Danah Mekdad

Overview

Danah Mekdad is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UAB (SJP UAB) and is a supporter of Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).

Mekdad was a freshman at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), majoring in Accounting at UAB’s Collat School of Business.

Mekdad also worked as an office manager at Anaheim Auto Auction, 5600 Oporto Madrid Blvd S, Birmingham, Alabama.

Equating Jews with Nazis

As of October 21, 2016, Mekdad had saved a post to a Pinterest board named "Palestine" composed of two pictures, one of Adolf Hitler, with the caption “We are the master race” and a second picture, of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with the caption “We are God’s chosen people.”

Mekdad underlined her association with the comment — "Think about that!!"

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad’s Pinterest board "Palestine" featured another image with text reading: “Gaza, Concentration/Starvation camp, designed manufactured, frequently bombed and managed by Israel.”

Mekdad’s comment under the image read: "Defense ? Against ? This seen [sic.] looks very familar.... Nazi Germany, Prime Minister Bibi!"

As of August 4, 2016, another an image was pinned to Mekdad’s Pinterest board, dated one year earlier, that offered a definition of "I-ro-ny," reading: “When a people who survived a genocide use it as an excuse to commit genocide.” Below the text appeared a blue Star of David, a Jewish symbol, with blood blotted in the middle. Mekdad commented under the image — “Wake up!”

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad had pinned an image — dated two years earlier — to the Pinterest board named "Palestine," of a handmade sign that accused Israel of practicing apartheid and equated Israel with Nazism. The sign read: “Apartheid, It wasn’t OK in South Africa it wasn’t OK in Nazi Germany, why is it OK in Palestine?”

Mekdad’s comment under the image read — "Why is it okay in Palestine?!?!"

Advocating For The Removal of Israel

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad pinned an image — dated two years earlier — to a Pinterest board named "Palestine," that stated: “Solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict - Relocate Israel into the United States.”

Mekdad commented beneath the graphic, "if only it was that easy."

British Labour Party politician Naz Shah in 2014 was suspended from the party in April 2016 after she shared the same post.

Demonizing Zionists

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad had pinned an image — dated one year earlier — to the Pinterest board named "Palestine," of a customer complaint letter to the soap company Garnier for donating soap to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers during OPE. The letter read: “It is because of Garniers support for these terrorists that I am sending you your Zionist piece of s**t products back. I will not let my family use the same soap that the the Israeli Zionists use to wash Palestinian blood off of their hands.”

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad had pinned an image — dated one year earlier — to the Pinterest board named "Palestine" insinuating that U.S. President Barack Obama deliberately “targeted civilians” and was a terrorist. Mekdad’s comment under the image read “Obama is a terrorist for arming the zionest [sic] Israeli and supporting the massacres in Gaza.”

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad had pinned an image — dated two years earlier — to the Pinterest board named "Palestine," that read: “NOWADAYS everything is made in China, except COWARDS, they are made in Israel.”

As of August 4, 2016, Mekdad pinned an image — dated two years earlier — to the Pinterest board named "Palestine" that featured a Palestinian flag with a caption that read: “If 911 deserves a moment of silence…then Palestine deserves us to never speak again.”

Mekdad hashtagged the image "#Hamas.’

SJP UAB - Solidarity with Terrorists

On May 14, 2012, SJP UAB shared on Facebook a graphic depicting Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail. SJP UAB included a partial list of prisoners and called for “solidarity with the innocent Palestinian prisoners, supporting their legendary hunger strike.”

Hamas military commander Abdullah al-Barghouti was on the SJP UAB list of prisoners. Al-Barghouti was sentenced to 67 life sentences for his role in multiple terrorist attacks, including the 2001 Sbarro Cafe Bombing, which murdered 15 people and wounded more than 120.

Also on the list wereTha'er Halahleh and Bilal Diab, who were both members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) the terror group.

SJP UAB - Hatred of Israel

On March 12, 2013, SJP UAB activists installed a mock “apartheid” wall on campus as part of its Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).

IAWis 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.” It is intended to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The mock apartheid wall display sought to demonize Israel’s security barrier, built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the barrier were built in direct response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

The display also featured a series of maps showing lands previously controlled by Jordan, Egypt and Britain as autonomous “Palestinian Land,” suggesting the land was stolen by Israel. In 2016, copies of a college textbook containing the misleading maps were recalled by publisher McGraw-Hill.

On February 19, 2013, SJP UAB organized a balloon-releasing event, to mark SJP’s opposition to Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (OCL).

Operation Cast Lead (OCL)was commenced by Israel in 2008-09 to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians. Two years later, Hamas admitted that nearly 700 of the Palestinian casualties in OCL were combatants.

SJP UAB’s event featured a banner that labeled OCL a “massacre” and referred to Israel’sblockade of Gaza as a “siege.” The banner read: “4th anniversary of Gaza massacre - the 22 day Israeli invasion & siege on the Gaza strip ‘operation cast lead.’ @SJPUAB honors the fallen with a balloon release.”

The Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza was approved by the United Nations in 2011, as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple attempts have been made to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.

On November 16, 2012, SJP UAB organized a demonstration against Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD). The event’s Facebook description called OPD an “offensive against civilians” and condemned the U.S. government for supporting alleged “atrocities against the Palestinian people.”

Israel launched OPD to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Palestinian terrorist groups fired more than 1,506 rockets at Israel, from November 14 to November 21, 2012, with most of the rockets that hit Israel damaging homes, schools and other civilian areas.

It was noted by Human Rights Watch (HRW) that “Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim.”

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.