Hamzah Raza
Overview
Hamzah Raza has spread anti-Israel conspiracy theory and incitement, expressed support for terror and promoted hatred of Israel. Raza is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.In 2016, Raza was a board member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Vanderbilt University (VU), known as Vanderbilt SJP. In 2017, he was the Vanderbilt SJP president. The group is also called Dores in Solidarity with Palestine (DSP).
In 2019, Raza was affiliated with Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), the name for the SJP chapter at Harvard University (Harvard). In 2017, Raza was affiliated with the U.S. Campaign For Palestinian Rights (USCPR). Also in 2017, Raza was affiliated with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at VU.
Various Facebook events pages have indicated Raza was affiliated with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) in 2017, as well as with Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) in 2014 and 2016.
From April to June 2021, Raza published a newsletter, “The Raza Report.” He has also been published in Mondoweiss and Muslim Matters. As of February 2023, Raza’s LinkedIn said he had been a contributor to AlterNet from April 2016 to January 2018.
Raza indicated on Facebook that he went to the National SJP (NSJP) conferences in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
As of April 2023, Raza’s LinkedIn said he graduated from Harvard Divinity School with a “Masters in Theological Studies, Islamic Studies,” in 2020, and from VU with a bachelor’s degree in religious studies in 2018.
In October 2014, Raza was a freshman at Rutgers University’s (Rutgers) Newark College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in mathematics.
As of April 2023, Raza’s Clubhouse bio said he was an “American expat running around in Egypt.”
Raza was referring to a tweet posted that day by U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, that said she “will never pick a side” between “Palestine/Israel.”
On February 10, 2019, Raza tweeted: “...There is nothing anti-Semitic in @IlhanMN [U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar] pointing out AIPAC’s massive lobbying efforts.”
The stated mission of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
The implication that AIPAC buys political support for Israel has been described as playing into “anti-Semitic tropes” that led to “centuries of stereotypes about Jews using money to control the world.”
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.
On January 2, 2020, Raza tweeted: “No surprise here. @CoryBooker has been a massive recipient of Israel lobby cash…”
Raza’s tweet referred to U.S. Senator Cory Booker supporting America’s targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
On May 14, 2022, Raza tweeted, referring to the AIPAC: “A critical mass of American politicians is needed to hold Israel accountable for its policies of occupation & apartheid / There are politicians with as many as 100k Muslims in their district who tow the AIPAC line. Asking them about Palestine gets us closer to that critical mass.”
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
On July 31, 2017, Raza indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a demonstration in New York, titled: “Protest to defend al-Aqsa and stop HP [Hewlett-Packard].” The protest was hosted by the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun), a group that has at least three senior activists [pp. 23-25] who are members of a foreign terrorist organization.
The Facebook event description claimed that metal detectors installed at the Temple Mount after a terror attack were a symbol of the “ongoing siege, strangulation and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem.” The description also called to “Support…the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
On July 28, 2017, Raza indicated on Facebook that he “went” to an AMP protest in Washington DC, titled: “Al Aqsa Under Attack.”
The Facebook event description said: “Even though Israeli authorities are removing the metal detectors from the gates of Al Aqsa, they are still encroaching on our sacred space and violating the...Status Quo agreement…We will not remain silent while our beloved holy site is under attack.”
On July 22, 2017, Raza indicated on Facebook that he “went” toanother AMP protest, in New York, titled: “ALL out for AL AQSA.”
The Facebook event description claimed: “Israel is using the current situation in Jerusalem as a pretext to implement long-standing plans to divide Al Aqsa mosque,” and urged attendees to “protest these Israeli aggressions!”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti- Semitic violence.
On December 23, 2020, Raza posted on Facebook: “Free the rest of the Holy Land 5, and all political prisoners!”
On November 14, 2019, Raza tweeted: “Equating dead children to homemade rockets is ridiculous…Palestinians shoot rockets because they’re under occupation.” His tweet was in response to a tweet from U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren commenting on the cease fire at the close of an Israeli operation against terrorists in Gaza.
In November 2019, Israel launched Operation Black Belt to stop rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. From November 12 to November 14, 2019, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group sent hundreds of rockets into Israel, targeting major civilian population centers.
On May 19, 2017, Raza published an opinion piece in the Vanderbilt Political Review student newspaper supporting a Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike. In the article, Raza wrote: “The time has come now for American college students to advocate for the freedom of Marwan Barghouti and all other Palestinian political prisoners.”
In Raza’s May 19, 2017, Vanderbilt Political Review opinion piece, Raza also expressed support for terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
On May 16, 2017, Raza tweeted: “Was touring a South African prison today, and all I could think of was the #PalestinianPoliticalPrisoners on Day 30 of their hunger strike.” His tweet included a photo of Barghouti.
In October 2014, Raza was a freshman at Rutgers University’s (Rutgers) Newark College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in mathematics.
As of April 2023, Raza’s Clubhouse bio said he was an “American expat running around in Egypt.”
Spreading an Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theory
On October 11, 2018, Raza tweeted: “...How pernicious is the Israel lobby that Tlaib cannot say she sides with her own people?”Raza was referring to a tweet posted that day by U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, that said she “will never pick a side” between “Palestine/Israel.”
Authors John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt's 2007 book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," invokes the conspiracy theory of Israeli and Jewish control over the U.S. government. Proponents of the theory decry the negative effects on American interests, particularly in foreign policy.
On February 10, 2019, Raza tweeted: “...There is nothing anti-Semitic in @IlhanMN [U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar] pointing out AIPAC’s massive lobbying efforts.”
The stated mission of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
The implication that AIPAC buys political support for Israel has been described as playing into “anti-Semitic tropes” that led to “centuries of stereotypes about Jews using money to control the world.”
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.
On January 2, 2020, Raza tweeted: “No surprise here. @CoryBooker has been a massive recipient of Israel lobby cash…”
Raza’s tweet referred to U.S. Senator Cory Booker supporting America’s targeted killing of Qasem Soleimani, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force.
On May 14, 2022, Raza tweeted, referring to the AIPAC: “A critical mass of American politicians is needed to hold Israel accountable for its policies of occupation & apartheid / There are politicians with as many as 100k Muslims in their district who tow the AIPAC line. Asking them about Palestine gets us closer to that critical mass.”
Spreading Incitement
On May 21, 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against terror groups in Gaza, Raza published an article in his newsletter, “The Raza Report,” in which he accused Israel of “apartheid” and claimed Israeli police were “attacking worshippers in Masjid Al-Aqsa.”On May 7-10, 2021, violent clashes broke out between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa compound, following claims that Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy Al-Aqsa has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state.
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
On July 31, 2017, Raza indicated on Facebook that he “went” to a demonstration in New York, titled: “Protest to defend al-Aqsa and stop HP [Hewlett-Packard].” The protest was hosted by the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun), a group that has at least three senior activists [pp. 23-25] who are members of a foreign terrorist organization.
The Facebook event description claimed that metal detectors installed at the Temple Mount after a terror attack were a symbol of the “ongoing siege, strangulation and ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem.” The description also called to “Support…the Palestinian Resistance, and the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
On July 14, 2017, terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers outside the entrance to the Al-Aqsa compound, reportedly following claims that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger. In response to the terror attack, Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras at the entrance to the holy site, which the authorities later removed, after further rioting and escalation in violence.
“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.
On July 28, 2017, Raza indicated on Facebook that he “went” to an AMP protest in Washington DC, titled: “Al Aqsa Under Attack.”
The Facebook event description said: “Even though Israeli authorities are removing the metal detectors from the gates of Al Aqsa, they are still encroaching on our sacred space and violating the...Status Quo agreement…We will not remain silent while our beloved holy site is under attack.”
On July 22, 2017, Raza indicated on Facebook that he “went” toanother AMP protest, in New York, titled: “ALL out for AL AQSA.”
The Facebook event description claimed: “Israel is using the current situation in Jerusalem as a pretext to implement long-standing plans to divide Al Aqsa mosque,” and urged attendees to “protest these Israeli aggressions!”
Terror Support (Hamas, PIJ, PFLP, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades)
On May 10, 2021, at the beginning of OGW, Raza tweeted: “Violent resistance by Palestinians is a response to occupation / If you want to stop violence from Palestinians, give them their rights.”Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti- Semitic violence.
On December 23, 2020, Raza posted on Facebook: “Free the rest of the Holy Land 5, and all political prisoners!”
The Holy Land Five (HLF5) were five individuals associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) indicted for funneling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid. The men were all convicted and sentenced in 2009 to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.
On November 14, 2019, Raza tweeted: “Equating dead children to homemade rockets is ridiculous…Palestinians shoot rockets because they’re under occupation.” His tweet was in response to a tweet from U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren commenting on the cease fire at the close of an Israeli operation against terrorists in Gaza.
In November 2019, Israel launched Operation Black Belt to stop rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel. From November 12 to November 14, 2019, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terror group sent hundreds of rockets into Israel, targeting major civilian population centers.
On May 19, 2017, Raza published an opinion piece in the Vanderbilt Political Review student newspaper supporting a Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike. In the article, Raza wrote: “The time has come now for American college students to advocate for the freedom of Marwan Barghouti and all other Palestinian political prisoners.”
Terrorist Marwan Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for some of his crimes, including his role in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. In 2017, he initiated the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners known as the “Dignity Strike.” He headed the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which carried out many terror attacks against Israeli civilians.
In Raza’s May 19, 2017, Vanderbilt Political Review opinion piece, Raza also expressed support for terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
On May 16, 2017, Raza tweeted: “Was touring a South African prison today, and all I could think of was the #PalestinianPoliticalPrisoners on Day 30 of their hunger strike.” His tweet included a photo of Barghouti.
On May 15, 2017, Raza posted on Facebook a graphic with a photo of Barghouti, captioned: “Free Marwan Barghouti and Palestinian Political Prisoners.”
Hatred of Israel
On August 5, 2022, Raza tweeted: “Gazans live in an open air prison.”
On July 8, 2018, Raza tweeted: “The Israeli military and police…help train American police departments. / The techniques they use to brutalize Palestinian children are techniques they teach to the American police to brutalize Black children here.”
In the same thread, Raza tweeted: “Israel is an anti-Black state.”
The accusation that Israeli law enforcement teaches American police brutal tactics during police exchange programs is used to demonize Israel. Participants in these programs have stated [00:02:14] that the training in Israel focuses [00:13:36] on public policy, counterterrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.
In a March 6, 2018 article published in Mondoweiss, Raza wrote: “Israel is a state founded European Jews who colonized the land and, in 1948, conducted a genocide and mass expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population living there.” He also wrote about Israeli Independence Day, stating that “Palestinians refer to this day as the ‘nakba’ or the catastrophe.”
In the same March 2018 article, Raza accused Israel of “settler-colonialism” and claimed that Israel spreads “Islamophobia and genocide on a global scale.”
On December 18, 2017, Raza published an article for AlterNet in which he referred to Israel as “an apartheid regime that is responsible for racism and violence against communities of color abroad.”
On October 12, 2017, Raza tweeted: “Apartheid Israel, just like Apartheid South Africa, will one day be in the dustbins of history.”
On July 20, 2017, Raza was reportedly the president of Vanderbilt SJP.
On November 13, 2019, Raza participated in a walkout of a speech by Israeli diplomat Dani Dayan at Harvard Law School, organized by the Harvard PSC. Anti-Israel students packed the speaking venue and, as Dayan began to speak, walked out [00:01:14]holding signs that read: “SETTLEMENTS ARE A WAR CRIME.”
On November 9, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB shared an article to Facebook that expressed support for Ahmed Manasra.
On October 12, 2015, Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem. The pair critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. Manasra was wounded.
On April 24, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB expressed support for Dima Al-Wawi on Facebook, posting: “Shame on Israel for wrongfully imprisoning this child to begin with! Palestine can't be free until all the prisoners are released!”
12-year-old Al-Wawi said that she hoped she would be killed in the process of killing an Israeli security guard. She said: “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred.” Al-Wawi was imprisoned for attempting to stab a security guard at the Israeli community Karmei Tzur.
On February 26, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB posted to Facebook in support of Muhammad al-Qiq: “Al Qiq is free!! Once again, Israel cannot defeat Palestinian courage and resilience!
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Muhammad al-Qiq, was detained by Israel for Hamas terror-related activities and was released after his hunger-striking posed a danger to his own life.
On February 25, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB shared to Facebook an article from the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada (EI), in support of Rasmea Odeh.
Odeh was a military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
On April 3, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB urged readers on Facebook to “‘TAKE ACTION to free Palestinian feminist lawmaker Khalida Jarrar!’PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SIGN!”
SJP Rutgers NB’s Facebook post included a link to a Samidoun petition demanding the release of Khalida Jarrar from detention in Israeli jail.
Students reportedly filed a complaint against SJP Rutgers NB with the Bias Prevention Education Committee at Rutgers. SJP Rutgers NB was reportedly found in violation of Rutgers posting policy in dorms, which requires all posters of student organizations to be stamped for approval by Student Life.
On October 14, 2013, John Lisowski, then-events coordinator of SJP Rutgers NB, wrote a letter to the editor in the Daily Targum, the Rutgers student newspaper, titled: “Students do not need to be sheltered from reality.”
In the article, Lisowski wrote: “One is left to wonder what is so hateful about SJP’s fliers..the Israel/Palestine conflict is a subject of furious polarizing debate. The critics of the fliers only seem to be speaking out against them because they are on the opposite side of this debate from SJP.”
On February 18, 2014, Lisowski published an article attacking the Daily Targum’s Board of Trustees, claiming the board “elected to censor” the “Israel-Palestine conflict,” after they reportedly ordered student editors to remove what the Board reported to be an “anti-Semitic and inaccurate” commentary from the paper’s website.
On January 23, 2014, SJP Rutgers NB activist and the opinions editor of the Daily Targum, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, published a student commentary in the Daily Targum that questioned plans for a new Rutgers Hillel building.
The commentary was written by then-Rutgers student Colleen Jolly and titled: “Can Hillel’s funding be put to better use elsewhere?”
In her commentary, Jolly asked why the campus needed a “second Jewish building on a historically reformed Dutch college” and claimed that “pro-Israel parties are good at getting money into funds...”
She also asked: “...As a non-Jewish person, does the Jewish nature make you feel welcome?”
The Daily Targum’s board of trustees reportedly issued an apology to then-Hillel executive director, Andrew Getraer and student president, Ariel Lubow, for publishing Jolly’s commentary.
In his February 18, 2014 article, Lisowski wrote that the Board of Trustees took an “authoritative stance after a problematic student commentary with anti-Semitic undertones was published... It was just a false accusation against Hillel that questioned the organization’s funding. The Board of Trustees now demands that any articles that pertain to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must pass through them for approval in order to be published.”
Josh Ruebner is the Policy Director for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (ETO).
Ruebner is also the co-founder and former Executive Director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), an organization which merged into the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Ruebner has accused Israeli military officers of studying Nazi tactics to use against Palestinians in Gaza and has accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of placing Israeli interests ahead of American interests.
Osama Abuirshaid, who also spoke at the SJP Rutgers NB event, was listed as the National Policy Director and board member of AMP on that group’s website. Abuirshaid reportedly worked for two Hamas-linked organizations in America that are now defunct: the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).
Anti-Israel activist Miko Peled has said [00:00:06] the Israeli army is “one of the best trained, best equipped, best fed, terrorist organizations in the world” and claimed [00:00:16] that “their entire purpose is terrorism.” He also tweeted in September 2016 that U.S. aid to Israel causes people to think that “Jews have a reputation 4being sleazy thieves.”
On April 5, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB hosted an event titled: “RISE UP: SJP Annual Banquet,” that featured Ehab Zahriyeh, a former Digital News Producer at Al Jazeera America and Iyad Burnat.
Burnat is the head of the Bil’in popular resistance committee and has, since 2005, organized weekly demonstrations against the Israeli West Bank security barrier. These demonstrations have often turned violent.
Burnat has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS. He has also accused “Zionists” of controlling American politics.
Also on April 5, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB posted to Facebook: “Our friends at Neturei Karta were able to join us at the banquet!” The post featured pictures of Neturei Karta members attending and addressing the event.
Neturei Karta is a fringe Jewish anti-Israel group that opposes Zionism on religious grounds and supports the dismantlement of Israel. Their leader, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, was excommunicated from many Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups for participating in a 2006 Holocaust denial conference.
On November 23, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB hosted prominent anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour at an event titled: “Solidarity: Unifying Communities of Color to Break Cycles of Oppression.”
Sarsour has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism” and frequently uses the word “Zionist” as a pejorative.
On November 17, 2014, SJP Rutgers NB co-sponsored an event titled: “Silencing Dissent: The University vs. Academic Freedom Featuring Professor Steven Salaita.”
A day earlier, SJP Rutgers NB promoted the event on Facebook and wrote that Salaita was “the professor who was denied a job at The University of Illinois after posting on social media about the atrocities committed in Palestine this past summer.”
The University of Illinois (U of I) rescinded a job offer made to Steven Salaita in 2014, after becoming aware of anti-Semitic tweets he made. Not long after three Israeli high school students were kidnapped by Hamas, Salaita tweeted: “You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”
During Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in 2014, Salaita tweeted: “There's something profoundly sexual to the Zionist pleasure w/#Israel's aggression. Sublimation through bloodletting, a common perversion.”
Salaita was ultimately unable to find a teaching position and claimed that he took a job as a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C. area.
On September 10, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), SJP Rutgers NB hosted radical cleric Zaid Shakir, who established the Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, with SJP founder Hatem Bazian and others.
OPE was commenced by Israel in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
According to an Investigative Project report, Shakir “defends terrorist groups such as Hizballah and hopes for a day in which America is a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law... He suggests that ‘Zionist’ forces and the FBI were behind the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.”
The event’s Facebook description read: “SJP's first event of the Fall 2014 semester is our official BDS kick-off!”
The Facebook description also claimed: “Over 2,000 people were killed this summer and while a cease-fire may have been achieved, Israel has proven no law or treaty will stop its slow-motion genocide. Join Students for Justice in Palestine and start off the year by helping us put an end to Israel's war crimes through BDS-- boycott, divestment, and sanctions.”
Deek was a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in New York and has supported [00:01:15] Hamas terrorists.
Taher Herzallah, the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Herzallah has expressed support for violence against Israeli Jews, spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory and posted pro-terrorist imagery to social media.
At the event, Deek said [00:00:15] BDS was “the least we could do.”
Deek continued [00:00:17]: “What is BDS? BDS simply means that I just refuse to participate in this. I refuse to support the Zionist entity, to support Israel as they engage in these acts of violence not just against the Palestinians but against our own people here and against people in the African continent and in South America or wherever Israel is engaging and fomenting acts of violence.”
On March 4, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB hosted a lecture titled: “BDS and the Work of Anti-Normalization in Solidarity Activism with Palestine,” as part of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2015.
The policy of “anti-normalization” aims to ensure that all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians align only with the Arab agenda, including ending the occupation and a full right of return for Palestinians, which is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. The policies are shared with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The event featured national BDS leader J. Kehualani Kauanui and was moderated by Jasbir Puar, Professor and Graduate Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers, where she has been a faculty member since 2000.
Puar has penned dozens of anti-Israel articles and spoken against Israel across numerous forums. She features regularly in BDS events and is listed as an Advisory Board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).
The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
On July 8, 2018, Raza tweeted: “The Israeli military and police…help train American police departments. / The techniques they use to brutalize Palestinian children are techniques they teach to the American police to brutalize Black children here.”
In the same thread, Raza tweeted: “Israel is an anti-Black state.”
The accusation that Israeli law enforcement teaches American police brutal tactics during police exchange programs is used to demonize Israel. Participants in these programs have stated [00:02:14] that the training in Israel focuses [00:13:36] on public policy, counterterrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.
In a March 6, 2018 article published in Mondoweiss, Raza wrote: “Israel is a state founded European Jews who colonized the land and, in 1948, conducted a genocide and mass expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population living there.” He also wrote about Israeli Independence Day, stating that “Palestinians refer to this day as the ‘nakba’ or the catastrophe.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
In the same March 2018 article, Raza accused Israel of “settler-colonialism” and claimed that Israel spreads “Islamophobia and genocide on a global scale.”
On December 18, 2017, Raza published an article for AlterNet in which he referred to Israel as “an apartheid regime that is responsible for racism and violence against communities of color abroad.”
On October 12, 2017, Raza tweeted: “Apartheid Israel, just like Apartheid South Africa, will one day be in the dustbins of history.”
Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, PSC)
On January 12, 2016, Raza was listed on Facebook by another Vanderbilt SJP activist as one of the group’s board members.On July 20, 2017, Raza was reportedly the president of Vanderbilt SJP.
On November 13, 2019, Raza participated in a walkout of a speech by Israeli diplomat Dani Dayan at Harvard Law School, organized by the Harvard PSC. Anti-Israel students packed the speaking venue and, as Dayan began to speak, walked out [00:01:14]holding signs that read: “SETTLEMENTS ARE A WAR CRIME.”
SJP Rutgers NB
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Rutgers University - New Brunswick (SJP Rutgers NB) was created in September 2011, with the stated mission to “shed light on injustices currently taking place [sic] Palestine, as well as empower students to elucidate truths and eradicate such injustices.” It was created as “a proud affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine.”SJP Rutgers NB - Supporting Terrorists (2015-2017)
On April 19, 2017, SJP Rutgers NB co-hosted an “emergency rally” in Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners to “Support Palestinian Prisoners Hunger Strike.”The 2017 hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners known as the “Dignity Strike” was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in terror attacks during the Second Intifada, including financing the bombing of the Sbarro Cafe in Jerusalem.
On November 9, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB shared an article to Facebook that expressed support for Ahmed Manasra.
On October 12, 2015, Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem. The pair critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. Manasra was wounded.
Manasra later admitted to investigators “I went there to stab Jews” and was later tried and convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
On April 24, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB expressed support for Dima Al-Wawi on Facebook, posting: “Shame on Israel for wrongfully imprisoning this child to begin with! Palestine can't be free until all the prisoners are released!”
12-year-old Al-Wawi said that she hoped she would be killed in the process of killing an Israeli security guard. She said: “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred.” Al-Wawi was imprisoned for attempting to stab a security guard at the Israeli community Karmei Tzur.
On February 26, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB posted to Facebook in support of Muhammad al-Qiq: “Al Qiq is free!! Once again, Israel cannot defeat Palestinian courage and resilience!
Muhammad al-Qiq, was detained by Israel for Hamas terror-related activities and was released after his hunger-striking posed a danger to his own life.
On February 25, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB shared to Facebook an article from the anti-Israel website Electronic Intifada (EI), in support of Rasmea Odeh.
Odeh was a military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
On April 3, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB urged readers on Facebook to “‘TAKE ACTION to free Palestinian feminist lawmaker Khalida Jarrar!’PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SIGN!”
Khalida Jarrar was sentenced in 2015 by an Israeli military court to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. A senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization, Jarrar was arrested again by Israel in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.”
In 2019, Jarrar, with other PFLP operatives, was arrested by Israel after a 2018 bombing attack that targeted an Israeli family. Jarrar was reportedly then head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016 and the cell which carried out the bombing was reportedly “planning additional attacks.” Guns and bomb-making equipment were seized during the arrest.
SJP Rutgers NB’s Facebook post included a link to a Samidoun petition demanding the release of Khalida Jarrar from detention in Israeli jail.
SJP Rutgers NB - Mock Eviction Notices Controversy (2013-2014)
On October 6, 2013, SJP Rutgers NB members slid hundreds of mock eviction notices under Rutgers dorm and apartment doors. The notices stated that students’ suites were “scheduled for demolition in the next three days” and if the residents did not vacate the premises in that time, the organization “reserved the right to destroy all remaining belongings.”Students reportedly filed a complaint against SJP Rutgers NB with the Bias Prevention Education Committee at Rutgers. SJP Rutgers NB was reportedly found in violation of Rutgers posting policy in dorms, which requires all posters of student organizations to be stamped for approval by Student Life.
On October 14, 2013, John Lisowski, then-events coordinator of SJP Rutgers NB, wrote a letter to the editor in the Daily Targum, the Rutgers student newspaper, titled: “Students do not need to be sheltered from reality.”
In the article, Lisowski wrote: “One is left to wonder what is so hateful about SJP’s fliers..the Israel/Palestine conflict is a subject of furious polarizing debate. The critics of the fliers only seem to be speaking out against them because they are on the opposite side of this debate from SJP.”
On February 18, 2014, Lisowski published an article attacking the Daily Targum’s Board of Trustees, claiming the board “elected to censor” the “Israel-Palestine conflict,” after they reportedly ordered student editors to remove what the Board reported to be an “anti-Semitic and inaccurate” commentary from the paper’s website.
On January 23, 2014, SJP Rutgers NB activist and the opinions editor of the Daily Targum, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, published a student commentary in the Daily Targum that questioned plans for a new Rutgers Hillel building.
The commentary was written by then-Rutgers student Colleen Jolly and titled: “Can Hillel’s funding be put to better use elsewhere?”
In her commentary, Jolly asked why the campus needed a “second Jewish building on a historically reformed Dutch college” and claimed that “pro-Israel parties are good at getting money into funds...”
She also asked: “...As a non-Jewish person, does the Jewish nature make you feel welcome?”
The Daily Targum’s board of trustees reportedly issued an apology to then-Hillel executive director, Andrew Getraer and student president, Ariel Lubow, for publishing Jolly’s commentary.
In his February 18, 2014 article, Lisowski wrote that the Board of Trustees took an “authoritative stance after a problematic student commentary with anti-Semitic undertones was published... It was just a false accusation against Hillel that questioned the organization’s funding. The Board of Trustees now demands that any articles that pertain to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must pass through them for approval in order to be published.”
SJP Rutgers NB - Anti-Israel Events (2015-2017)
On March 6, 2017, SJP Rutgers NB co-hosted an event with the anti-Israel organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The event featured a panel that included Josh Ruebner, Osama Abuirshaid and Riham Barghouti, co-founder of The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).Josh Ruebner is the Policy Director for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (ETO).
Ruebner is also the co-founder and former Executive Director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), an organization which merged into the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Ruebner has accused Israeli military officers of studying Nazi tactics to use against Palestinians in Gaza and has accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of placing Israeli interests ahead of American interests.
Osama Abuirshaid, who also spoke at the SJP Rutgers NB event, was listed as the National Policy Director and board member of AMP on that group’s website. Abuirshaid reportedly worked for two Hamas-linked organizations in America that are now defunct: the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and the United Association for Studies and Research (UASR).
On November 9, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB hosted an event titled: “Israel: A Manifestation of Imperialism & Colonialism,” featuring Raja Abdulhaq.
Abdulhaq has defended the terror group Hamas, glorified terrorists, whitewashed the 9/11 terror attacks and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
The SJP Rutgers NB Facebook event description read: “Come out to learn about how ZIONISM embodied the 19th century ethos of the European Mission Civilisatrice, racism, supremacy, and utilitarian principles, to justify the creation of a settler colonialism project on the land of Palestine.”
On March 28 - March 31, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB hosted Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).
Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), which has been re-named Palestine Awareness Week, is an annual event to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and “to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.”
Abdulhaq has defended the terror group Hamas, glorified terrorists, whitewashed the 9/11 terror attacks and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
The SJP Rutgers NB Facebook event description read: “Come out to learn about how ZIONISM embodied the 19th century ethos of the European Mission Civilisatrice, racism, supremacy, and utilitarian principles, to justify the creation of a settler colonialism project on the land of Palestine.”
On March 28 - March 31, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB hosted Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).
Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), which has been re-named Palestine Awareness Week, is an annual event to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and “to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.”
The banner on the event’s Facebook page showed protestors holding a banner that read: “Free Palestine Boycott Israel.”
On April 29, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB hosted an event featuring Haneen Zoabi. The Facebook event description read: “SJP invites you to a discussion with Haneen Zoabi on Israeli Apartheid, Zionism and more from a viewpoint of a Palestinian living in Israel.”
On April 29, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB hosted an event featuring Haneen Zoabi. The Facebook event description read: “SJP invites you to a discussion with Haneen Zoabi on Israeli Apartheid, Zionism and more from a viewpoint of a Palestinian living in Israel.”
Haneen Zoabi, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, has a long history of inciting violence. In 2014, she was suspended from the legislature after defending the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by the terror group Hamas, and who were later found executed in a field. In 2015, a criminal investigation was opened against Zoabi after she reportedly condoned anti-Israel violence and called for a new intifada.
SJP Rutgers NB - Hosting Anti-Israel Agitators (2014-2016)
On September 19, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB hosted anti-Israel agitator Miko Peled at an event titled: “Keys to Peace.”Anti-Israel activist Miko Peled has said [00:00:06] the Israeli army is “one of the best trained, best equipped, best fed, terrorist organizations in the world” and claimed [00:00:16] that “their entire purpose is terrorism.” He also tweeted in September 2016 that U.S. aid to Israel causes people to think that “Jews have a reputation 4being sleazy thieves.”
On April 5, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB hosted an event titled: “RISE UP: SJP Annual Banquet,” that featured Ehab Zahriyeh, a former Digital News Producer at Al Jazeera America and Iyad Burnat.
Burnat is the head of the Bil’in popular resistance committee and has, since 2005, organized weekly demonstrations against the Israeli West Bank security barrier. These demonstrations have often turned violent.
Burnat has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS. He has also accused “Zionists” of controlling American politics.
Also on April 5, 2016, SJP Rutgers NB posted to Facebook: “Our friends at Neturei Karta were able to join us at the banquet!” The post featured pictures of Neturei Karta members attending and addressing the event.
Neturei Karta is a fringe Jewish anti-Israel group that opposes Zionism on religious grounds and supports the dismantlement of Israel. Their leader, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, was excommunicated from many Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups for participating in a 2006 Holocaust denial conference.
On November 23, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB hosted prominent anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour at an event titled: “Solidarity: Unifying Communities of Color to Break Cycles of Oppression.”
Sarsour has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism” and frequently uses the word “Zionist” as a pejorative.
On November 17, 2014, SJP Rutgers NB co-sponsored an event titled: “Silencing Dissent: The University vs. Academic Freedom Featuring Professor Steven Salaita.”
A day earlier, SJP Rutgers NB promoted the event on Facebook and wrote that Salaita was “the professor who was denied a job at The University of Illinois after posting on social media about the atrocities committed in Palestine this past summer.”
The University of Illinois (U of I) rescinded a job offer made to Steven Salaita in 2014, after becoming aware of anti-Semitic tweets he made. Not long after three Israeli high school students were kidnapped by Hamas, Salaita tweeted: “You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”
During Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in 2014, Salaita tweeted: “There's something profoundly sexual to the Zionist pleasure w/#Israel's aggression. Sublimation through bloodletting, a common perversion.”
Salaita was ultimately unable to find a teaching position and claimed that he took a job as a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C. area.
On September 10, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), SJP Rutgers NB hosted radical cleric Zaid Shakir, who established the Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, with SJP founder Hatem Bazian and others.
OPE was commenced by Israel in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
According to an Investigative Project report, Shakir “defends terrorist groups such as Hizballah and hopes for a day in which America is a Muslim country ruled by Islamic law... He suggests that ‘Zionist’ forces and the FBI were behind the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.”
The event’s Facebook description read: “SJP's first event of the Fall 2014 semester is our official BDS kick-off!”
The Facebook description also claimed: “Over 2,000 people were killed this summer and while a cease-fire may have been achieved, Israel has proven no law or treaty will stop its slow-motion genocide. Join Students for Justice in Palestine and start off the year by helping us put an end to Israel's war crimes through BDS-- boycott, divestment, and sanctions.”
SJP Rutgers NB - Supporting BDS (2015-2017)
On October 9, 2017, SJP Rutgers NB hosted an event titled: “BDS: SHOW me how to RISE,” that featured guest speakers Lamis Deek and Taher Herzallah, Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing for AMP.Deek was a board member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in New York and has supported [00:01:15] Hamas terrorists.
Taher Herzallah, the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Herzallah has expressed support for violence against Israeli Jews, spread an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory and posted pro-terrorist imagery to social media.
At the event, Deek said [00:00:15] BDS was “the least we could do.”
Deek continued [00:00:17]: “What is BDS? BDS simply means that I just refuse to participate in this. I refuse to support the Zionist entity, to support Israel as they engage in these acts of violence not just against the Palestinians but against our own people here and against people in the African continent and in South America or wherever Israel is engaging and fomenting acts of violence.”
On March 4, 2015, SJP Rutgers NB hosted a lecture titled: “BDS and the Work of Anti-Normalization in Solidarity Activism with Palestine,” as part of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2015.
The policy of “anti-normalization” aims to ensure that all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians align only with the Arab agenda, including ending the occupation and a full right of return for Palestinians, which is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. The policies are shared with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The event featured national BDS leader J. Kehualani Kauanui and was moderated by Jasbir Puar, Professor and Graduate Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at Rutgers, where she has been a faculty member since 2000.
Puar has penned dozens of anti-Israel articles and spoken against Israel across numerous forums. She features regularly in BDS events and is listed as an Advisory Board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).
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.
AMP
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was founded by UC Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian as a vehicle to generate mainstream support in the United States for the Palestinian national cause.
On its website, the organization lists Bazian as the chairman of its national board and describes itself as “a national education and grassroots-based organization, dedicated to educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused AMP of promoting “extreme anti-Israel views and has at times provided a platform for anti-Semitism under the guise of educating Americans” about Palestinians. The ADL further stated that AMP is directly involved in campus-based anti-Israel activity through Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Prior to founding the AMP in 2006, Dr. Bazian created SJP together with fellow UC Berkeley Professor Snehal Shingavi in 2001. The close working relationship between AMP and SJP has been documented several times over the years by several organizations, including NGO Monitor and StandWithUs.
In addition to providing financial, public relations and legal assistance to SJP, AMP has also been accused of having connections to Hamas. The AMP national board includes former members of both the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) and Holy Land Foundation (HLF), both of which were found liable for aiding and abetting Hamas. The IAP was founded by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas.
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.
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- Last Modified:
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Infamous Quotes
“Israel is a state founded European Jews who colonized the land and, in 1948, conducted a genocide and mass expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population living there.”
“Apartheid Israel, just like Apartheid South Africa, will one day be in the dustbins of history.”
