Hamzah Qureshi
Overview
Hamzah Qureshi promoted two Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) initiatives as an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Swarthmore College (Swarthmore), in 2018 and 2019. He has also demonized Israel on Facebook.As of January 2020, Qureshi’s LinkedIn page said that he was studying for a bachelor’s degreein Religious Studies at Swarthmore, slated to graduate in 2020.
Qureshi’s LinkedIn also said that he was an “Interfaith Intern” at Swarthmore since January 2018, a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow since April 2019 and a Circulation Desk Attendant since September 2016. He was also listed as a Writing Associate Fellow and DAPER Desk Attendant since January 2017.
Swarthmore SJP Divestment Campaign
On October 24, 2018, Swarthmore student newspaper “Voices” published a statement by Swarthmore SJP. The statement accused seven companies of being engaged in the “murder” of Palestinian civilians” and “the indiscriminate targeting of civilians.”
On November 19, 2018, Qureshi shared the “Muslim Students Association [MSA] Letter of Support for BDS Campaign” in support of the divestment campaign to Facebook.
Qureshi also quoted the letter in his post, writing: “‘As SJP has noted, Swarthmore invests in companies that enable Israel to demolish Palestinian homes, expand illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories, use biometric ID cards to maintain segregation, arbitrarily arrest and imprison Palestinians, and indiscriminately target them with missile strikes and chemical warfare.’”
On November 20, 2018, Qureshi shared an “Interfaith Center Interns Letter of Support for BDS Campaign” to Facebook. The letter promoted “SJP’s petition to divest from apartheid” and encouraged students to attend Swarthmore SJP’s teach-in about BDS, to be held later that day.
Qureshi also indicated on Facebook that he “went” to the Swarthmore SJP’s November 20, 2018 BDS teach-in.
On December 4, 2018, Qureshi shared Swarthmore SJP’s BDS campaign video on Facebook titled: “Why Divest from Apartheid?”
On December 12, 2018, Qureshi spoke [00:25:51] at Swarthmore SJP’s rally where activists reportedly delivered a petition Swarthmore President Valerie Smith, urging Swarthmore to “divest from Israeli apartheid.”
At the rally, Qureshi dedicated [00:25:51] 100 signatures to Palestinian refugees and called [00:27:27] for the “right of return.” The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
In the video, Swarthmore SJP activist William Marchese also suggested [00:12:07] that Swarthmore was under “intense pressure from right-wing alumni who want to stand with apartheid.”
In February 2019, Swarthmore SJP proposed their BDS resolution to Swarthmore’s Student Government Organization (SGO). On February 10, 2019, the BDS resolution failed to pass.
On February 11, 2019, Swarthmore SJP activist Sidney Covitz co-launched a chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at Swarthmore with the reported intention of supporting “SJP’s BDS campaign in any way.”
On February 24, 2019, the SGO Executive Board and Senate reportedly hosted an open meeting on the failed BDS resolution. At the open meeting, 40 SJP members and the newly-formed JVP chapter advocated for BDS.
On March 3, 2019, the SGO held another meeting inviting student groups to again discuss the BDS resolution. SGO’s President Gilbert Orbea motioned to hold a vote among members on whether to make the meeting closed, that succeeded, after which SGO held a secret vote. At the secret vote, the SGO voted in support of the divestment resolution.
On March 12, 2019, President Smith released a statement to Swarthmore’s website in which she declined to change Swarthmore’s investment policies in accordance with the BDS resolution.
Boycotting Sabra Hummus
The petition accused Sabra of supporting Israeli forces who allegedly commit “countless human rights violations,” including “arbitrary murders, assaults, incarcerations, evictions, and arrests of children.”
On March 3, 2018, Qureshi shared Swarthmore SJP’s petition on Facebook to “End the Sale of Sabra Products.”
On March 28, 2018, Qureshi promoted a Voices article on Facebook titled: “More Than Hummus: Renewing the Call to Boycott Sabra.”
On March 31, 2018, Qureshi posted on Facebook: “If y’all ever tried real Palestinian hummus then you’d know how trash Sabra actually is ... smh ... if you’re eating Sabra then your lunch is already ruined 😂😂.”
On April 4, 2018, Qureshi co-authored and promoted to Facebook an “Interfaith Interns Letter of Solidarity with SJP.” The letter declared that the interns “stand in solidarity with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), and fully support its campaign to end the sale and distribution of Sabra products on campus.”
On that same day, Qureshi wrote on Facebook: “Please come show your support and rally with SJP as they send off student representatives to meet with President Smith this today at 4:15 in Parrish Parlours!”
On April 11, 2018, Swarthmore SJP reportedly held another rally at Swarthmore to promote the boycott, during which they held a moment of silence for protesters who died in the Great March of Return.
Approximately 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border on March 30, 2018 as part of the “March of Return,” which was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.
On April 12, 2018, Qureshi shared a Swarthmore SJP post inviting students to attend a Swarthmore SJP meeting that evening.
On April 30, 2018, President Smith announced that Swarthmore would continue to sell Sabra products on campus and begin selling an alternative brand of hummus. In response, on May 2, 2018, Swarthmore SJP held a rally to protest Smith’s announcement.
Demonizing Israel
On May 15, 2018, Qureshi shared a post by Marc Lamont Hill to Facebook accusing Israel of “land theft, expulsion, and ethnic cleansing” and defended Palestinian violence against Israelis.
Marc Lamont Hill is an anti-Israel activist and a supporter of anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. In November 2018, Hill was fired from his position as a contributor to CNN following comments he made during a meeting held at the United Nations, where he accused Israel of “state violence and ethnic cleansing” and called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
Swarthmore SJP Activism
The event invited students to “watch Occupied Palestine (1981), a documentary film that follows Palestinian life before the First Intifada.”
On May 10, 2018, Qureshi promoted Swarthmore SJP’s “Vigil to Tear Down the Wall” to Facebook, and then indicated on Facebook that he “went” to the event.
The event’s Facebook description invited attendees to dismantle a “mock Apartheid Wall” that Swarthmore SJP had constructed as a “symbolic act of resistance” that highlights “the atrocities of the Occupation and our institution's complicity in it.”
The event’s Facebook description also declared: “In the light of the ongoing massacre by the IDF in Gaza, and just days before the anniversary of the Nakba, we will honor the lives of those fallen in the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”
On April 12, 2018, Qureshi promoted Swarthmore’s SJP’s “On Anti-Semitism” student panel on Facebook.
The event’s Facebook description said that attendees would reflect on questions such as: “What is Anti-Semitism and what does it look like today? How can we understand the conflation of Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism? What does all of this have to do with Jewish identity, the Occupation of Palestine, and the interconnection of these oppressions?”
Swarthmore SJP - Expressing Support for Terrorists
On March 26, 2019, Swarthmore SJP posted on Facebook in honor of Women’s History Month, celebrating “the resistance and resilience” of Khalida Jarrar as “a Palestinian feminist.”Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. In 2017, Israel arrested Jarrar “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities.” In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers.
On March 24, 2019, Swarthmore SJP posted to Facebook celebrating Leila Khaled in honor of Women’s History Month.
Khaled, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970.
On May 6, 2017, Swarthmore SPJP posted a video to Facebook of SPJP members taking part in the “Saltwater Challenge.”
The “Saltwater Challenge” was held in solidarity with over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners hunger-striking in Israeli prisons — most of whom were convicted for acts of terrorism.
The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks during the second intifada. Barghouti led the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
Swarthmore SJP - Promoting Anti-Israel Agitators
On March 28, 2019, Swarthmore SJP posted to Facebook celebrating Manal Tamimi in honor of Women’s History Month.Manal Tamimi has promoted anti-Semitic blood libels as well as terror support.
On September 21, 2018, Swarthmore SJP posted to Facebook promoting Dareen Tatour. In October 2015, Tatour was placed under house arrest for incitement to violence and for support of a terrorist organization on social media.
On March 19, 2018, Swarthmore SJP hosted anti-Israel activist David Sheen.
David Sheen, a Canadian-Israeli anti-Israel activist and filmmaker, works to portray Israel as an extremist racist state. To this end, Sheen has been accused of purposefully mistranslating Hebrew articles and advertisements to make Israelis appear racist.
Swarthmore SJP - Supporting Violent Protesters
On March 30, 2019, Swarthmore SJP held a “Vigil for Gaza's Great March of Return.” The event’s Facebook description called to “Honor the lives of those murdered by Israeli military forces” on the “1-year anniversary of the ongoing Great March of Return, a series of massive nonviolent demonstrations.”On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The March of Return was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.
On May 17, 2018, Swarthmore SJP posted to Facebook: “for the past month and a half - and increasingly in the past couple of days - the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been massacring Palestinians in Gaza who are nonviolently protesting for their rights. Over 100 demonstrators have been killed and thousands injured, among them a number of children, most by trained snipers with explicit orders to kill.”
On May 16, 2018, Hamas senior official Salah al-Bardawil stated that 50 out of 62 Gaza border protesters killed on May 14 were in fact Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) later claimed that three of its members were also killed at the May 14 protest.
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.
