Elizabeth Rhoads
Overview
Elizabeth Rhoads [Biz Rhoads] was active in a 2018 Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement campaign at George Washington University (GWU), called #DivestThisTime.Rhoads is affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU), whose activists led the #DivestThisTime BDS campaign.
According to an April 24, 2018 Instagram post, Rhoads is slated to graduate from GWU in 2021.
BDS Activism
On March 24, 2018, Rhoads appeared [00:00:24] in the #DivestThisTime promotional [00:02:37] Facebook video.Also on March 24, 2018, Rhoads posed for a Facebook photo promoting #DivestThisTime, holding a sign that said “we need to acknowledge the violation of the Palestinian right to life COLLECTIVELY.”
On the same day, Rhoads posted the photo on her Facebook page. She also posted a Facebook photo promoting #DivestThisTime with an SJP at GWU activist holding a sign that said: “I refuse to be complicit in war profiteering.”
On April 23-24, 2018, the GWU Student Association (SA) held a hearing on the BDS resolution associated with the #DivestThisTime campaign. The resolution passed [00:21:53] with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions in a secret ballot vote.
The resolution implied that “Israel is the worst apartheid regime” and that Israel imposes “forced labour” on Palestinians. It also implied that Israel divides “its population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups.”
The resolution portrayed Israeli military campaigns against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as deliberate attempts to kill children and civilians. It also singled out Israel for alleged violations of the Geneva Convention and war crimes.
Three of the resolution’s four co-sponsors voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] acknowledging that “Israel is a state and has the right to exist” and that Israelis have the “right to safety, security and self-determination.” The fourth co-sponsor abstained.
Anti-Israel Activism
On April 13, 2018, Rhoads indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an event titled: “2018 Boats to Gaza Fundraiser in Washington, DC,” featuring anti-Israel activist Ann Wright.Wright’s event sought to raise money and recruit volunteers for a “Gaza Freedom Flotilla” that summer in order to “break the illegal Israeli blockade of the open-air prison called Gaza.” The event page alleged the Israeli military was “murdering Palestinians in Gaza.”
Israel and Egypt implemented a U.N.-approved joint blockade of the Gaza Strip to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.
On March 23, 2018, Rhoads indicated on Facebook she “went” to an SJP at GWU event featuring anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi.
On March 21, 2018, Rhoads indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a SJP at GWU event titled: “Reciprocal Solidarity: Black and Palestinian Queer Struggles.”
The event featured Saed Atshan, an anti-Israel professor who was deemed a security threat to Israel and denied entry into the West Bank when leading a trip he organized for Swarthmore students in his Israeli-Palestinian Conflict class.
On March 20, 2018, Rhoads indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an SJP at GWU event titled: “From DC to Palestine Forced Displacement is a Crime.”
On March 4, 2018, Rhoads appeared [00:00:53] in a Youtube video from a rally that day against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
The stated mission of AIPAC is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
At the rally, Hamideh said [00:02:23]: “There is no other classification for AIPAC other than being a criminal lobby that controls American foreign affairs and, in particular, fully responsible for the illegal occupation of Palestine.”
#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Instigated by SJP at GWU
On March 24, 2018, student groups at GWU launched the second BDS campaign in two years; both were titled “#DivestThisTime.” Activists with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU) led both campaigns.On the campaign launch day, #DivestThisTime released a Facebook promotional video, in which activists alleged [00:01:23] that Israel has committed “crimes against humanity.” They also claimed [00:03:34] that Palestinians are “bombed every day” and blamed Israel [00:02:06] for police violence against black Americans in Ferguson, Missouri.
SJP at GWU held five events leading up to the launch of #DivestThisTime, which formed part of its 2018 Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). 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 BDS movement.
#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Demonizing Israel
During the hearing, many Jewish students said [01:09:05] they experienced [01:24:45] anti-Semitism related to #DivestThisTime. One student spoke [00:50:40] about the Jewish community’s pain when “this hateful and divisive resolution was proposed over Passover.” One Jewish Israeli-American student said [00:48:05] it “creates an environment where I am made to feel that my identity is taboo” at GWU.
One black Jewish student said [01:39:24] that an SJP activist told him he was “weaponizing” his identity when he asked why a clause mentioning the “discriminatory conditions black people face in the Gaza Strip under Palestinian leadership” was omitted from the resolution.
SJP at GWU activists mocked [00:52:48] or dismissed [00:39:50] concerns over anti-Semitism. Other resolution supporters voiced agreement [00:45:40] with the SJP at GWU activists, including one who claimed [01:04:13] that resolution opponents were stoking “racial fears and sowing the divisions.”
A number of Jewish students walked out [00:35:19] of the hearing to protest [00:33:21] the resolution and to protest the SA’s inaction to combat anti-Semitism within its own ranks.
On April 24, 2018, three of the four resolution co-sponsors — Joshua Gomez, Eden Vitoff and Shaheera Jalil Albasit — voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] that said: “Palestinians and Israelis, like all people, have the right to safety, security, and self-determination” and “Israel is a state and has the right to exist.” Jessica Martinez, the other co-sponsor, abstained [00:10:06].
On May 10, 2018, Al Jazeera published a report on Youtube about #DivestThisTime. SJP at GWU activists spoke [00:01:47] to passers-by on campus and stood next to a display [00:01:43] labeled the “Israeli Apartheid Wall” that demonized Israel’s security barrier.
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
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
Twitter:https://twitter.com/bizrhoads [Private]
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/bizrhoads/ [Private]
