Dareen El-Sayed
Overview
SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). For more information, see the McMaster SPHR Chapter Profile.
El-Sayed is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Her third-year capstone project was titled: “WHY BDS MATTERS.”
El-Sayed was co-president of McMaster Muslims for Peace and Justice (MMPJ) in the 2016-2017 academic year and was on the executive team in 2015-2016. MMPJ co-hosted multiple Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) events with McMaster SPHR between 2015 and 2017, which El-Sayed attended.
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is 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” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
El-Sayed graduated [p. 9] from McMaster in 2020 with a master’s degree in globalization and a bachelor’s degree [p. 12] in life sciences in 2019.
Hatred of Israel and Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)
On March 13, 2015, El-Sayed set her Facebook cover photo to a photo of participants in a “die-in” held to protest a delegation of Israeli students who were visiting the campus to promote dialogue.El-Sayed wrote: “Our Flash Mob…Stand up against the ongoing violations of Palestinian human rights...Say YES to BDS.” The event was organized by McMaster SPHR leaders.
On that date, the McMaster Student Union (MSU) voted in favor of a BDS resolution at its annual General Assembly. The vote was the culmination of a BDS campaign organized by student groups including McMaster SPHR and MMPJ.
The event featured a “mock apartheid wall” labeled “Barrier to Peace,” and infographics that called Gaza “An Open Air Prison.”
The “mock apartheid wall” is a series of panels meant to represent Israel's security barrier, which was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks and in response to Palestinian sniper attacks. Panels feature misleading statistics and “facts” that present a skewed image of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
On December 5, 2016, El-Sayed shared on Facebook a McMaster SPHR video about BDS and wrote: “how about a sneak peak into my third year capstone project: WHY BDS MATTERS…”
The video claimed [00:02:05] that Israel had “been refusing to conform to international law, only focusing on its apartheid-like, settler-colonialist regime.”
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
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.
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.
- Status:
- Unknown
- University:
- McMaster
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- MMPJ,
- more...
- Related Profiles:
- Ahmed Fajem,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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