Cruz June Rodriguez

Overview

Cruz June Rodriguez was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at DePaul University (DePaul) and supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Rodriguez graduated from DePaul, where he majored in Political Science.

Demonizing Israel

On May 13, 2016, Rodriguez joined anti-Israel demonstrators in opposing Israeli Independence day celebrations at DePaul University. He shared on Facebook a photo from the protests where he held a sign that falsely claimed — "You are celebrating Apartheid." Next to him in the photo is an anti-Israel demonstrator holding a sign that reads — “Israeli Independence = A Massacre.”

In the caption Rodriguez made more false allegations concerning the number of Palestinians who became refugees in 1948. He falsely held Israel exclusively responsible for the displacement of Arabs, after Israel was attacked in 1948. Rodriguez mocked those celebrating Israel’s independence. He wrote: "Couldn't let them enjoy their hot dogs without reminding them that the displacement of 700,000+ Palestinians isn't something to celebrate."

In the same post Rodriguez accused pro-Israel supporters of racism, commenting "[t]hey really are afraid of colored people."

Also on May 13, 2016, Rodriguez shared on Facebook a video uploaded by Stanford SJP of Israel supporters dancing in a circle celebrating Israel's 68th Independence Day while anti-Israel protesters held a die-in, lying on the floor around them. Rodriguez wrote in this status: "Zionists are so stupid."

In his comments to the post, Rodriguez falsely claimed that "Zionists don't want to engage in dialogue, even though they say they do."

Rodriguez then went on to oppose engaging with Zionists and falsely equated Zionism with settler colonialism, writing: "It's clear what they're doing and it's not a very complicated situation to talk about settler colonialism. It's all about disrupting their normalizing and brainwashing bulls**t." He also wrote “I'm all about disruptions and civil disobediences. I think they're effective.”

On November 16, 2012, Rodriguez falsely accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, tweeting, "People that support Israel's ethnic cleansing can f**k themselves." He repeated this libelous allegation on May 2, 2016 when he tweeted: “Zionists will change history in order to cover the ethnic cleansing crimes that had to be taken place in order to establish Israel in 1948.”

On November 16, 2012, Rodriguez accused Israel of genocide, tweeting; "@jessiefrancaise I can't wrap my head around racist people that support Israel and genocide."

On May 10, 2016, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Twitter account tweeted that there would be a Special Independence Day Live chat with Benjamin Netanyahu, inviting questions to be submitted via Twitter. Rodriguez replied with this tweet: "@IsraeliPM when will you change the constitution to rename Israel to Palestine? #AskNetanyahu"

On May 2, 2016, Rodriguez falsely claimed that Jews who returned to Israel from European countries are ethnically White European in origin in order to undermine and mock the Jews’ origins in the land of Israel. He tweeted — "It's amazing how zionists will swear that white Europeans have always been in the land of Palestine. Like why are you a white European then?"

The following day June Rodriguez tweeted — "Zionists are fascists pass it on."

UofC Divest

On April 13, 2016, Rodriguez shared a photo on Instagram of himself with other student supporters of the UofC Divest campaign, including UofC Divest team member Zach Taylor. Rodriguez also shared the hashtag #UofCDivest showing his endorsement of the campaign.

On March 28, 2016, a coalition of organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace UChicago (JVP UChicago), SJP at the University of Chicago (SJP U of C), Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán at UChicago (M.E.Ch.A.) and Queers United in Power launched the ‪‎UofC Divest‬ campaign. The campaign called on U of C’s College Council to pass a resolution urging the university’s divestment from targeted companies doing business with Israel. The launch urged students to sign a petition supporting the resolution.

UofC Divest’s inaugural Facebook post claimed that "we act in direct response to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement" — which lists the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine as the first member of its national committee and takes its financing, inspiration and marching orders from foreign sources.

Also on March 28, 2016 UofC Divest hung banners throughout the (U of C) campus, supporting the divestment resolution. June Rodriguez liked the photos of the banners and the UofC Divest inaugural Facebook post. Dozens of BDS supporters held a rally, marching with a huge Palestinian flag through U of C’s central quad.

Students at the U of C who were opposed to UofC Divest responded by launching a counter campaign — "University of Chicago Coalition for Peace."

On April 11, 2016, UofC Divest uploaded a video promoting its campaign, featuring SJP and JVP members. One member said — "this University shouldn’t be profiting off the murder of women and children." Another student who presented herself as a recipient of financial aid complained that “it makes me really angry to know that the money used to fund my education comes from loads of human rights violations.” Another student said she supports UofC Divest because she doesn’t “support a state founded on Apartheid.” Diana Lozano, co-chair of M.E.Ch.A. — speaking in Spanish claimed — “the same colonial forces in the U.S.-Mexico borders are the ones that are oppressing Gaza.”

On April 14, 2016, two-weeks after the UofC Divest campaign’s launch, the College Council passed the resolution in an 8-4-3 vote.

In a marked departure from prior College Council policy, all photography and voice recordings were prohibited at the divestment vote. Representatives’ individual votes on amendments disassociating the resolution from the international BDS movement and asserting Israel’s right to exist were not captured on the record. Two attempts by the university newspaper to re-poll members of the Council yielded different numbers than the totals from that night — and indicated that at least two representatives misreported their votes.

Following the vote, some students sought to illustrate that UofC Divest was not about human rights, but about singling out Israel. They proposed a resolution to the college council to divest from Chinese weapon manufacturers due to China’s record of human rights violations and its occupation of Tibet. Council members condemned the resolution — and tabled it indefinitely— claiming it was political and offensive to Chinese students.

DePaul Divest’s Deceptions

On May 2, 2016, Rodriguez shared a photo of himself and anti-Israel demonstrators promoting DePaul Divest, a campaign that aimed to divest from companies doing business with Israel.

Rodriguez held up a sign that made a false and artificial connection between suspected sexual predators on DePaul’s campus and issues in Palestine, that read: "From Palestine to our University SJP DePaul stands against sexual violence and exploitation."

In March 2014, Hanna Alshaikh,the spokesperson for DePaul Divest, wrote on the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada about her efforts to pass BDS resolutions at DePaul: "While most schools have used student government resolutions as their primary political tool, we at DePaul have chosen instead to put the issue up to a student vote, using a referendum to mobilize the student body around the issue." Alshaikh continued, “A referendum, which offers every student a secret vote, will be much less susceptible to influence by lobby groups.”

According to the May 25, 2014 Chicago Tribune article, SJP DePaul "...campaigned for more than a month and intensified their efforts on campus last week. Divestment supporters organized a sit-in in the student center ...." Eventually, the divestment question drew 1,575 “yes” votes and 1,333 “no” votes, appearing at the end of a ballot during the week-long student government elections, that drew about 10 percent of the student body.

On September 30 2014, Alshaikh and other SJP members advocated for more pressure on the school administration, holding a "die-in." At the die-in protesters laid on the ground holding pieces of paper with the names of deceased Palestinians. Two protesters also held a banner that read “Gaza’s blood is on our hands” while other protesters handed out a flyer that called for student action, a “mock apartheid wall,” and a “sit-in.”

The mock apartheid wall was displayed in St. Vincent’s Circle just off DePaul’s Quad for four days. It was timed to coincide with Israel’s Independence Day.

In the weeks leading up to the 2014 divestment vote, Alshaikh wrote an article in the Women’s and Gender Studies newsletter entitled "Why You Should Vote Yes to Divest." Alshaikh made the unfounded and incendiary claim that — “Gender-based violence has historically been used against Palestinians to ethnically cleanse villages since the Nakba (Catastrophe) [sic. Israeli Day of Independence] in 1948.” Alshaikh went on to fraudulently allege that — “Palestinian women are often forced into labor at checkpoints, while being denied access to hospitals by the Israeli military.”

As a result of SJP’s campaign of anti-Israel activity, Jewish students at DePaul also expressed publicly, in a video produced by journalist Paul Miller, how they had been intimidated and how they did not feel safe on campus.

Spreading Anti-Israel Propaganda

On May 14, 2016, Rodriguez shared on Facebook a video by AJ+ (Al Jazeera) that spread lies about Israel and the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict. These claims were refuted and exposed by the Israel Project who produced a video highlighting the falsities and deceptions.

White-washing Hate Speech

On April 1, 2016, Rodriguez attended an event titled "Narratives of Resistance" organized by several organizations including JVP UChicago and SJP U of C. The event featured New York-based poet Remi Kenazi who recites aggressively anti-Israel poetry and Israel-hater Lubna Morrar, who spreads incitement against Israelis in her poems and hatred of America.

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.