Gunar Olsen

Overview

Gunar Olsen attempted to co-found a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham University (Fordham). He is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Olsen, together with Ahmad Awad, attempted to establish SJP at Fordham. Their application was rejected by the university in January of 2017.

In defense of its decision to disallow the group from its campus, Fordham stated: "Fordham has no registered student clubs the sole focus of which is the political agenda of one nation, against another nation...The narrowness of Students for Justice in Palestine’s political focus makes it more akin to a lobbying group than a student club."

Olsen spreads anti-Israel propaganda on Twitter by sharing links to articles published by Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada (EI), whose political agenda is to promote BDS.

Olsen is an aspiring journalist, whose articles have been published in Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, Huffington Post, In These Times, Common Dreams and The Fordham Observer.

Olsen is a Fordham student, majoring in Political Science.

In the fall of 2015, Olsen interned at Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting.

Accusing Israel of Practicing Apartheid

In a September 16, 2014 article, Olsen wrote: "One thing that every elected official publicly agrees on is continued support for the apartheid state of Israel and its war crimes."

In a September 30, 2015 article, Olsen accused Israel of having a "system of ethnic apartheid."

Supporting BDS to ‘Punish’ Israel

On July 6, 2015, Olsen tweeted: "@HillaryClinton: ‘BDS is the latest attempt to single out Israel on the world stage.’ ‘BDS seeks to punish Israel.’ Yes. That's the goal."

Criticizing Israeli Counter-Terror Measures

In a September 30, 2016 article, Olsen reported on an anti-Israel protest in New York against Facebook cooperating with the Israeli authorities to combat Palestinian incitement to violence being spread on the social network. Olsens article suggested that Israel was trying to censor Palestinian freedom of speech "against Israeli occupation and aggression," and accused Facebook of not removing incitement against Palestinians.

Facebook’s cooperation with Israel was in response to a wave of stabbings encouraged by posts on Facebook and other social media networks. An upsurge in violence across Israel had begun in the fall of 2015, incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the "Knife Intifada," saw young Palestinians across Israel stabbing and attempting to stab scores of Israeli civilians.

An experiment conducted by Shurat HaDin, a legal NGO, concluded that Facebook is actually more often biased against Israel in favor of Palestinians.

Promoting Anti-Semitic Journalist Max Blumenthal

On July 8, 2015, Olsen posted on Instagram a book by anti-Semiticjournalist Max Blumenthal. Olsen wrote: "Summer reading: Max Blumenthal's haunting journalistic account of Israel's assault on Gaza last summer."

Blumenthal’s book: "Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel" has been dubbed: “The Israel Hater’s Handbook” by Eric Alterman of progressive magazine The Nation.

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/GunarOlsen

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gunarolsen/?hl=en

Website:https://gunarolsen.com/