Emily Parker

Overview

Emily Parker promoted a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution at George Washington University (GWU), in 2018. She has also demonized Israel on Twitter.

As of April 2018, Parker was identified [01:32:42] as an executive director of the refugee advocacy group No Lost Generation (NLG) at GWU for the 2018-2019 academic year.  

NLG at GWU endorsed [p.1] the BDS resolution, which was part of the “#DivestThisTime” BDS campaign at GWU. Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU activists led #DivestThisTime.

As of June 2018, Parker’s LinkedIn page said she was slated to graduate from GWU in 2020, with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Conflict Resolution.

Parker’s LinkedIn page also said she was an intern at the Public International Law & Policy Group since January 2018. She was previously a “Virtual Student Foreign Service Intern” at the U.S. State Department from September to December 2017.  

Supporting BDS

On April 23, 2018, Parker joined [01:32:38] NLG GWU executive director Noor Chaudhry to promote a BDS resolution, titled “The Protection of Palestinian Human Rights Act,” before the GWU Student Association (SA).

The BDS 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.

Israel commenced Operations Cast Lead (OCL), Pillar of Defense (OPD) and Protective Edge (OPE) in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014, respectively, in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.

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.  

The resolution passed [00:21:53] with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions via a secret ballot that denied transparency or accountability to the GWU electorate.

Demonizing Israel

Parker retweeted a June 26, 2017 tweet alleging that Israel prevents Gazans from receiving “basic adequate cancer treatment.”

Parker retweeted a December 21, 2017 tweet that demonized Israeli soldiers and whitewashed anti-Israel agitator Ahed Tamimi.

#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.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Demonizing Israel

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.

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