Gabi Ghannoum
Overview
Gabi Ghannoum called to dismantle Israel and criticized former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for condemningthe terror group Hamas. Ghannoum was the 2018 president of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at the University of Ottawa (UOttawa). SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).As of April 2018, Ghannoum was an administrator of the “SPHR Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights UOttawa 2018-2019” closed Facebook group.
Ghannoum is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and promoted [02:47:04] an SPHR UOttawa BDS initiative in 2018. Ghannoum is a member of the “We are BDS Ottawa Canada” Facebook group.
In February 2018, Ghannoum elected to be a social science representative on the Board of Administration (BOA) of the Student Federation at the University of Ottawa (SFUO). He was also a member of the SFUO in 2017.
In April 2015, Ghannoum indicated on Facebook that he completed his freshman year at UOttowa. As of April 18, 2018, Ghannoum’s Facebook said he was a Sales Coordinator at ELE Fest and a “Heritage Interpreter” at Atlas Coal Mine.
Calling to Dismantle Israel
On February 11, 2017, Ghannoum updated his Facebook profile picture with a logo promoting the BDS movement, adding the comment: “From the river to the sea friends!”On February 26, 2018, Ghannoum updated his Facebook cover photo to an image of a keffiyeh-masked person holding a Palestinian flag, with the caption “From the river to the sea Palestine will be Free.” Ghannoum commented: “Say it louder for the people in the back.”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.
Criticizing Condemnation of Hamas
On July 29, 2014, during — Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Ghannoum posted to Facebook a criticism of former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who released a statement condemning Hamas for “indiscriminate” rocket fire on Israel targeting “Israeli civilians.”Ghannoum quoted a line from Harper’s statement: “The indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel are terrorist acts, for which there is no justification.” He then commented: “This statement was released a few weeks ago, shameful.”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Hamas fired over 4,564 missiles and rockets — including Grad rockets — at Israeli population centers during OPE.
BDS Activism
On November 5, 2017, Ghannoum promoted [00:30:16] a divestment resolution during the Student Federation at the University of Ottawa’s Board of Administration (SFUO BOA) meeting.During the SFUO BOA meeting, Ghannoum promoted the motion, saying [00:30:19]: “It is very important to divest, especially from the apartheid state of Israel.” He also accused [00:30:29] Israel of committing “massacres, ethnic cleansing” for “sixty plus years.” SFUO BOA rejected the motion.
On March 13, 2018, Ghannoum promoted [02:47:04] another divestment initiative jointly proposed by SPHR, Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and the Revolutionary Students’ Movement (RSM) at UOttawa, during the SFUO General Assembly (GA)’s winter session.
The BDS motion failed to garner a two-thirds majority required for constitutional change with 241 votes for and 231 votes against.
SPHR UOttawa
As of June 2007, Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UOttawa (SPHR UOttowa)’s Mission Statement said the group was committed to the “struggle against the colonialist and imperialist policies of the Israeli government and the ideology upon which the state was formed.”In 2018, SPHR UOttowa worked closely with Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and the Revolutionary Students Movement (RSM) at UOttawa to host anti-Israel campus events. These events included Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and a divestment initiative.
On March 29, 2018, as part of IAW, SPHR UOttawa promoted on Facebook a film screening hosted by RSM that celebrated terrorist Leila Khaled.
SPHR UOttawa's Facebook post referred to Khaled as a “Palestinian revolutionary who became a household name after she became the first woman to hijack a plane.”
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.
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
SPHR UOttawa - Co-opting the SFUO
In January 2017, the Students Federation at the University of Ottawa (SFUO) co-hosted IAW with SPHR UOttawa. Dhilal Alhaboob — an administrator for SPHR UOttawa’s Facebook group — served as SFUO’s “Campaigns Organizer” from August 2016 through March 2017.At the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year, Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi — a member of SPHR UOttawa’s Facebook group and Vice-President of Equity (VP Equity) for the SFUO — attempted [00:18:37] to strip Hillel Ottawa (UOttawa Hillel) and the Israeli Awareness Committee (IAC) of their club status.
After UOttawa Hillel and the IAC informed [01:32:41] the SFUO that [00:20:10] they would take legal action against it, their club status was reinstated.
On March 13, 2018, during the SFUO General Assembly (GA)’s winter session, Moumouni-Tchouassi explained that she tried to shut [01:34:20] the clubs down for “being pro-Israeli.”
Moumouni-Tchouassi defended [01:34:36] her decision to remove their club status "because of the stance that the SFUO has taken over time [...] for BDS" adding [01:43:11] that the SFUO “has taken pro-BDS stances in the past.”
When asked for clarification, Moumouni-Tchouassi said [01:43:19] “the SFUO has had actions, has made statements, has done pro-BDS work.” When pressed, Moumouni-Tchouassi added [01:43:26] “actions meaning protests, meaning statements - through the SFUO statements have been made, things like that.”
SPHR/IJV/RSM UOttawa - Pushing BDS
On November 5, 2017, Moumouni-Tchouassi — a member of SPHR UOttawa’s Facebook group and SFUO Vice-President of Equity — proposed [00:02:45] a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution during a SFUO Board of Administration (SFUO BOA) meeting.Students were notified of the upcoming resolution vote only two days prior, on a Friday, hours before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath.
The resolution sought to amend the SFUO policy handbook to explicitly adopt and promote BDS. The initial BDS motion read, “The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa will support [the BDS] movement as well as take a Pro-Palestine stance.”
However, before the vote took place, Moumouni-Tchouassi proposed an amendment, changing the wording of the resolution to read “the SFUO will divest from industries and companies who actively support war and occupation including the apartheid regime of the State of Israel against the Palestinian population.”
The BOA rejected the amendment. Following pushback, Moumouni-Tchouassi amended [01:14:00] the resolution to remove all references to BDS. The amended resolution committed the SFUO to do “all in its power to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
On March 13, 2018, SPHR, IJV and RSM at UOttawa jointly proposed a divestment initiative, during the SFUO General Assembly (SFOU GA)’s winter session.
The proposal called for the SFUO to divest from companies “complicit in violation of Palestinian human rights,” to boycott Israeli artists and to “work for the cancellation of all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.”
The divestment proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds majority to pass, with 241 votes for and 231 votes against.
After the vote, SPHR posted on Facebook ”... this moment remains a victory for all students who stand in solidarity with Palestinian human rights.”
On March 25, 2018, SPHR UOttawa attempted to push the failed BDS motion at another SFUO BOA meeting. Once more, it failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the resolution.
The following day, UOttawa President and Vice-Chancellor, Jacques Frémont, released a statement strongly denouncing the SFUO BDS campaign:
“This issue is divisive and a detriment to an open and welcoming campus environment,” said Frémont. “The University of Ottawa will have no part of the BDS movement nor any movement that boycotts academic institutions.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/1010247231
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
