Husam Zakharia

Overview

Husam Zakharia [Husam Samir Khalil Zakharia] has physically attacked Jewish students, spread hatred of Zionists and Zionism, demonized Israel and participated in anti-Israel activism.

Zakharia reportedly served as the head of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 2010.

Zakharia is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of April 2022, Zakharia’s LinkedIn page said he attended UC Berkeley from 2006 to 2010 and graduated with a degree in Arabic Language and Literature.

As of April 2022, Zakharia’s LinkedIn also said he attended Mills College (Mills) from 2013 to 2014 and completed their Teaching Credential Program.

As of May 2022, Zakharia indicated on LinkedIn that he lived in the greater Los Angeles area and that he worked at CardinalHire.com as an Account Manager and Technical Recruiter.

Physical Violence against Jewish Students

On March 5, 2010, Zakharia was reportedly arrested on battery charges for ramming a shopping cart into a female Jewish student who was holding up a sign that read: “Israel wants peace.”

In 2011, Zakharia reportedly physically attacked two Jewish students during a disruption of a pro-Israel concert.

On January 6, 2012, a Civil Rights lawsuit was filed against UC Berkeley by the woman Zakharia reportedly assaulted in 2010. The lawsuit claimed that the victim of the ramming took out a restraining order against Zakharia.

The lawsuit also claimed he previously spat at the victim.

Hatred of Zionists and Zionism

On June 20, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “Man, hell yeah. f**k them. zionists are likely to put blatantly racist s**t on their records as frequently as I say saba7 Al khair [good morning].”

On June 10, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “Zionism is such a pathetic colonizer movement…”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

On June 4, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “Zionists want to simultaneously be the oppressor settler colonizer AND monopolize the narrative of being the oppressed as they ethnically cleanse us and shove us into our apartheid corner.”

On June 3, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “The dumb logical fallacy of these ‘new age zionists’ who pretend zionism is simply Jewish nationalism. That WOULD be true, if it wasn't explicitly a settler-colonial ideology…”

On May 13, 2021, Zaharia tweeted: “The brunt of zionist pundits' critiques of Palestinians amounts to: ‘It's not enough that we have the power and green light to ethnically cleanse Palestinians, we are particularly offended that they won't accept it quietly and peacefully!’ #saveshiekhjarrah #Gaza #Palestine.”

In May of 2021, calls to save Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers that month.

Demonizing Israel

On February 3, 2022, Zakharia posted a drawing on Instagram of cartoon characters reading an Amnesty International report that was released in February 2022.

In February 2022, Amnesty International released a 280-page report titled: “Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity.” The report vilified Israeli military action and policy. It briefly mentioned rocket fire from Gaza, but failed to mention suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings or any other form of terrorism as the reasons behind Israel’s security measures.

On January 23, 2022, Zakharia posted to Instagram a drawing of a watermelon, which he claimed to be a symbol of the Palestinian people, accusing Israel of ethnic cleansing.

On July 3, 2021, Zakhaira tweeted: “...what we are watching in Palestine is ethnic cleansing. They do it "slowly" rather than all at once, to evade outcry, and explicitly to ‘change the demographic’ - they consider Palestinians not as humans but as demographic threats…”

On June 29, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “What kind of dystopia is this where we feel that a hashtag is a protective layer shielding an active ethnic cleansing of our homeland? #SaveSilwan.”

Jewish ownership claims to lands in Silwan, a Jerusalem neighborhood also known as Shiloach, have been frequently met with Palestinian violence against Israelis who sought to reclaim their property rights.

On June 27, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “Ethnic cleansing in real time happening in #Silwan #Jerusalem by a settler colonial state…”

On June 27, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “I guess yall cool with ethnic cleansing then? I'm not. But maybe that's only 'cause my grandparents were BORN IN JERUSALEM #SaveSilwan.”

On June 18, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “So they're [Israel] unleashing hell and bombing Gaza because people in Gaza…sent balloons towards them. How is this reality? Insecure colonizer garbage army immoral no shame cowards and fascists. #FreePalestine.”

Following a May 2021 cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, Gazans sent hundreds of incendiary balloons toward Israel, causing multiple fires and significant damage to Israeli agricultural produce. In June 2021, Israel launched retaliatory strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza. Hamas arson balloon attacks have reportedly destroyed more than 10,400 acres of land since 2018.

On June 4, 2021, Zakharia tweeted: “... We actually want to live on our own land in historical Palestine in peace; free of apartheid, violence, ethnic cleansing, oppression, harassment, and colonization.

Anti-Israel Activism

On March 8, 2010, a YouTube video featured Zakharia and others from Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley trampling an Israeli flag and handing out leaflets.

In November 2008, Zakharia reportedly disrupted a pro-Israel concert by draping Palestinian flags from a balcony. When Zakharia was asked to remove the flags, a fistfight ensued and Zakharia was reportedly cited for battery.

On May 7, 2008, Zakharia reportedly participated in a mock checkpoint, where students posed as Israeli soldiers and asked other students if they were Jewish. The event was part of Israel Apartheid Week at UC Berkeley.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

Supporting BDS

On July 21, 2021, Zakhaira tweeted: “When I see that Ben and Jerry's caved on BDS demands, I don't think, "Great, let's go buy ice cream!" Instead, I think, "Great, we should go support those tireless organizers who made this ethical thing happen with their free labor!" Credit where it's due!”

On July 19, 2021, ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s announced it would stop all product sales in “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The BDS movement celebrated the decision, calling on the ice cream company to boycott the State of Israel in its entirety. However, company owner Unilever overrode the subsidiary’s decision after multiple US states decided to divest public funds from Unilever.

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.