Dina El-Baradie

Overview

Dina El-Baradie has spread hatred of Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

El-Baradie was a coordinator of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at McGill University (McGill), from 2014 to 2015.

In December 2021, El-Baradie presented a paper at the annual meeting of the anti-Israel Middle East Studies Association (MESA). In March 2022, 80 percent of MESA members voted in favor of an academic boycott of Israel.

As of September 2022, El-Baradie’s LinkedIn said she was a member of SPHR from 2011 to 2015.

Also as of September 2022, El-Baradie’s LinkedIn said she was a PhD student of Modern Middle East History at Georgetown University (Georgetown), and had graduated from SOAS University of London (SOAS) with a master's degree in Near and Middle Eastern Studies in 2019. El-Baradie’s LinkedIn also said she graduated from McGill with a bachelor’s degree in International Business in 2015.

As of the same date, El-Baradie’s LinkedIn said she was located in the “United States.” However, her Facebook About page said she was located in “London, United Kingdom,” while her Twitter account said she was located in “Montreal.”

Hatred of Israel

On March 16, 2017, El-Baradie posted to Facebook: “I just don't understand how they're such a big bully to take down. THE WHOLE WORLD CAN SEE YOU. #endapartheid #israeliapartheid #notadebate #bds #freepalestine.” She was responding to a Facebook post from the Independent news site that said: “Landmark moment,” and included a link to their article titled: “UN accuses Israel of Apartheid for the first time.”

In March 2017, a UN commission composed of 18 Arab states produced a report claiming Israel established an “apartheid regime.” Anti-Israel professor Richard Falk co-authored the report. Soon after the report’s release, UN Secretary General Antonió Guterres ordered it withdrawn, claiming the report was published without consultation with Guterres’s office and it did not reflect the UN secretariat’s views.

On September 10, 2014, El-Baradie posted to Facebook: “When you walk by a Caterpillar Inc. doing construction on the McGill University campus and all you can think of is how the same piece of s**t vehicle is currently mowing down both homes and humans in #Palestine. #BDS #boycottIsrael #EndApartheid.”

Caterpillar Inc. “has become one of the foremost corporate targets of BDS”because it sells its products to Israel. Opponents of BDS campus campaigns emphasize that “pro-BDS student activism leads to a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents and bias reporting on campus.”

Supporting BDS

On September 24, 2018, El-Baradie posted to Facebook a photo of a flyer promoting SOAS Palestine society and BDS campaigns at SOAS. El-Baradie captioned the photo: “Looks like I can actually focus on my studies this time.. #jk [just kidding] stillworktodo #soas #bds #freepalestine.”

El-Baradie signed a March 8, 2016 letter titled: “McGill alumni support BDS.” The letter said: “We congratulate and celebrate with all of you whose tireless work…successfully mobilized more than 2,100 undergraduate students to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

The letter also stated: “we are disgusted...by an email sent from McGill principal Suzanne Fortier” to students and alumni that condemned BDS “in the name of ‘the tolerance and respect we cherish as values fundamental to a university.’”

The letter went on to list companies it alleged “actively support and profit from the occupation, incarceration, and murder of Palestinians.”

On February 23, 2016, El-Baradie posted to Facebook celebrating a BDS motion passed by the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)’s General Assembly. El-Baradie wrote “...I feel like a proud mama ❤️❤️❤️❤️ #YESTOBDS.”

In March 2015, El-Baradie was a proponent of a BDS campaign at McGill with a resolution that ultimately failed to pass at the SSMU’s General Assembly.

On December 3, 2014, El-Baradie posed for an SPHR photo campaign holding a sign, which said about Israel’s Technion University: “TECHNION prides itself on developing weapons & drone technologies used to maintain the occupation - why do we have a bilateral exchange w/ them?? #BDS #breakthesilence.”

McGill BDS

On March 15, 2015, the McGill chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) presented the General Assembly of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) with a motion calling on McGill to boycott five companies doing business in Israel. The motion failed by 64 votes after an “intense” 45-minute debate. SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

On February 22, 2016, the McGill BDS Action Network presented a “motion to support BDS” to the General Assembly of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).

The motion called for the SSMU to “support campaigns associated with the BDS movement.” It also called for the SSMU president to recommend to McGill’s board of governors “no less than the complete divestment of holdings” in companies doing business in Israel. According to one source, the motion reportedly passed 512 to 357.

On February 25, 2016, BDS supporters reportedly targeted Jewish students on social media with anti-Semitic remarks such as: “Little Zionist jewboys not happy that McGill students don’t support their genocide.”

The Montreal Gazette reported that after the vote, one student was “followed home and verbally harassed,” while another “was going to the police” to report an attempt to hack his Facebook page. A campaigner against the initiative said he knew of at least 10 students who sought counseling due to “intolerable situations” caused by their opposition to the motion.

On February 27, 2016, the BDS initiative lost the subsequent online ratification vote when 57 percent of the voters voted against it. Following the announcement of that vote, then-McGill principal and vice-chancellor Suzanne Fortier issued a statement confirming that the university’s administration “continues to steadfastly oppose” and “will have no part of” the BDS movement.

In 2016, the Algemeiner ranked McGill fourth on a list of North America’s 40 “worst” campuses for Jewish students.

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.

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.