Fatma Ismail

Overview

Fatma Ismail was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Toledo (UT) from 2015 through 2017. She is also a member of the Facebook group “Ohio SJP Organizing Committee.”

In 2015, Ismail participated in UT SJP’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement campaign — “UT Divest.”

Ismail was the president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UT from 2014 through 2016 and graduated UT with a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies in 2017.

As of November 2017, Ismail's LinkedIn said she was a Policy Research Assistant with Chwat & Company (The Chwat Group) in Washington, D.C., since May of 2017.

Pushing BDS on Campus

In 2015, Ismail was active in promoting UT Divest.

On March 4, 2015, Ismail posted a sign to her Facebook page which read: “Passed! 3/3/15, #UTDivest.” She also appeared in a Facebook photo alongside the UT Divest team.

On March 4, 2015, UT Interim President Nagi Naganathan released a statement saying that UT would not divest from companies doing business with Israel.

On March 31, 2015, the UT Student Government (SG) approved a SJP-UT sponsored referendum inviting the student body to vote on whether SG should call upon the UT Board of Trustees to implement divestment.

57.13% of students who voted in UT’s referendum on divestment voted in favor but failed to meet the two thirds threshold required by the Student Government Constitution.

On April 27, 2015, following the referendum vote, Ismail posted to Facebook that she was disappointed by the results but that “[e]veryone who worked on this campaign should be extremely proud of their work and efforts and should not feel like it was all in vain.”

She added that “I hope that we can somehow continue on with the work.”

UT SJP - Defending Terrorism

On October 29, 2015, during the Knife intifada in Israel, UT SJP held an anti-Israel demonstration at the university's student union using propaganda posters depicting Palestinian terrorists as victims.

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.

One of UT SJP posters read: “Israeli forces have killed 25 Palestinians this month. 8 of them children.” The poster then listed the “children” which included Ahmed Manasra, Marah Bakris [Marah Al-Bakri] and Israa [Asraa Zidan Tawfik Abed] Abed.

In October 2015, 16-year-old Marah Al-Bakri [Marah Bakir] stabbed an Israeli border police officer and tried to grab his weapon before she was shot.

In September of 2013, UT SJP held a mock checkpoint event to demonize Israel, where SJP member Katrina Bacome was photographed spray painting “Long Live the Intifada” on the mock “apartheid” wall.

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.

UT SJP - Demonizing Israel and Israelis

On August 4, 2014 UT SJP posted to their Facebook page a graphic denying that Hamas used human shields and claiming that Israel deliberately targeted Palestinian civilians.

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

On July 12, 2014, UT SJP endorsed an anti-Israel demonstration held a day later. During the demonstration, UT SJP member Katrina Bacome led anti-Israel chants, while UT SJPmember Shahrazad Hamdah held a sign that read: “Gaza is today’s Warsaw Ghetto.”

Nadine Armoush — a member of UT SJP — covered the demonstration for UT:10news, a weekly newscast at UT. Armoush claimed [00:00:11] that “Israel has occupied Palestine since 1948.”

Armoush also interviewed Bacome, who claimed [00:01:10] that Israel is committing a “slaughter of innocent Palestinians” and referred to Gaza as “the world’s largest open-air prison.”

On March 18, 2014 — during UT SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) — UT SJP performed a play which demonized [00:08:12] Israeli soldiers as irrational, [00:05:20] cruel and [00:10:24, 00:36:21] violent.

One character in the play labelled [00:39.34] Israel a “brutal racist system” while another character claimed [00:37:13] that Israel locks Palestinian children in cages outdoors.

UT SJP - Hosting Hamas Supporters

On October 3, 2016, UT SJP hosted Hamas propagandist Mads Gilbert.

Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership.

In 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 Gilbert was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site. During that time he acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza.

In 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert expressed support for the terror acts as a “legitimate response.” In December of 2009, Gilbert was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

On April 19, 2014, UT SJP co-hosted a “Gaza Fundraising Dinner.” Speaking at the event was Osama Abu Irshaid, the national policy director of the American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Abu Irshaid formerly served as editor of Islamic Association for Palestine's Arabic periodical, Al-Zaitounah — a mouthpiece for pro-Hamas propaganda.

UT SJP - UT Divest

In 2015, UT SJP launched and ran a divestment campaign under the slogan “UT Divest,” as part [01:34:54]of the wider Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.

On February 17, 2015, the UT Student Government (SG) held a closed meeting on the Divestment resolution. The Students Judicial Council ruled [00:02:03] that the resolution was unconstitutional because it would be impossible for student senators to remain neutral.

Following the vote, UT SJP successfully campaigned to have the ruling overturned, and on March 3, 2017 the student senators approved the divestment resolution in a 21-4 vote. One senator’s request [02:47:56] for a secret ballot was rejected.

On March 4, 2015, UT Interim President Nagi Naganathan released a statement saying that, regardless of the senators’ vote, UT would not divest from companies doing business with Israel.

On March 31, 2015, SG approved a UT SJP sponsored referendum inviting the student body to vote on whether SG should call upon the UT Board of Trustees to implement divestment.

57.13% of students voted in favor of the referendum, failing to meet the required two-thirds threshold.

UT SJP - Supporting Rasmea Odeh

On September 20, 2017, UT SJP shared a photo of Rasmea Odeh to their Facebook page, adding: “We stand with Rasmea!”

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.

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 Student 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.

MSA

The Muslim Student Association (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.