Creen Ahmad

Overview

Creen Ahmad has expressed support for terrorists, spread hatred of Israel, co-sponsored a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution and was treasurer of Students Justice for Palestine (SJP) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (SJP UIUC) in 2020-2021.

In 2020, Ahmad was listed as an executive board member of SJP UIUC. She was affiliated with SJP UIUC as early as October 2017.

Ahmad attended the 2019 National SJP (NSJP) Conference, held 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.”

Ahmad served as a senator with the Illinois Student Government (ISG) at UIUC during [page 1] the 2020-2021 academic year. Creen also served as the Chair of Sustainability, Resilience, & Environmental Justice in 2020-2021.

As of November 2022, Ahmad’s Instagram bio indicated that she was a student at Johns Hopkins University (JHU), slated to graduate in 2024.

As of the same date, Ahmad’s LinkedIn page said she graduated from UIUC with a bachelor’s degree in Agronomy and Crop Science in 2021. Her LinkedIn also said she was an Undergraduate Researcher at UIUC from 2019 to 2021.

As of November 2022, Ahmad used the handle “@cici_jadd” on Twitter and went by “@cici_jad” on TikTok.

Supporting Terrorists (PIJ)

On November 15, 2019, Ahmad participated [00:20:36] in an SJP UIUC rally where activists read [00:18:57] names from a list of “martyrs” that included Baha Abu al-Ata, a senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) commander in Gaza. Abu al-Ata was targeted by Israel in an airstrike while he was reportedly planning terror attacks.

On November 12-14, 2019, Israel launched Operation Black Belt to stop PIJ rocket attacks targeting Israel’s biggest civilian population centers.

The SJP UIUC protest was titled: “EMERGENCY RALLY: #GazaUnderAttack.” SJP UIUC wrote in the Facebook event page: “In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed over 32 Palestinians and injured over 100 in the last 24 hours. Come stand with us in solidarity against Israel's continual genocide and violation of Palestinian human rights.”

At the rally, an activist held [00:00:46] an Israeli flag with the text “GENO

CIDE” and red handprints signifying blood.

Hatred of Israel

As of December 2022, Ahmad’s Twitter bio said: “#gaza she/her #decolonize #SaveSheikhJarrah.”

In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month.

As of December 2022, Ahmad’s Instagram bio included a link to the website “decolonizepalestine.com.” The website has spread hatred of Israel, including accusations of “Israeli colonialism and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

On May 3, 2021, Ahmad was quoted in an article by the UIUC student newspaper, The Daily Illini, as saying: “As the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] are stationed across all occupied areas in Palestine, police in the U.S. station themselves in predominantly Black and Brown communities.”

The article covered an SJP UIUC event titled: “Black Power and Palestine.” The event focused on “settler colonialism and imperialism” and it featured Michael Fischbach, author of the book: “Black Power and Palestine: Transnational Countries of Color.”

Co-Sponsoring a BDS Resolution

On September 14, 2020, Ahmad co-sponsored an SJP UIUC BDS resolution calling on the university to divest from multiple companies that do business with Israel. The resolution accused [p. 5] Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and framed [pp. 5-6] BDS as the successor to the movement to boycott apartheid-era South Africa.

On September 23, 2020, Ahmad voted [03:31:41] in favor of the resolution during a live streamed ISG meeting titled: “RES.04.22 Human Rights Violations in University Investments and Police Forces.” SJP UIUC president Buthaina Hattab authored the resolution. The BDS resolution passed with a vote of 22-11-7.

SJP UIUC’s statement on the vote claimed that “both the BDS and the BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement resist the fundamental racism that Israeli and American entities need to survive.”

During the live stream, Sophia Giakas Ayesh, a former SJP UIUC activist, commented [02:36:58]: “Honestly bruh, Zionism is a political agenda that’s racist and supports genocide so bye.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

SJP Activism

On April 23, 2020, Ahmad featured in an SJP UIUC Facebook post that said: “Our executive board and our imagined roles in a liberated Palestine

.”

On March 4, 2020, SJP UIUC endorsed Ahmad on Facebook: “Here are SJP's top picks for progressive senate positions! Be sure to vote.” The post included a graphic with a list of students, including Ahmad, who were running for ISG senate positions.

On October 25, 2019, Ahmad posed in a Instagram photo posted by SJP Chicago (SJP Chi). The post read: “

#SJPUIUC: In a major win, Illinois Student Govt. Passed a resolution 29-2-2 addressing the false conflation of anti semitism with anti Zionism. MUCH CONGRATS TO THE HARD WORK OF @sjp.uiuc!”

The Instagram post referred to an anti-Israel resolution defending a presentation delivered by SJP UIUC leader Dunia Ghanimah. Her presentation praised [slide 14] “Martyrdom” and honored terrorist leaders Leila Khaled and Yasser Arafat. Ghanimah, who was a Mulitcultural Advocate (MA) at UIUC, initially gave the presentation to other MAs, as well as UIUC Housing employees and Resident Advisors.

On October 10, 2019, SJP UIUC wrote on Facebook: “Zionism is a political ideology that seeks to maintain an artificial Jewish majority in historic Palestine through the systematic occupation and dispossession of Palestinians’ land and livelihoods.”

On April 30, 2019, Ahmad featured in an SJP UIUC Facebook photo that said: “Welcome our 2019-20 Executive Board for SJP! Women are the leaders of the revolution!!

.”

On October 12, 2017, Ahmad appeared in an SJP UIUC Facebook photo alongside other SJP activists.

Attending the 2019 National SJP Conference

On November 3, 2019, Ahmad appeared in an SJP Chi Instagram photo that was captioned: “Some of our beautiful SJP Chicago members repping their universities at the National Students for Justice in Palestine Conference! Shoutout to the wonderful NSJP team for hosting another great conference

#PalestineinChi Palestine #SJPChicago.”

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.

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.

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.

NSJP 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.”

NSJP limited 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, NSJP reportedly covered the windows of the conference hall.

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.

SJP UIUC Chapter Overview

SJP UIUC has a history of hate-filled anti-Israel protests on campus, including in April 2022 when someone threw a rock at Jewish students. SJP UIUC leads an annual anti-Israel divestment campaign where other anti-Semitic incidents have occurred.

In November 2020, SJP UIUC featured [pp. 3-8] prominently as a source of anti-Semitism on campus in a civil rights legal complaint filed against UIUC.

SJP UIUC speakers show support for terrorists and spread hatred of Zionists and Israel. Speakers use chants that call for Israel’s destruction and other chants for “intifada,” which is a call for violence.

SJP UIUC speakers also routinely demonize Zionism and in March 2022, one speaker claimed: “Zionism is the root cause of the social issues we see today.” SJP UIUC uses social media to spread the same sort of hatred outlined above.

SJP UIUC - Creating a Hostile Campus Environment 2015-2020

In October 2020, SJP UIUC was cited [pp. 3-8] in six different incidents in a civil rights legal complaint against UIUC documenting anti-Semitic incidents on campus as early as 2015. Jewish groups filed the complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The complaint said [p.12]: “UIUC has also failed to combat anti-Semitism as vigorously as it has combated other forms of bigotry on its campus prohibited by Title VI.”

One cited incident [p.4] was from 2019 when SJP UIUC members and supporters approached pro-Israel students. At least one SJP supporter spat on a pro-Israel student. Other Israel supporters were called “Nazi” and “white supremacist” and were told they had “dual loyalty” since they were “not a true citizen of the United States.”

SJP UIUC - Hatred of Israel 2020-2021

On November 18, 2020, SJP UIUC wrote on Facebook that Zionists “advocate for white supremacy and racism,” and that Zionism was a “racist ideology.” The post also said: “The Zionist state in Palestine has carried out and continues a massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

On May 10, 2021, SJP UIUC hosted an anti-Israel protest where protesters chanted [00:03:25]: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” They also chanted [00:27:31]: “Stop the killing, stop the hate! Israel is a terror state!”

One speaker said [00:02:16]: “Zionism is genocidal.” Another speaker said [00:12:55]: “When we talk about violence it’s always from the oppressor so anything else that the oppressed do is self defense and justified.”

SJP UIUC BDS Activities

During the 2019-2020 academic year, SJP UIUC launched a BDS campaign by authoring a student government resolution asking the university to divest funds from companies that are either based in Israel or do business in Israel.

In February 2020, SJP UIUC created the group UIUC Divest to promote BDS on campus and present BDS as an intersectional effort from different campus advocacy groups. In that academic year and each year since then, SJP UIUC or individual SJP UIUC board members authored a divestment resolution.

SJP UIUC BDS Activities - 2019-2020

On February 5, 2020, former SJP UIUC presidents Buthaina Hattab and Dunia Ghanimah, as well as then president Ahlam Khatib, collectively authored an Illinois Student Government (ISG) anti-Israel divestment Resolution 03.61, titled: “Violations of Human Rights in University Investments.”

On February 12, 2020, a female Jewish student spoke [01:56:58] at an ISG meeting held to discuss the divestment resolution, to discuss an incident where someone held a sign that said [p. 7]: “F**K NAZIS SUPPORT PALESTINIANS.”

The female Jewish student said that she attended an ISG meeting during the fall semester that addressed a separate anti-Israel resolution. She said [01:56:58]: “When I walked into the room I was confronted by a huge sign held up by SJP that said ‘F**k Nazis’. They called us Nazis!”

Somone in the crowd then shouted [01:57:07] at the same female Jewish student: “They’re right!”

On February 15, 2020, UIUC Divest tweeted: “...UIUC Divest passes 20-9-7! ISG resolution 03.61 “Violation of Human Rights in University Investments” calls on UIUC to divest from corporations that engage in human rights abuses including Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

#UIUCDivest.”

On February 17, 2020, UIUC Divest tweeted a letter signed by SJP UIUC criticizing the ISG President Connor Josellis for vetoing the resolution one day earlier.

On February 19, 2020, Josellis said [00:37:31] that he vetoed the resolution because of “a level of hate that I have not previously seen firsthand and on behalf of the student government, I condemn any hateful rhetoric that led to students feeling unsafe in this environment.”

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.