Hiba Saeed

Overview

Hiba Saeed co-authored an anti-Israel divestment resolution that promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at the University of Davis, California (UC Davis) in 2014. She has also spread hatred of Israel while a student activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UC Davis.

In 2014, Saeed served as the External Vice President of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UC Davis. She was also the Events Coordinator and Political Action Committee Advisor of the MSA from June 2013 to June 2014.

Saeed served on the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission of the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis (ASUCD) from Fall 2012 to Winter 2013.

Saeed reportedly interned at the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in the San Francisco Bay Area from June 2013 to September 2013.

As of June 2019, Saeed’s LinkedIn page said she graduated from UC Davis in 2016 with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Affairs. Her LinkedIn also said she was a Data Analyst at Adecco in Santa Clara, California, since January 2019.

Promoting BDS

In April 2014, Saeed co-authored an anti-Israel divestment resolution at UC Davis.

The April 2014 resolution called on the University of California (UC) to divest from holdings in companies "that aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories," including Caterpillar, G4S PLC and Veolia Environment.

On April 21, 2014, Saeed updated her Facebook cover photo to the UC Davis Divest logo.

On May 8, 2014, the divestment resolution failed, with the student senate vote evenly divided. The ASUCD Vice President abstained from voting and thus did not break the tie - resulting in a 5-5-3 vote.

On May 19, 2014, Saeed signed an open letter, published in the UC Davis campus newspaper, condemning the ASUCD Senate for not passing the divestment resolution. The letter claimed that those voting against the resolution considered “the tears of the anti-divestment community worth more than Palestinian blood.”

On January 29, 2015, Saeed attended a student senate hearing [00:01:46] that was called to present an expanded version of the 2014 resolution and was titled “ASUCD Senate Resolution #9 (SR #9).” Following speeches from those supporting and opposing the resolution, the anti-divestment students, who constituted a third of attendees, walked out [00:06:51] of the room.

As they left, a large group of pro-divestment students chanted “Allahu Akhbar! [God is the Greatest]” The January 2015 resolution passed, with a vote of 8-2-2.

On January 30, 2015,UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi issued a statement that the resolution to divest did not reflect the position of UC Davis or the University of California system. The next day, unidentified vandals spray-painted two large swastikas on a house belonging to the Jewish fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi).

In February 2015, the BDS resolution was overturned as unconstitutional by the university’s Court of Associated Students, on the grounds that it was "primarily a political document" with insufficient relevance to student welfare on campus.

On May 28, 2015, SJP reportedly proposed a new resolution authored by SJP president Marcelle-Alexandra Obeid, alleging that "enabling Israel’s occupation of Palestine compromises the integrity of students’ education."

The May 2015 resolution passed, with a vote of 10-0-2.

However, in May 2019, that resolution was also ruled unconstitutional by the ASUCD Judicial Council.

The Council further noted the resolution also violated the ASUCD Bill of Student Rights, because its passage “led to the discrimination and harassment of students whose ethnicity, national origin or political beliefs are in opposition to the content of the Resolution” and that the resolution’s wording had “caused harassment against many students.”

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On July 4, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Saeed updated her cover photo on Facebook to a graphic with text that said: “#Palestine Under Attack Israeli forces have invaded refugee camps, villages and cities across Palestine as part of the largest military assault on the occupied territories in more than a decade.”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

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.

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.

CAIR

CAIR describes itself as a “grassroots civil rights and advocacy group” and “America's largest Muslim civil liberties organization, with regional offices nationwide.” Its official mission is “enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.”

CAIR reportedly has “significant ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Hamas. A number of former CAIR employees have been convicted on fraud and terrorism-related charges that resulted monetary fines, jail terms and, sometimes, deportation.

CAIR was founded in 1994 and opened its first office in Washington, DC, with the help of a $5,000 donation from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a charity founded by Mousa Abu Marzook.

Marzook, who was listed as a "Specially Designated Terrorist" by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1995, is reportedly a senior member of Hamas.

In May 2007, CAIR was listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a U.S.-filed action against the HLF for providing funds to Hamas.

CAIR was also listed as a terrorist entity by the United Arab Emirates, in 2014.

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.