 24, 2014, The Bottom Line, UCSB’s student newspaper, tweeted: "We are not unsafe. Palestinians are unsafe. Your investments are making palestinians unsafe." - Clarissa Bitar #UCSBDivest.”

Performing at Anti-Israel Events

On December 27, 2020, Bitar was [00:27:42] a featured performer at the US Palestinian Campaign Network (USPCN) virtual event titled: “USPCN Presents: Turath Baladna Cultural Night featuring 47SOUL!” On December 17, 2020, Bitar promoted the event on Instagram.

The Facebook event description said the event was held to “celebrate Palestinian cultural resistance” and solicited donations to “help fund our community programs & event costs; in support of our political prisoners like our 4-year defense campaign for #RasmeaOdeh.”

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.

On December 27, 2020, USPCN posted a livestream video of the event on Facebook. In the video, Bitar said [00:27:49]: “As a musician, playing their oud for me has meant so much more than just being a musician, it’s a part of the way that I view my part in Palestinian resistance.”

On July 18, 2020, Bitar gave a “Creative Resistance Performance” at an event titled: “Beyond Connecting the Dots: A Virtual Summit Building a United Racial Justice Movement, from the US to Palestine.” The event was organized by Eyewitness Palestine, formerly known as Interfaith Peace Builders (IFPB).

IFPB is an NGO that organizes activist delegations to Israel and the West Bank to "bear witness to the everyday violence of war and [Israeli] occupation." IFPB’s itinerary features lectures by representatives of organizations that explicitly call for the end of Israel and promote the BDS movement.

IFPB delegations have expressed support for terrorists and reportedly housed delegate participants in the homes of terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP).

IFPB has been known as Eyewitness Palestine since 2018.

On June 17, 2019, Bitar performed at a concert to help raise funds to travel to Palestine with an Eyewitness Palestine delegation.

On April 28, 2018, Bitar performed at an event for the Palestine Youth Movement (PYM)titled: “Commemorating Ghassan Kanafani: Anthology Launch Event.”

PYM has expressed support for terrorists, promoted incitement to violence and advocated for the dissolution of the State of Israel.

On November 18, 2017, Bitar performed at an event titled: “Palestinian Political Prisoners & Grassroots Organizing: Addameer Benefit.” The event was co-sponsored by PYM.

Addameer is an NGO that advocates on behalf of prisoners held in Israeli jail, including many terrorists such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) recruiters Mohammad Allan and Khader Adnan. Addameer’s senior leadership includes [pp. 29-35] senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists like Khalida Jarrar, whom Addameer also advocates for. In 2021, Israel officially designated Addameer as a terror organization.

Performing at SJP Events

On May 19, 2020, Bitar performed at a Zoom event titled: “Quarantine with Falasteen” as part of “Digital Apartheid Week,” co-hosted by SJP Chicago from May 11-15, 2020.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

On February 26, 2019, Bitar performed at an SJP at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) event titled: “Cultural Night with Clarissa Bitar.”

On January 30, 2019, Bitar performed for a UCSB SJP event titled: “Palestinian Culture Night.”

On November 20, 2018, Bitar performedwith Mohammed El-Kurd at a Claremont SJP event titled: “A Performance of Poetry and Oud: Bellydancing on Wounds.”

Performing at the 2019 National SJP Conference

On November 4, 2019, Bitar posted a photo of herself on Instagram performing at the 2019 National SJP Conference and posing [slide 2] with SJP activists. Bitar commented: “This weekend I hosted a workshop on the impact of the Nakba on Palestinian music and musicians to student organizers from across the nation. Thank you to everyone who attended 🇵🇸”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

The 2019 National SJP Conference was held at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3. The Conference themes centered on support for BDS as well as the rejection of Israel and Zionism.

The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.

Performing at the 2018 National SJP Conference

On November 6, 2018, Bitar posted on Instagram: “Excited to perform at the @nationalsjp conference at UCLA this year! Check out their awesome logo: the California bear, the kite to signify the power and hope in the Gaza March of Return, the kufiyyeh, and the birds of freedom leading our way with radical hope towards liberation for all and a Free Palestine…”

National SJP 2018 originally promoted a conference logo featuring a keffiyeh-wearing bear, looking toward a kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag.

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.

2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS

The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.

During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”

The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.

2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism

The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”

The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.

Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.

2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy

The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”

Members of allied student groups could register only as part of an SJP chapter delegation which, in turn, needed to be “vouched for by their campus’s SJP” for “security culture and accountability reasons.”

The Conference also restricted media access to journalists “registered and confirmed by our Media Committee in advance to attend the conference. Absolutely no exceptions will be made.”

During the Conference, National SJP reportedly covered the windows of the conference hall.

2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations

National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.

Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari.

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.”

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.

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.