Drost Kokoye

Overview

Drost Kokoye [Drost Y. Kokoye] has spread hatred of America and the police. Kokoye has also shown support for a domestic terrorist and a violent criminal

Kokoye has promoted hatred of Zionists and Israel, disrupted a campus lecture, and engaged in anti-Israel activism, including with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (SJP at UTK) in 2016. 

Kokoye was a member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UTK (UTK MSA). In 2016, she was a board member of the American Muslim Advisory Council (AMAC)

Kokoye is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In 2019, Kokoye was arrested for shoplifting at Target. She received six months’ probation and a lifetime ban from all Target stores in the United States.

As of April 2023, Kokoye’s LinkedIn page said she had been a civic engagement coordinator at the American Center for Outreach since June 2014. 

Also as of April 2023, Kokoye’s LinkedIn said she graduated from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2013. 

As of April 2023, Kokoye’s LinkedIn said she was located in Nashville, Tennessee.

As of February 2023, Kokoye went by the username “so many consonants” and the handle “@foreverafugee” on Twitter.

Hatred of America

On October 13, 2020, Kokoye responded to a tweet implying that the ISIS flag should be added to the flags of NATO member countries. 

Kokoye wrote: “what do you mean? America’s flag is right there.”

On June 1, 2020, Kokoye tweeted: “Do you work for a police department? / QUIT. / Do you work for a county Sheriff? / QUIT. / Do you work for the National Guard? Any arm of the military? Jail or prison? / QUIT YOUR JOB. / Quit feeding yourself and your family with blood money from the white supremacist fascist state.”

On May 2, 2018, Kokoye, speaking as an AMAC board member, said [00:05:06]: “We are sitting in occupied territory right now!...This [America] is a country of occupiers.” 

On April 25, 2016, Kokoye tweeted: “... I know three things to be true- Trump is always wrong, Bush did 9/11, and bananas are a bottoms up fruit.”

Hatred of the Police

On June 7, 2020, Kokoye tweeted: “@NashvilleFire [Nashville Fire Department] yall down or yall pigs too?” in response to a tweet that said: “Thankfully in France, firefighters are just beating the s**t out of cops instead…”

On April 12, 2021, Kokoye tweeted: “abolish police.” Her tweet was in response to a tweet that said: “So, we’ve learned police officers shouldn’t have guns. Now what the f**k are we going to do about it?!”

Kokoye retweeted a February 12, 2023 tweet that said: “ ‘Police are the crime’…” The tweet included a photo with the same words spray-painted on a wall.

Supporting a Domestic Terrorist and a Violent Criminal

Kokoye retweeted a December 28, 2022 tweet that consisted of a quote from convicted domestic terrorist Assata Shakur that said: “‘Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.’”

Assata Shakur was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and wounding another in 1973 while a member of the Black Liberation Army (BLA). She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba in 1984, where she resides today. She is listed on the FBI Most Wanted Terror List under her legal name, Joanne Deborah Chesimard.


Kokoye retweeted a November 23, 2022 tweet that said: “Mutulu Shakur has been granted parole and is need of release funds. You can donate…Please support this elder!”

Mutulu Shakur, brother of Assata Shakur, was a Black Liberation Army (BLA) member convicted for his involvement in a 1981 Brinks robbery where two police officers and one Brinks security guard were murdered. He was also involved in the 1979 prison break of his sister and fellow BLA member Assata, who was jailed for the murder of a police officer in 1973.  

On February 16, 2015, Kokoye tweeted: “‘We have nothing to lose but our chains.’ #AssataShakur #BlackHistoryTaughtMe #AssataTaughtMe.”

Hatred of Zionists

On October 5, 2012, Kokoye tweeted: “Zionist is to Jews as Terrorist is to Muslims.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.


On November 19, 2012, Kokoye tweeted: “...Zionists have the most powerful lobbyists in the US.”

Authors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's 2007 book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," invokes the conspiracy theory of Israeli and Jewish control over the U.S. government. Proponents of the theory decry the negative effects on American interests, particularly in foreign policy.

On November 30, 2014, Kokoye tweeted: “#ISIS is to #Kurdistan what #Zionists are to #Palestine…”

On August 22, 2016, Kokoye tweeted: “anti-Zionist all day. #FreePalestine #IsraelIsAnApartheidState.”

Kokoye retweeted a December 1, 2022 tweet that said: “[American comedian] Zack Fox is trending so I have to post this video of him saying ‘Free Palestine, Zion*sts eat s**t’…”

Hatred of Israel

On August 6, 2014, Kokoye tweeted: “#Israel, #ISIS, all the same. disgracing faith for bloody gain.”

Kokoye wrote her tweet during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.

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

On October 7, 2017, Kokoye tweeted: “...IDF [Israel Defence Forces] IS A TERROR GROUP…”

On July 1, 2020, Kokoye tweeted: “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free #FreePalestine…”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.


On May 15, 2021, Kokoye tweeted: “Be at the Palestine action for the liberation of Palestine…”

Kokoye wrote her tweet during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against terrorists in Gaza.

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

Kokoye retweeted a November 3, 2022 tweet after the Russian invasion of Ukraine that said the Ukrainian “regime identifies fully with Israeli apartheid colonialism and barbarity.”

Disrupting a Campus Lecture

On February 23, 2016, Kokoye disrupted [00:00:16] a lecture on the history of Israel given at the University of Tennessee by American University professor Michael Brenner.

During Brenner’s lecture, Kokoye and other anti-Israel activists held signs that read: “Israel is an apartheid state,” and later staged a walk-out. Kokoye appeared [00:00:24] wearing a white hijab and holding a sign while staring at the professor.

Also on February 23, 2016, Kokoye tweeted a link to her blog article that described the walk-out.

In the article, Kokoye described Israel as an “occupation-bloodstained state.” The article also contained a flyer that Drost and others distributed at the lecture which claimed the “Jewish State” was deemed by “the United Nations Security Council, The United Nations General Assembly and the International Court of Justice as illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine since 1948.”

The flyer also claimed Zionism’s goal was to “ethnically cleanse Palestine in order to establish the state of Israel” and that an “anti-Zionist” was “someone who is against the ethnic-cleasing of any people to make room for a Jewish state.”

Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, MSA)

On March 2, 2016, as part of Israeli Apartheid Week, Kokoye helped table an SJP at UTK display of their mock “apartheid” wall, which had text that claimed: “Israel is an apartheid state.” 

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

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.
The SJP at UTK mock apartheid wall included a variation of a series of maps popular with anti-Israel activists.

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.


On October 26, 2015, Kokoye tweeted a photo of herself with anti-Israel activist Remi Kanazi from an SJP at UTK-hosted event. 

Poet Remi Kanazi is known for his aggressively anti-Israel spoken-word performances. He has supported terrorism and has compared Israel to both ISIS and the Ku Klux Klan.


Kokoye was listed on Facebook as having attended a July 18, 2014 joint SJP at UTK–UTK MSA demonstration. The protest was held in opposition to Israel’s OPE and claimed: “Israel has targeted homes, HOSPITALS, mosques, and other civilian infrastructure.”

During OPE, the IDF targeted sections of Gaza’s Al-Wafa hospital, which Hamas used as a command center.  

At the demonstration, anti-Israel protesters held a sign that said: “The USA funds Israel to BOMB Gaza’s hospitals.” 

Hamas fired rockets from Shifa Hospital (Shifa) at Israeli population centers during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas misfires also struck Shifa and the nearby al-Shati refugee camp. Hamas cleanup crews then concealed the evidence of the misfires, as was confirmed by Amnesty International and an independent Italian journalist.  


Also during OPE, Kokoye led a July 11, 2014 protest, titled: “Protest Global Unrest In Palestine, Syria, Burma, Kurdistan...THE WORLD.” At the protest, Kokoye held a megaphone and sign that said: “[Then-U.S. President] Obama, Freeze all aid to Israel Now!” 

On July 9, 2014, Kokoye posted a flyer on Twitter that promoted the July 11 protest. She was listed on the flyer as the official contact person for the protest.

The day after the protest, Kokoye tweeted the anti-Israel chants: “[Then-Israeli Prime Minister] @netanyahu, what do you say? How many kids have you killed today? / From the river to the sea, #Palestine will be free. #ProtestTheUnrest.” 

On the same day, Kokoye tweeted other anti-Israel chants: “1234, stop the killing, stop the wars! 5678, we will not negotiate! / Brick by brick, wall by wall, @Israel #apartheid has to fall!”

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.



MSA

The MSA was  established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations." 


The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.


The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.  


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.


Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/drost.kokoye 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/foreverafugee 

Twitter 2:https://twitter.com/DrostK [Defunct]

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/drost-kokoye-9911858b 

Instagram:https://instagram.com/drostkokoye/ [Deleted]

Pinterest:https://www.pinterest.com/dkokoyeyu/

Blog:https://drostkokoye.wordpress.com/

Videos

2 videos

Photos & Screenshots

57 images

Infamous Quotes

“Do you work for a police department? / QUIT. / Do you work for a county Sheriff? / QUIT. / Do you work for the National Guard? Any arm of the military? Jail or prison? / QUIT YOUR JOB. / Quit feeding yourself and your family with blood money from the white supremacist fascist state.”  
“... I know three things to be true- Trump is always wrong, Bush did 9/11, and bananas are a bottoms up fruit.”
“...Zionists have the most powerful lobbyists in the US.”
“Zionist is to Jews as Terrorist is to Muslims.”
“...IDF [Israel Defence Forces] IS A TERROR GROUP…”
  “anti-Zionist all day. #FreePalestine
“#Israel, #ISIS, all the same. disgracing faith for bloody gain.”
“We are sitting in occupied territory right now!...This [America] is a country of occupiers.”