Hajer Nakua
Overview
Supporting Mac SPHR
Mac SPHR
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McMaster (SPHR Mac) is a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), employing an alternative name.Mac SPHR - Calling to Free Terrorists
On May 13, 2017, Mac SPHR promoted a “rally in solidarity with Palestinian political prisoners” on Facebook. The rally was co-organized by Hammam Farrah, Rawan Al-Ahrar and Salma Fakhry of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University.At the demonstration, Mac SPHR President Lina Assi led protesters in the chant “Free, free prisoners!” [4:57]
During the protests, demonstrators chanted “Israel is a racist state!” [0:25] and [0:40] “Israel and U.S.A. - How many kids did you kill today?” and “From the river to the seas, palestine will be free!” [3:30] and “No justice, no peace!” [4:20].
Video footage of the rally, which was not released on the “official” event page, documented protest coordinator Rawan Al-Ahrarleading protesters in chants of “Viva, Viva, Intifada!” [00:11].
Following the protest, some demonstrators objected to “unauthorized pictures” of the rally that were snapped by an unidentified photographer. One protester stated that the photographer should have been “prevented from taking pictures.” A second demonstrator responded: “agreed. but we need a strategy around that… would be helpful at all demos.”
The protest also featured the so-called “Saltwater Challenge.” According to CNN, the Saltwater Challenge appears to have been started by Aarab Marwan Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti.
Mac SPHR - Glorifying Terrorism
On March 9, 2017, Mac SPHR shared a post to Facebook that celebrated International Women’s Day and urged followers to “Stop by and learn about revolutionary Palestinian women like Leila Khaled…”Khaled is a leader 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 for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister.
Mac SPHR - Supporting Terrorist Violence
On October 16, 2015, Mac SPHR advertised and co-sponsored an anti-Israel rally in front of the Israeli consulate, along with Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) and the Palestine House in Toronto.Mac SPHR - Whitewashing Terrorists
On October 5, 2015, Mac SPHR posted on Facebook: “What are your thoughts? Could this be the beginning of the third intifada?” Mac SPHR’s post linked to a video from anti-Israel news source AJ+, an affiliate of Al Jazeera, claiming that “Four Palestinian teenagers have been shot dead by Israeli authorities...”Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015, during the Knife Intifada. They critically wounded a 13-year-old boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. The spree ended when police shot Hassan and a passing motorist hit Ahmed. Ahmed was taken to an Israeli hospital. He admitted to investigators: “I went there to stab Jews.” He was later tried and convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
Mac SPHR - Calling Violence 'Political Activism'
On January 12, 2016, Mac SPHR posted to Facebook an article that claimed: “Israeli forces have arrested dozens of politically active students” from Birzeit university and that “the acting president of Birzeit University called for the release of students. Israel is responsible for the well being of the students who are demonstrating peacefully against the occupation.”The Israeli Defense Forces increased operations following the Knife Intifada — a surge of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, which began in October of 2015.
Fatah’s Shabiba student movement at Birzeit University produced a militant video, titled “Martyrdom-seeking unites us.” In December of 2015, the group posted Facebook pictures of themselves standing by a Christmas tree festooned with the portraits of murderers — including one who had recently stabbed four Israeli civilians. The featured terrorists were collectively responsible for thousands of attacks. Behind the students was a sign that proclaimed: “The way to freedom is a bullet and a martyr... a crescent and a cross; Merry Christmas, [Fatah] Shabiba student movement, Birzeit University.”
Birzeit’s student body elected Hamas to power in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, Bilal Barghouti became the Honorary Chairman of the Bir Zeit University Student Council. Barghouti was then serving 16 life terms in Israeli prison for his role in a series of suicide attacks. Bilal Barghouti was the senior terrorist behind the Sbarro cafe bombing.
On January 10, 2016, Israeli soldiers conducted a raid on Birzeit university, directed at terror cells believed to be operating from the campus. During the operations, soldiers arrested 15 terror suspects and seized weapons stockpiles, materials linked to local terror cells and Hamas propaganda.
Birzeit characterized the January 2016 IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent... attack on the university and our right to education…”
Mac SPHR - Anti-Israel Activism
On March 12, 2015, four Israelis who comprised a delegation illustrating Israeli diversity were reportedly harassed while visiting McMaster.Mac SPHR - Demonizing Israel
On February 6, 2017, Mac SPHR posted to its Facebook page lengthy excerpts of an article demonizing Israel by anti-Israel Professor Marwa Osman. Osman wrote: “Caged by Zionism, Israel has become the embodiment of apartheid, bigotry and intolerance” and “state-regulated sectarianism and racism,” as well as “fascist ethno-centrism.” The post also quoted Osman saying: “From every angle, Israel is inherently a racist state, and, one might actually argue, a white supremacist state.”Mac SPHR - Israel Apartheid Week
SPHR Mac hosted and ran a two-week long “Israel Apartheid Week (IAW)” from March 6 until March 17, 2017.Mac SPHR - Pushing BDS
In March of 2014, Mac SPHR attempted to push through a divestment bill during a heated meeting of the McMaster Student Union (MSU) General Assembly.Mac SPHR - Defending Terror-Supporter Nadia Shoufani
On August 19, 2016, Mac SPHR shared a McMaster BDS poston its Facebook page, that promoted a petition defending terrorist-supporter Nadia Shoufani. Nadia is the mother of Yara Shoufani, who pushed for McMaster’s endorsement of BDS.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.
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:
- McMaster
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- MSA,
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- Related Profiles:
- Ahmed Fajem,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026