Ellis Garey

Overview

Ellis Emma Garey was the President of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at New York University (NYU).

Garey graduated from NYU in 2015 with a degree in Sociology and Middle East Studies. She is currently a graduate student at NYU and involved with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

She is currently a development and communications intern at the Arab-American Family Support Center in New York City.

SJP NYU

In the early hours of April 24 2014, Garey and other SJP members slipped fake eviction notices under the doors of over 2000 students living in two student residence halls at NYU. The notices ordered the students to leave their dorm rooms, declaring that their suites were "scheduled for demolition within three days."

The notices threatened: "If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on 25 April, 2014 we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings. We cannot be held responsible for property or persons remaining inside the premises."

NYU spokesman John Beckman released a statement saying that the tactic crossed the line, because the manner in which the flyers were distributed was not consistent with the university’s tradition of professional discourse. Instead, according to NYU, the flyers were meant to "simply provoke":

"A flyer titled ‘eviction notice’ anonymously slipped under doors at night is not an invitation to thoughtful, open discussion...It is disappointingly inconsistent with standards we expect to prevail in a scholarly community," Beckman said.

Several Jewish NYU students said that the notice was an attempt to intimidate them. According to at least one source, the eviction notices specifically targeted Jewish students by distributing the notices in a dormitory where many Jewish students reside, because it has a special elevator for the Sabbath.

SJP disputed this claim, noting that some of the flyer distributors were Jewish —such as Garey— who insisted:

"As a Jewish student I was proud to participate in this [eviction notice] action and I think it’s also important to recognize that the reason we were taking part in this action wasn’t to make anyone feel unsafe in their homes, it was to educate people."

Despite Garey’s protestations, the fact is that some students felt intimidated and violated by this microaggression. At the very least, SJP’s assault on 2000 students in the safe space of their dorm rooms constituted unjustified collective punishment.

NYU spokesman John Beckman released a statement saying that the prank crossed the line, because the manner in which the flyers were distributed was not consistent with the university’s tradition of professional discourse. Instead, according to NYU, the flyers were meant to "simply provoke":

"A flyer titled ‘eviction notice’ anonymously slipped under doors at night is not an invitation to thoughtful, open discussion...It is disappointingly inconsistent with standards we expect to prevail in a scholarly community," Beckman said.

One year later, SJP doubled-down and celebrated the anniversary of the eviction notice caper on its Facebook page, proclaiming "We continue to be proud of this action.

In May 2014, Garey and SJP members staged a "die-in" protest on the NYU campus with the stated goal of “calling attention to Israel’s ongoing project of ethnic cleaning in the occupied Palestinian territories.” The group called for the destruction for the State of Israel, chanting “tear it down, occupation, tear it down, Zionist state!”

In April 2015, SJP hosted an event called "Israeli Racism and Apartheid: An Insider’s View." The talk featured Haneen Zoabi —a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) — who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions.

Haneen Zoabi, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, has a long history of inciting violence. In 2014, she was suspended from the legislature after defending the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by the terror group Hamas, and who were later found executed in a field. In 2015, a criminal investigation was opened against Zoabi after she reportedly condoned anti-Israel violence and called for a new intifada.

Pushing BDS on Campus

Garey endorsed the BDS movement in her capacity as SJP Co-President and as a member of NYU Divest. She also collected signatures to call on the pension fund TIAA-CREF, NYU’s retirement fund, to divest from corporations that profit from Israeli operations.

In an April 15, 2015 letter Garey co-authored in the NYU student newspaper, she also endorsed NYU Out of Occupied Palestine (NOOP), a campus coalition of students, student organizations and faculty that urges the university "to divest from companies that fail to meet their ethical standards. This includes divesting from corporations that profit from the occupation of Palestine and fossil fuels." NOOP’s under-handed messaging handcuffs the efforts to stop the global harm caused by fossil fuel extraction (which NYU Divest presents as “one the most pressing environmental and human rights issue facing this planet,”) to SJP’s desire to destroy Zionism through the boycott of Israeli universities, Israeli scholars, and companies.

Garey enthusiastically promotes the discredited, nefarious notion that Zionism equals racism.

Per Garey’s letter: "NYU SJP is committed to ending racism and colonialism within all of Israel and the Palestinian territories with the understanding that the violations in the occupied territories are the necessary consequences of Zionism." (emphasis added.)

One should also note that Garey’s agenda extends to well beyond the Middle East. Her desire to extinguish Zionism — the national revival movement of the Jewish people, holding that the Jews have the right to self-determination in their ancestral national homeland — is, literally, global.

Garey’s letter insists "[i]t’s time the NYU community makes another critical contribution to dismantling oppression, racism, and imperialism on a global scale by divesting from companies that enable Israeli apartheid," (Emphasis added).

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/ellis.garey [Deactivated]

Twitter:http://twicsy.com/u/ellisemmagarey [Deleted]

Instagram:https://instagram.com/ellisgarey/

Google+:https://plus.google.com/115378719701665460563/about