Cole Stallone
Overview
Cole Stallone [Cole Martin Joshua Stalone] was reportedly a 2018 organizer with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and also reportedly a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at New York University (NYU), who has expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.Stallone has demonized the NYU Israel Experience, a tour for student leaders to Israel.
As of August 2019, Stallone’s LinkedIn page said he was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in History with Minors in Creative Writing, Peace and Conflict Studies at NYU and slated to graduate in 2020.
As of the same date, Stallone’s LinkedIn page said he was an Opinion Editor at NYU student newspaper, Washington Square News (WSN), and Co-Chair of the WSN Editorial Board.
Also as of August 2019, Stallone used the name “Cole Martin Joshua Stallone” on Facebook and Twitter. He used the name “Cole S.” on LinkedIn.
Supporting BDS
Stallone was featured holding a sign in a December 6, 2018, NYU JVP tweet. The sign read: “Yes for BDS” in an NYU JVP tweet at the vote on the BDS resolution at NYU.NYU JVP’s tweet said: “‘I think the work we're doing here is important because we're integrating international problems with our work back at home’-a @NYUSJP member.”
Also on December 6, 2018, NYU’s Student Government Assembly (SGA) passed a BDS resolution that was co-authored and introduced by three student senators, Rose Asaf, Leen Dweik and Bayan Abubakr, all of whom were reportedly members of NYU SJP at the time.
The resolution, titled: “Resolution on the Human Rights of Palestinians,” claimed Israel practiced apartheid and invoked the “threefold” goals of the BDS movement, including “ending Israel’s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands.”
The resolution was reportedly passed by a narrow margin, via secret ballot.
Stallone indicated on Facebook that he “went” to an April 15, 2019 event, co-hosted by NYU SJP and NYU JVP, that would be moderated by Leen Dweik, the 2018-2019 President of NYU SJP. The event’s Facebook page also said it would feature as panelists Executive Director of the anti-Israel organization JVP, Rebecca Vilkomerson, Marc Lamont-Hill and Omar Barghouti.
In November 2018, Marc Lamont Hill was fired from his position as a contributor to CNN News network following controversial comments where he reportedly whitewashed Palestinian violence and accused Israel of “state violence and ethnic cleansing.” He also called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
At the event, which Barghouti attended via video link, he said [00:00:01]: “When I heard that the divestment resolution passed with 50 groups supporting it I said NYU must be called the student capital of the BDS movement of the world.”
Barghouti, the founder of the BDS movement, has claimed [00:04:28] that international law grants everyone with Palestinian ancestry the unqualified right to settle in Israel. Barghouti has also insisted [01:18:21]that the demands of BDS are “inflexible” and “non-negotiable,” and if people object, then “tough.”
A day later, NYU SJP posted the video on Facebook and wrote: “Omar Barghouti just called NYU student capitol of the BDS movement of the world!!! We are WINNING!”
Demonizing Student Trip to Israel
On October 23, 2018, Stallone wrote an op-ed on behalf of NYU JVP for Washington Square News, titled: “NYU’s Alternative Fact-Finding Mission to Israel and the Palestinian Territories.”Stallone denounced the NYU Israel Experience, a free trip to Israel for NYU student leaders, which was co-sponsored by The Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU.
In the article, Stallone wrote: “the reality of this trip is that it serves as an initiative to politically and morally manipulate students into supporting Israel, an internationally recognized apartheid state.”
Stallone also said: “While the trip hopes to promote intersectionality and inclusiveness, it only promotes imperialism and apartheid...is a propaganda initiative by Zionist members of the NYU community, whose intentions are to create lies about the oppression of Palestine and the direct role that Israel plays in that.”
NYU SJP Anti-Israel Activity
On May 9, 2019, NYU SJP staged a “die-in” protest, next to Realize Israel’s annual "Rave in the Park" event celebrating Israeli Independence Day. Realize Israel is a pro-Israel club at NYU.The Facebook description of the protest, titled: “ACTION: Resisting the Celebration of Apartheid,” said: “speak out against the lack of acknowledgement of the expulsion, massacre, and destruction of Palestinians and their homes.”
NYU SJP also called Israel’s Independence on Twitter an “act of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.”
On April 18, 2019, NYU SJP posted a photo on Facebook of students with their faces obscured by emojis, in front of a table featuring the Israeli flag and a banner that said: “Jews are Indigenous to the Land of Israel CHANGE MY MIND.”
The Facebook post said: “Thumbs Up If You’re a Racist: they intimidated to sue us because they don’t like getting called out version!”
NYU SJP’s post referred to anoriginal version of the NYU SJP post which reportedly showed the faces of the pro-Israel students and said: “Thumbs Up If You’re a Racist.”
On April 27, 2018, NYU SJP organized a protest against the annual “Rave in the Park” celebration of Israel’s Independence Day. The protest’s Facebook description said: “We refuse to let such a disturbing public celebration of colonialism and apartheid on our campus and in our park go by without a response.”
During the protest, activists chanted [00:04:55]: "Intifada, Intifada, Long live the Intifada" and two protestors were reportedly arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and assault after grabbing [00:00:41] a microphone and an Israeli flag out of the hands of a student singing the Israeli national anthem.
Other protesters wiped [00:00:10] their feet on the Israeli flag and stomped on it.
That same day, NYU SJP posted to Facebook, urging anyone “angered at this celebratory event” to file a noise complaint with the police.
NYU SJP hosted Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2017, from March 20-24, 2017.
During IAW 2017, NYU SJP exhibited a mock apartheid wall, with text that demonized Israel, simulating Israel’s security barrier.
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
NYU SJP 2018 Divestment Campaign
On November 1, 2018, members of NYU SJP presented a divestment bill to the NYU Student Government Association (SGA), to further the agenda of the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.The resolution was co-authored by then-student senators and members of SJP, Rose Asaf, Leen Dweik and then-student senator Bayan Abubakr, who was reportedly a member ofNYU SJP.
The resolution demonized Israel, invoked the “threefold” goals of the BDS movement and was passed by the SGA on December 6, 2018, using a secret ballot. NYU’s administration opposed the BDS resolution.
NYU’s then-President Andrew Hamilton said: “‘A boycott of Israeli academics and institutions is contrary to our core principles of academic freedom, antithetical to the free exchange of ideas, and at odds with the University's position on this matter...and divestment from Israeli-related investments is not under consideration.’”
NYU SJP Promoting BDS
On April 15, 2019, NYU SJP hosted an event featuring a panel that included Omar Barghouti. The panel was moderated by Leen Dweik, then-President of NYU SJP.On November 19, 2018, NYU SJP wrote on Facebook: “When we fight, we win.BDS works” and attached an article in the post reporting the decision by Airbnb Inc. to remove listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
On October 24. 2018, NYU SJP hosted a panel about BDS where anti-Israel Professor Jasbir Puar was listed among the panel of speakers. Puar is on the Advisory Board of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and applauded the American Studies Association (ASA)’s move for an Academic Boycott of Israeli universities.
NYU SJP hosted NYU Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) 2018, from April 15-21, 2018. The Facebook event description said: “IAW will be an opportunity to reflect on this history of resistance and further advance BDS campaigns for the continued growth and impact of the movement.”
On April 9, 2018, NYU SJP posted to Facebook: “We are proud to announce a coalition of 50 NYU student groups who have pledged to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian human rights by pledging not to spend NYU club funds on Israeli goods, to boycott pro-Israel groups at NYU and off campus, and to call on NYU to divest from companies that profit off the violation of Palestinian human rights.
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish value.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/100004914636976Twitter:https://twitter.com/cmjstallone
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/cmjstallone
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/cole-stallone/
