Diyala Shihadih

 
The April 2014 resolution was introduced by Robyn Huey, who served as a Senator for Associated Students of the University of California, Davis (ASUCD) for the 2014-2015 academic year and was authored by SJP activist at UC Davis, Saliem Shehadeh.

Also co-authoring the April 2014 resolution were SJP activists Hiba Saeed, Abire Sabbagh, Neda Awwad, Kabir Kapur and Hina Moheyuddin.

SR#20 called on the University of California to divest from holdings in companies “that aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories.” 

SR#20 failed on May 9, 2014, with the student senate vote evenly divided and the ASUCD Vice President abstaining from breaking the tie, resulting in a 5-5-3 vote. 

On May 19, 2014, Shihadih signed an open letter, published in the UC Davis campus newspaper, condemning the ASUCD Senate for not passing the divestment resolution. The letter Shihadih signed claimed that those voting against the resolution considered “the tears of the anti-divestment community worth more than Palestinian blood."

Shihadih was the principal author of an expanded version of the 2014 resolution in January 2015, titled: “ASUCD Senate Resolution #9 (SR #9). 

Also working on SR #9 with Shihadih were fellow SJP activists, Maheen Ahmed, Susan Alkadri, Neda Awwad, Leslie Do, Reem Fatayerji, Marcelle-Alexandra Obeid, Evan Sandlin, Saliem Shehadeh and Azka Fayyaz, who introduced the resolution.

On January 29, 2015, a student senate hearing was called to present the resolution. Following speeches for and against the resolution, the students opposing the resolution, who reportedly constituted “about a third of the attendees,” walked out [00:06:51] of the room.

As those opposing divestment left the room, a large group of pro-divestment students chanted [00:00:05] “Allahu Akhbar!” [God is the Greatest].

The January 2015 resolution, of which Shihadih was the principal author, passed with a vote of 8-2-2.

A week after the resolution passed, unidentified vandals spray-painted two large swastikas on a house belonging to the Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi).

UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi issued a statement that the January 2015 divestment resolution that Shihadih authored did not reflect the position of UC Davis or the University of California system. The Board and Office of the President had earlier issued a statement affirming the Board’s position that student calls to action would not be entertained. UC Davis’ investment policy is set by the UC Board of Regents.

The January 2015 resolution was overturned as unconstitutional by the university’s Court of Associated Students, on the grounds that it was a “primarily a political document,” with insufficient relevance to student welfare on campus. 

In May 2015, SJP at UCD responded by proposing a new resolution, which Shihadih co-authored with Marcelle-Alexandra Obeid, then-SJP at UCD president, titled: “ASUCD Senate Resolution #17 (SR #17).” Other co-authors included Ahmed, Alkadri, Awwad, Do, Fayyaz, Mariano, Metovic and Shehadeh. 

SR #17 was introduced by Anas Tresh, who served as a Senator for Associated Students at UC Davis (ASUCD), in 2015-2016.

The resolution alleged that “enabling Israel’s occupation of Palestine compromises the integrity of students’ education” and claimed that divesting “will create a climate of tolerance and open channels of dialogue between different campus communities.”

The May 2015 resolution passed, 10-0-2 but was later ruled unconstitutional by the ASUCD Judicial Council in May 2019. 

The Council noted that the resolution violated the ASUCD Bill of Student Rights, because its passage “led to the discrimination and harassment of students whose ethnicity, national origin or political beliefs are in opposition to the content of the Resolution.” 

The Council emphasized that “the verbiage within the Resolution has caused the harassment of many students.” 

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On June 7, 2018, Shihadih promoted on Facebook the 2018 Ghassan Kanafani Resistance Arts Scholarship, sponsored by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). PYM has expressed support for terrorists, promoted incitement to violence and advocated for the dissolution of the State of Israel. 

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.  

On May 14, 2018, during the March of Return riots then occurring on Israel’s Gaza border, Shihadih promoted on Facebook a May 15, 2018 rally titled: “Rally to Commemorate the Day of the Nakba.” The rally was hosted by the Palestine Action Network in San Francisco, CA.

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.

On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.

The Facebook description of the rally Shihadih promoted urged: “Join the Transnational Great Return March, a global effort to mobilize Palestinians globally and to show support for the Great Return March in Gaza - show your dissent against the continuation of Israeli colonization, the move of the US embassy to Jerusalem and US-Zionist collusion against oppressed peoples globally!”


On July 12, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Shihadih wrote on Facebook: “It has been 7 days since the start of Israel’s siege on Gaza, Operation protective edge...I am horrified and so sorry that I am complicit in these actions through my college tuition os US taxes [sic]. This terror must come to an end…”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/742001281

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/diyala-shihadih-98b645173/