Emory Douglas

An April 16, 2016 statement by the delegates demanded “freedom for the 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners currently held in Israeli jails,” omitting that many Palestinians are imprisoned for committing terror attacks.

The statement claimed the delegates were “Inspired by the Palestinian people’s respect for their political prisoners and fallen martyrs—reflected in images on public walls, in moments of silence, in daily conversations.”

The statement also referred to Palestinian youths who engaged in “acts of resistance, which many call a third intifada” and alleged Israel “used the uprisings as pretext for intensifying violence against Palestinian youth.”

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

The statement also called for the Palestinian “right to return,” a demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. 

On September 4, 2015, Douglas promoted on Facebook an art exhibit at the Oakland Palestine Solidarity Mural, to which he contributed. The event sought to make connections “for Bay Area audiences... between the forces of gentrification, land theft, state violence and colonization between the Bay Area and Palestine.”

The event also featured an art project focusing on “the pressing issue of Israeli Apartheid” and a banner that glorified terrorist Rasmea Odeh and described her as “the victim of another politically-motivated witch-hunt.”

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

On July 12, 2014, Douglas shared an article on Facebook in which Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenei was quoted saying that “armed resistance is the only way” to achieve “Israel’s annihilation.”

Douglas indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a March 14, 2014 exhibition, titled “Intifada Street,” by artist Mohammad Hamza.

Hamza’s series of images promoted further intifadas against Israel, glorified airplane hijacker Leila Khaled, and promoted the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” — a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel, that has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.  

Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators

Douglas signed a February 2018 petition by Dream Defenders in support of Ahed Tamimi. The statement also gloried the Tamimi family.

Douglas indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a November 7, 2017 event fundraising for anti-Israel professor Rabab Abdulhadi. Abdulhadi has cultivated ties with terror-supporting universities, glorified terrorists, trivialized the kidnap and murder of Israeli teenagers and endorsed hate speech. The event featured an appearance by Abdulhadi.

Promoting BDS

Douglas was listed as number 114 among the endorsements from cultural workers “POSTED ON APRIL 21, 2016” to the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) website.

On April 16, 2016, Douglas co-authored a statement calling for BDS “of Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid.” He has also created art posters to promote BDS.

In 2010, Douglas called publicly for artist Gil Scott Heron to cancel a scheduled performance in Israel. After Heron canceled, Douglas reportedly commended Heron for backing out of his contract.

Demonizing Israel

Douglas has shared numerous posts and articles on Facebook that demonize Israel, including articles from Press TV, an Iranian propaganda channel described as "a platform for the full fascist conspiracy theory of supernatural Jewish power."

Articles he has shared from Press TV promoted accusations that “Israel poisons Gaza patients” by supplying Gaza hospitals with “killer gas,” and other articles that accused Israel of genocide, of the “Israel lobby” influencing U.S. policy, and claims Israel conspired with the United States to conquer the Middle East.

On June 13, 2018, Douglas shared a video on Facebook by teleSUR that claimed that BDS was not anti-Semitic. In the video, the host, Adriano Contreras said [00:00:54] that Zionism “convinced some Jews in Europe a century ago that they were some unique race incompatible with the rest of the world that had to isolate itself within the borders of a Jewish-only state.”

Contreras also accused [00:01:30] Israel of being an “apartheid state” and charged [00:03:18] that Israel’s goal is “ethnic cleansing.” He went on to claim [00:03:46] that accusations against BDS “are just the latest in an old Zionist tradition to hide their colonial atrocities.”

The April 2016 “Palestinian Prisoners’ Day” statement by a delegation of activists, including Douglas, accused Israel of “summary executions,” a “system of racialized terror,” “state terrorism,” "racist and genocidal policies” and claimed Palestinians are subject to “racial apartheid and vulnerability to extrajudicial execution on a daily basis.”

In 2015, Douglas was a signatory to the Black for Palestine Statement, which laid out a framework for solidarity between Black and Palestinian activists. The statement referred to “Israeli settler colonialism and apartheid, an apparatus built and sustained on ethnic cleansing, land theft, and the denial of Palestinian humanity and sovereignty.”

In 2010, Douglas released a statement berating artist Gil Scott Heron for scheduling a performance in Israel. Douglas wrote: “Why Gil Scott Heron? Are you desperate? Have you lost your mind? Or is it the ‘ME’, I'm the greatest syndrome?” Douglas continued: “The Government of Israel is an Apartheid government. Did you support the Apartheid government of South Africa? If not, why do you support the Apartheid Government of 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.

Social Media and Weblinks

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/emorydouglasart

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emory_Douglas