Eva-Maria Soto

Overview

Eva Maria Soto is a member of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at Portland State University (PSU), an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Soto is a 2013 graduate from PSU and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Soto is an adjunct faculty member at Portland State University (PSU) where she teaches first, second and third year Spanish. She also works as a private Spanish teacher.

Soto is also a tutor at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization and the international section editor and a photographer for The Rearguard, a student-run publication at PSU.

Vilifying Israel

On July 25, 2014, Soto wrote on Facebook: "Zionism has got to go #GazaDayofAction" alongside a photo from an anti-Israel rally she attended. The photo featured a woman holding a sign reading: “STOP THE GAZA GENOCIDE.”

On August 8, 2014, Soto shared an image on Facebook calling Operation Protection Edge (OPE) a "MASSACRE."

On July 17, 2014, Soto wrote on her blog (original in Spanish starting at "Palestina lucha…"): “Palestine is fighting, Palestine is defending itself, it is not being massacred without response, Palestine is resisting. Palestine will win, with the help of all. Palestine will be free.” Soto also shared the quote on Facebook.

On August 25, 2013, Soto posted a SUPER photo accusing Israel of "apartheid."

Defending a Terrorist

On February 26, 2016, Soto expressed support on Facebook for convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

Endorsing an Anti-Semite

On April 9, 2015, Soto posed for a photo with Professor Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB), after SUPER hosted Salaita at PSU earlier that evening.

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

Soto has also supported Salaita on social media.

Promoting Anti-Israel Propaganda

On May 2, 2014, Soto promoted a book titled ‘The Battle for Justice in Palestine’ by anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: "Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit." SUPER hosted Abunimah less than two weeks later.

On December 24, 2013, Soto promoted a book by BDS founder Omar Barghouti titled "BDS."

Supporting BDS at PSU

On October 24, 2016, Soto was present for this BDS vote. "

On October 24, 2016, SUPER authored a BDS resolution which was passed by the ASPSU. The resolution, which attempts to portray the State of Israel as a modern incarnation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the university to divest from companies with ties to the Jewish state in an effort to discourage these companies from doing further business with Israel.

SUPER - BDS Passed at PSU

On October 24, 2016, Soto was present for this BDS vote. "

On October 24, 2016, SUPER authored a BDS resolution which passed the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), the PSU student government.

The resolution, which attempts to portray the State of Israel as a modern incarnation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the university to divest from companies with ties to the Jewish state in an effort to discourage these companies from doing further business with Israel.

SUPER - Honoring Terrorists

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted its Palestinian Cultural Night where the group set up multiple displays honoring terrorists. Among them were Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members Leila Khaled and Rasmea Odeh.

Khaled hijacked airplanes with the PFLP in 1969 and 1970 while Odeh masterminded a 1969 bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket and also attempted to bomb the British consulate. Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated her as the mastermind.

The same event honored the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat and senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi, as well as Haneen Zoabi — a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) — who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions.

On November 19, 2014, SUPER hosted an event exclusively supporting Odeh.

On March 1, 2014, SUPER hosted another Palestinian Cultural Night where they honored Arafat.

SUPER - Bringing Anti-Israel Speakers to PSU

On May 23, 2016, SUPER hosted an event featuring Nada Elia who — in October of 2015, while Palestinians across Israel stabbed scores of Israeli civilians during the "Knife Intifada" — wrote an article titled “Why Be Afraid of an Intifada?” where she said “Intifadas are good.”

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi who is known for his aggressively anti-Israel performances.

On April 9, 2015, SUPER hosted Professor Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

On February 24, 2015, SUPER hosted BDS founder Omar Barghouti and Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director of anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

On May 13, 2014, SUPER hosted anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: "Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit."

On December 13, 2013, SUPER hosted terror supporter Eva Bartlett.

On May 25, 2012, SUPER hosted blood libel propagator Jasbir Puar who has claimed that Israel harvests Palestinian organs and stunts Palestinian growth.

On February 25, 2012, SUPER hosted conspiracy theorist As’ad Abu Khalil who said two weeks earlier that among the "anti-Semitic kooks" within the Palestinian movement were possibly “infiltrators to sabotage our cause and smear our campaigns.”

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.