Hadiyah Chowdhury
Overview
Hadiyah Chowdhury [Hadiyah R. Chowdhury] led a rally in support of an anti-Israel agitator, disrupted an Israel Day campus event, campaigned for a terrorist and led a 2014 anti-Israel protest as the acting president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Cornell University (Cornell) in 2015-2018.She is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In 2017, Chowdhury was the president of the Islamic Alliance for Justice (IAJ) at Cornell.
As of November 2021, Chowdhury’s LinkedIn page said she was an Organizer with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in Fairfax County, Virginia, since March 2019.
In September 2021, Chowdhury reportedly started a job as a Staff Organizer for the Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees (GAGE) in Washington, D.C.
As of March 2022, Chowdhury’s LinkedIn said she graduated from Cornell with a bachelor's degree in “Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Antropology and French” in 2018.
Also as of March 2022, Chowdhury went by “Hadiya C.” on LinkedIn.
Leading a Rally in Support of an Anti-Israel Agitator
On February 12, 2018, Chowdhury led a Cornell SJP rally on behalf of anti-Israel agitator Ahed Tamimi, calling for her release from Israeli detention. At the rally, protesters held signs that said: “Free Ahed,” “Free Palestine” and “Israeli Occupation is Apartheid.”On February 12, 2018, Cornell SJP posted to their Facebook page a photo of Chowdhury holding a sign that read: “Israeli Occupation is Apartheid.” Din also featured in another photo posted to Facebook by Cornell SJP together with Ezra Stein and other protesters, holding a sign that read: “FREE AHED.”
On that same day, Cornell SJP posted a photo of Chowdhury speaking into a megaphone at the rally.
Disrupting Israeli Independence Day Celebration
In May 2017, Chowdhury reportedly led a Cornell SJP disruption of Hillel’s Israel Day celebration.On May 2, 2017, Cornell’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, reported that Cornell SJP disrupted Cornell Hillel’s Israeli Independence Day celebration in Anabel Taylor Hall by holding a “die-in” protest in the middle of the event.
Cornell SJP activists were granted entrance to the event venue after they assured campus police they would not disrupt the Hillel event. However, within minutes of entering the hall, four members of Cornell SJP held up a sign that read: “Celebrating 69 years of Genocide,” while others handed out flyers or lay on the floor, simulating corpses.
Cornell SJP members reportedly distributed flyers that said: “the modern day Jewish state was founded on the expulsion of the indigenous population.”
Campaigning for a Terrorist
Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08] with the terror group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who masterminded a bombing in a Jerusalem supermarket in 1969 that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate. Odeh later moved to the United States, where she was convicted of immigration fraud in 2014, stripped of her U.S. citizenship in 2017 and deported to Jordan.
On August 20, 2014, Cornell SJP tweeted: “Arrest of Odeh is part of the systematic criminalization of Palestinian organizing #Justice4Rasmea.”
On November 6, 2014, Cornell SJP tweeted: “Cornell SJP is in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh!” accompanied by a link to their statement titled: “Justice For Rasmea Odeh, Justice For Palestine.”
In their statement, Cornell SJP claimed that Israel detained Odeh “on a spurious accusation of terrorism” and added: “Rasmea Odeh is the type of citizen that American leaders should be honoring.”
On March 16, 2015, Cornell SJP posted a photo of Chowdhury and other SJP activists to Facebook and Instagram: “#justiceforrasmea #CornellSJP #resistance #freepalestine” and attached a photo of Cornell SJP activists holding a large banner that read: “Justice for Rasmea.”
Cornell SJP also posted a blog post to their WordPress titled: “Justice Denied: Rasmea Odeh Sentenced To Prison And Subsequent Deportation” that condemned the U.S. court’s decision to sentence and deport Odeh and labeled the decision “the repression of Palestinian activists.”
Leading an Anti-Israel Protest
In November 2014, Chowdhury helped lead an anti-Israel Cornell-SJP demonstration at Cornell.On November 19, 2014, Cornell SJP held an anti-Israel protest in Cornell’s Ho Plaza.
Cornell SJP organized the demonstration the day after six people were murdered by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) operatives using a gun, axes and a butcher knife during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The attack became known as the Har Nof Massacre.
During the protest, Kat Yang Stevens, a professional anti-Israel agitator, verbally assaulted [00:00:09] a group of pro-Israel students. Stevens repeatedly taunted [00:00:34] one student, saying: “Go ahead, slap me, b**ch, slap me” and [00:01:52] “Shut your f**king pie-hole.” Stevens also yelled [00:01:32]: “Aggression will be met with aggression.”
One of the anti-Israel demonstrators told [00:00:07] the pro-Israel students: “F**k you, Zionist scum.” Other slurs and insults reportedly used by Cornell SJP activists during the assault were: “Apartheid is f**king apartheid” and “there’s no logic to Zionism.”
Pro-Israeli students reported that Cornell SJP activists ripped one of their signs and smeared ketchup on another.
Cornell SJP activists also placedposters condemning Cornell’s partnership with the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) throughout the campus, including a placard hung in front of the entrance to Cornell’s Ho Plaza that read: “C / #1 IN / FUNDING APARTHEID / END CORNELL + TECHNION / SUPPORT BDS / FREE PALESTINE.”
On November 20 and 21, 2014, Cornell SJP posted photos of the demonstration to their Facebook, including a photo of Chowdhury reading a statement into a megaphone.
Supporting BDS
On April 11, 2019, Chowdhury signed a Cornell Alumni letter signed by seven other alumni in support of Cornell SJP’s divestment resolution. The letter accused Israel of“apartheid treatment of Palestinians” and of committing “atrocities,” as well as the “violation of human rights.”
In February 2019, Cornell SJP launched an anti-Israel divestment campaign, introducing and pushing S.A. Resolution 36, “Urging Cornell to Divest from Companies Profiting from the Occupation of Palestine and Human Rights Violation.”
Cornell SJP’s resolution called on Cornell to divest from Cornell Tech’s partnership with the Technion. Cornell Tech is Cornell’s technology, business, law and design campus.
Cornell SJP also called on the university to divest from Tata Motors, Ingersoll-Rand, Raytheon, G4S, Hewlett-Packard and any other companies SJP Cornell claimed “profit directly from Israeli military occupation.”
Cornell SJP also said: “We will publicly name endowment investments…and hold university leadership responsible for complicity in crimes of apartheid.”
On February 18, 2019, Cornell SJP delivered a letter to Cornell’s President Martha Pollack calling on the University to “divest from companies profiting from morally reprehensible human rights violations in Palestine.”
On April 11, 2019, Cornell SJP presented their divestment initiative to Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA). During the discussion, Mahfuza Shovik, a resolution sponsor, denied [00:23:03] the resolution was part of the BDS movement.
SA senators used a secret ballot to vote in favor of the resolution, but the resolution failed to pass after a “community vote” (SA by-laws, section 7) was cast.
BDS activists have resorted [00:11:05] to the use of secret ballots to eliminate [02:51:15] transparency from the voting process and avoid any public scrutiny and accountability for their anti-Israel initiatives on university campuses.
Cornell SJP - Overview
Cornell SJP has dismissed anti-Semitism, supported anti-Israel violence and whitewashed terrorists. The student group has also disrupted Israel Day campus events multiple times, demonized Israel and campaigned for the BDS movement.Cornell SJP activists wrote an anti-Israel statement and presented it at Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA) in May 2021.
Cornell SJP - Disrupting Israeli Independence Day Celebration 2014-2015
On April 23, 2015, Cornell SJP held a march and “die-in” protest during Hillel’s Israel Day at Cornell. Protesters lay on the floor, simulating corpses in front of Hillel's Israel Day tables, while holding a banner that read: “Celebrating 67 years of Independence Genocide.”One protester displayed a sign that said: “Celebrating Apartheid,” while another held a sign reading: “Celebrating Genocide.”
Cornell SJP - BDS Overview
In February 2019, Cornell SJP launched an anti-Israel divestment campaign, calling on the University to divest from Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and any companies which Cornell SJP claimed “profit directly from Israeli military occupation.”Cornell SJPmembers tried to [00:23:03] deny that the resolution was part of the larger BDS movement, a tactic encouraged [00:58:53] by BDS-founder Omar Barghouti. Cornell senators also used a secret ballot to vote on the bill. The bill ultimately failed to pass.
In October 2019, Cornell SJP moved to direct confrontation, disrupting the quarterly meeting of Cornell’s Board of Trustees and calling on the Board to “sever ties” with the Technion. Cornell SJP also called to eliminate the Board’s power of discretion in investments in “the occupation of Palestine.”
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.
