Fatima Rimawi
Overview
In 2010-2011, Rimawi was listed on Columbia University's (Columbia) Muslim Students Association (MSA) web page as Community Affairs Chair.
As of September 2019, Rimawi’s LinkedIn page said she received her master’s degree in “Near and Middle Eastern Studies,” from Barnard College (Barnard) in 2012.
Also as of September 2019, Rimawi’s LinkedIn page said that she attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein) of Yeshiva University, from 2014-2018.
On May 29, 2018, Einstein published a video to YouTube of their commencement ceremony, where Rimawi can be seen receiving her diploma.
Demonizing Israel
On May 31, 2018, Rimawi shared a post to Facebook that demonized an article written by Wahajat Ali in The Atlantic, titled “A Muslim Among Israeli Settlers.”In his article, Ali had criticized Palestinians who choose violence, writing that Palestinians who “use and abuse religion to validate hate and sanction violence would realize that they didn’t have to give their life or their children’s lives to defend this place.”
The post Rimawi shared accused Ali of portraying Palestinians as “warped, degraded, debased” and decried that “nowhere in the entire article does Ali attribute hate, abuse of religion, or sanctioning of violence to the settlers or Israeli state.”
Rimawi co-wrote an article, originally published on April 12, 2010 and updated on March 29, 2013, in Columbia’s weekly student newspaper, the Columbia Spectator, titled: “The Palestinian Gandhis.” Rimawi co-wrote the article with fellow CSJP activists Matt Swagler, Randa Wahbe, Alaa Milbes and Dayana Khatib.
The article claimed that “Israel has used aggression to crush the peaceful resistance methodically” and went on to accuse Israel of “the illegal occupation and colonization of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.”
On November 24, 2012, Rimawi signed a “Gaza Solidarity Statement,” following Israel’sOperation Pillar of Defense (OPD).
Israel launched OPD to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Over the course of eight days in November 2012, Palestinian terrorist groups fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel. The majority struck Israel, damaging homes, schools and other civilian areas. Human Rights Watch noted: “Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim.”
The statement Rimawi signed claimed: “Casualties on both sides in the recent hostilities are a consequence of Israeli aggression” and accused Israel of “collective punishment on Gazans for democratically electing Hamas.”
SJP Activism
Rimawi co-authored another article, originally published on March 2, 2010 and updated on March 27, 2013, with fellow CSJP activists Khatib, Rahim Kurwa, Milbes, Swagler and Wahbe, for the Columbia Spectator, titled: “Israel, peace not apartheid.”
The article talked about CSJP’s “on-campus initiatives” during the sixth annual IAW. “It is important to note that Israeli Apartheid Week is meant to raise awareness about the nature of Israeli apartheid.”
The article also discussed CSJP building a mock apartheid wall as part of IAW, meant to simulate Israel’s security barrier. The article said: “In erecting a mock-wall on campus, we are essentially calling for that wall to be completely deconstructed and torn down.”
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
CSJP’s Banner Controversy at Barnard 2014
In March 2014, Columbia SJP organizer Jannine-Masoud Salman made a large banner that was hung at the entrance of Barnard college. The banner read: “Stand for Justice, Stand for Palestine” and featured a map of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with no internal borders, colored uniformly green.The banner was reportedly removed after “students, their parents and alumni” said it made them “feel uncomfortable and unsafe in the space” and that it gave the impression Barnard was “endorsing SJP's message that Israel as a Jewish state does not have the right to exist.”
CSJP’s Mock Israeli Checkpoint 2010
On November 20, 2010, CSJP uploaded a video to their YouTube channel, titled: “Mock Israeli Checkpoint at Columbia University”On November 18, 2010, CSJP activists staged [00:00:01] a mock Israeli checkpoint on Columbia’s Low Plaza.
Activists, dressed as Israeli soldiers blindfolded [00:01:08] and taped over the mouths of other activists, who were meant to portray Palestinians.
Israeli checkpoints were builtto prevent terror attacks, like suicide bombings, against Israel's civilian population.
The video claimed [00:02:21] that “91% of students at An-Najah University miss classes because of delays at checkpoints.”
Al-Najah (alternatively, An Najah) University is the largest Palestinian university in the West Bank and is notorious for its triumphal exhibit lauding the August 9, 2001 Sbarro cafe suicide bombing. The blast killed 15 civilians, including 7 children and a pregnant woman and wounded 130.
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.
MSA
The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
Social Media and Weblinks
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Columbia
- Organizations:
- MSA,
- SJP
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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