Faria Tahir

Overview

Faria Tahir has spread hatred of Israel and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, during her tenure on the board of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). She was the 2014-2015 SJP Education and Resources Director at the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA).

As of September 2020, Tahir was the membership chair on the 2019-2020 national board of The Feminist Front (FF). FF’s website describes itself as “AN ORGANIZATION DEDICATED TO FIGHTING WHITE SUPREMACY, ANTI-BLACKNESS, AND SETTLER COLONIALISM.”

FF listed as one of its organizing principles “PRO-PALESTINE AND ANTI-ZIONIST.” FF has also glorified Palestinian violence, accused Israel of apartheid, as well as ethnic cleansing and supports BDS.

As of September 2020, Tahir’s LinkedIn page said she was a Young Professional Internship Coordinator at UN Women USA-LA in Simi Valley, California, since June 2019.

As of the same date, Tahir’s LinkedIn page also said she graduated from UCLA in 2019, with a bachelor’s degree in Gender Studies and Global Health.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On July 19, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas, Tahir shared an article to Facebook titled: “Israel Drops Cancer-inducing Bombs on Gazans.”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

The article Tahir shared claimed Israel conducts weapons testing in Gaza of cancer-causing bombs, as well as using white phosphorus, “mostly” targeting “civilian homes, hospitals and municipal facilities.” It also quoted the anti-Israel source the Electronic Intifada (EI) as reporting that Gazans “have long served as involuntary lab rats for Israel’s weapons industry.”

On July 9, 2014, during OPE, Tahir posted an image on Instagram that said: “APARTHEID BAD FOR SOUTH AFRICA BAD FOR PALESTINE.” 

Tahir’s post included a quote from a Mondoweiss article that said: “it's crucial for us to understand that the true murderers of all the youngsters, Israelis and Palestinians, is the occupation, the apartheid, and the ideological meta-structure of Israeli sovereignty” and referred to “the oppressive machinery of the Israeli government throughout it's history.”

Promoting BDS

On February 25, 2014, Tahir spoke in support of an SJP at UCLA divestment resolution at an Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) meeting to vote on the resolution. 

The resolution reportedly called on UCLA to divest from companies that it claimed “violate Palestinian human rights by indirectly contributing to violent acts that are committed against Palestinians, preventing them from owning property and infringing upon their privacy, among other violations.”

The resolution also reportedly alleged that UCLA shows “implicit support for the decisions and actions” of these companies by investing in them.

On November 15, 2014, Tahir posted an image on Facebook promoting SJP at UCLA’s divestment campaign.

On November 19, 2014, Tahir updated her Facebook cover photo to a photo of students holding letters that spelled out the word “DIVEST” and captioned it: “On Wednesdays, we divest.”

On February 6, 2015, Tahir co-authored an op-ed on behalf of SJP at UCLA in UCLA’s campus newspaper, the Daily Bruin, titled: “Submission: UCSA should follow UC campus’ leads, support divestment.”

Tahir’s op-ed called on the University of California Student Association (UCSA) to vote in favor of a “resolution to divest from companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine.” 

The op-ed claimed, regarding BDS resolutions: “We believe that a UC that isn’t invested in human rights violations is a safer and better place for all students.”

Also on February 6, 2015, Tahir posted an image to Facebook promoting an SJP West campaign calling for the UCSA to adopt SJP UCLA’s divestment resolution. The resolution called on the UC Regents to divest from American-based corporations that “violate Palestinian human rights.”

On February 20, 2015, during public comments at a teleconference held by the Regents of the University of California committee on investments, Tahir reportedly “expressed opposition to UC’s investing in companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and construction of settlements.”

Anti-Israel Activism

On October 29, 2014, Tahir co-authored an op-ed published by SJP leaders in the Daily Bruin, promoting SJP and BDS. The op-ed also encouraged students to attend SJP at UCLA’s Palestine Awareness Week (PAW).

Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding for American audiences of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), originally 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 Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

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.