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Coen McGarrah
Coen McGarrah participated in a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement hunger strike in 2024 during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.
McGarrah’s activism was in the wake of Hamas war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” For more information on the attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
As of March 27, 2024, McGarrah’s LinkedIn said McGarrah was studying for a bachelor's degree in marine biology at the University of South Florida (USF), slated to graduate in May 2026. USF’s main campus is located in Tampa, Florida.
In April 2021, McGarrah’s high school featured a photo of McGarrah and wrote: “Congratulations to Courtney McGarrah…”
On February 27, 2024, McGarrah was featured [slide 4] in a photo posted by the USF Hunger Strike on Instagram.
The photo included text that read: “I AM PARTICIPATING IN THE HUNGER STRIKE FOR PALESTINE BECAUSE I CAN'T SIT IDLY BY AS THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE MURDERED FOR THE PROFIT AND PLEASURE OF VARIOUS GOVERNMENTS, INCLUDING THAT OF THE US.”
On March 17, 2024, 18 anti-Israel activists at USF reportedly initiated “an indefinite hunger strike beginning Monday, March 18.” The activists demanded that USF divest from companies doing business in Israel to stop what they claimed was a “GENOCIDE” happening in Gaza. USF officials have said that the school invests with fund managers and not with specific companies.
The entire hunger strike overlapped with two and a half weeks of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which Muslims fast daily from sunrise to sunset.
On April 3, 2024, USF Hunger Strike for Palestine changed [slide 5] its name to USF Divest Coalition.
On the same day, the USF Divest Coalition posted on Instagram that “While our demands were not met,” they were “encouraging strikers to break their strike.” The group also wrote: “We will ensure our community is not complicit in genocide, and divestment is inevitable.”
USF Divest Coalition also wrote [slide 2] that it was ending the hunger strike was due to “multiple hospitalizations” and “fatal health warnings.” They also wrote [slide 3] that they will be “helping organize 4 more hunger strikes on campuses…”
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.
