Jacquelyn Hedrick
Overview
Jacquelyn Hedrick spread an anti-Israel conspiracy theory, promoted an anti-Israel activist and defended biased academic programming. She was the 2020-2021 Co-President and listed as the primary contact for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of North Carolina (UNC).
In 2019, Hedrick attended the National SJP Conference.
National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”
As of December 2020, Hedrick’s LinkedIn page said she was a “Clinical Support Technician” with UNC Health in Chapel Hill, NC, since September 2019 and a “Certified Nursing Assistant” at UNC Health since April 2019.
As of December 2020, Hedrick’s LinkedIn page said she was a “Clinical Support Technician” with UNC Health in Chapel Hill, NC, since September 2019 and a “Certified Nursing Assistant” at UNC Health since April 2019.
Hedrick’s LinkedIn also said she was “Morehead-Cain Scholar” at UNC at Chapel Hill, slated to graduate in 2021, and that she was a “Research Intern” at Researching the American-Israeli Alliance (RAIA) from June-August 2019, in New York, NY.
Hedrick also wrote that she: “Researched and wrote about military, corporate, and academic exchanges between the United States and Israel for RAIA’s Palestine is Here database and the Deadly Exchange Research Report,” a joint project with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
In January 2020, Hedrick reportedly worked at the Community Empowerment Fund in Chapel Hill, NC.
As of October 2020, Hedrick deleted her Instagram account and removed content from her Facebook page. As of the same date, Hedrick went by the name “Jacqueline” on Facebook and “Jacquelyn H.” on her LinkedIn page.
Spreading an Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theory
As of October 2020, Hedrick stated on her LinkedIn that she contributed to JVP’s Deadly Exchange report, which claimed to reveal “the extent of massive training programs between U.S. law enforcement and Israeli police, military, and the Shin Bet.”
RAIA clarified that the “Palestine is Here” database was a “search engine mapping Israeli trainings of US law enforcement across American cities and towns. “
RAIA also claimed the Deady Exchange report “demonstrates that the U.S. law enforcement agencies' endorsement of Israel's use of invasive surveillance, blatant racial profiling, and brutal force as a model for policing puts us all in danger.”
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange” (DX) campaign, accusing American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses by coordinating exchange programs between American and Israeli security personnel to advance “worst practices" and racist policies. The campaign blamed [00:04:04] Jewish organizations for violence against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
Promoting an Anti-Israel Activist
On May 2, 2019, Hedrick posted to Facebook a photo of herself and other UNC SJP activists posing with Linda Sarsour. As of October 2020, the photo was deleted from Hedrick’s Facebook page.Linda Sarsour has frequently used the word “Zionist” as a pejorative and has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.” She has aligned with noted anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, dismissed [00:07:45] those who see her alignment with Farrakhan as problematic and slammed the “Jewish Media” for calling attention to it.
At Farrakhan’s 2015 #JusticeOrElse March, Sarsour asserted [00:00:36]: “The same people who justify the massacres of Palestinian people and call it ‘collateral damage’ are the same people who justify the murder of young black men and women.”
Defending Biased Academic Programming
In September 2019, Hedrick and UNC SJP defended the Duke University (Duke) and UNC’s Consortium for Middle East and Islamic Studies (CMES) following an anti-Semitic incident.
On March 22-24, 2019, CMES held a “Conflict Over Gaza: People, Politics and Possibilities” Conference on UNC’s campus. The Conference came under scrutiny after an anti-Semitic performance by Palestinian rapper Tamer Nafar.
Nafar performed a controversial song titled “I’m in love with a Jew,” which he introduced [00:02:10] as “my anti-Semitic song.” Nafar also urged [00:02:13] the crowd to “think of [actor] Mel Gibson. Go that anti-Semitic,” while joining him in singing the song’s refrain “I’m in love with a Jew.”
Hollywood star Mel Gibson is known for making numerous anti-Semitic and racist statements.
Following controversy surrounding the Conference, the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) launched an investigation in June 2019, calling into question whether CMES’ programming fulfilled the requirements for federal funding.
CMES reportedly received $235,000 of annual federal funding and allegedly budgeted $5,000 of federal funds for the Conference.
In August 2019, the DOE concluded that CMES had violated the standards of its federally-funded program. The DOE found a lack of focus on “foreign language instruction and area studies advancing the security and economic stability” and that CMES provided biased culture studies programming, with little or no programming focused on religious minorities in the Middle East.
The DOE noted that CMES’ programming indicated “critical shortcomings and impermissible biases” and offered “very few, if any, programs focused on the historic discrimination faced by, and current circumstances of, religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians, Jews, Baha'is, Yadizis, Kurds, Druze, and others.”
The DOE found “an absolute absence” of any focus “on the positive aspects of any other religion or belief system” in the Middle East except for Islam.
The DOE also noted that teacher-training activities hosted by CMES overemphasized “narrow, particularized views of American social issues” while displaying a “startling lack of focus on geography, geopolitical issues, history, and language of the area, as Congress required in Title VI.”
As a condition for future funding, the DOE required that CMES “provide a revised schedule of activities that it plans to support for the coming year, including a description demonstrating how each activity promotes foreign language learning and advances the national security interests and economic stability.”
On September 25, 2019, Hedrick reportedly co-organized and attended a UNC SJP protest, which was held “In light of the attack on the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies by the Department of Education.” The Facebook event description invited attendees to “advocate against censorship in academia in service of American imperialism.”
Anti-Israel Activism
As of November 3, 2019, Hedrick displayed a photo of herself and other UNC SJP activists, posing in front of UNC SJP’s mock apartheid wall, to her “photos” section on Facebook.
As of October 2020, the Anti Defamation League (ADL) noted that such walls, meant to represent Israel’s security barrier, are often used by SJP on campuses “to call attention to alleged Israeli human rights violations.”
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
As of October 2020, the photo was deleted from Hedrick’s Facebook page.
On January 27, 2020, Hedrick and UNC SJP launched a “UNC Skips the Trip'' boycott campaign against UNC Hillel’s Perspectives Trip, a free 10-day trip to Israel and Palestine for selected students, via an online petition, accusing Hillel of attempting “to ensnare” student leaders.
The petition accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing of Palestinians” and “an apartheid system of law,” opposed UNC Hille’s private funding of the trip, and claimed UNC Hillel was attempting the “normalization of the occupation of Palestine.”
On February 4, 2020, UNC Hillel responded to UNC SJP ’s boycott campaign, stating that the Perspectives Trip was both transparent in its funding and aims to “help students develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding ofthe region and the experiences of Israelis and Palestinians.”
A February 4, 2020 article in UNC’s student newspaper the Daily Tar Heel, quoted Hedrick saying: “If we changed one person’s mind on this, then that’s all that we could ever hope for.”
Attending the 2019 NSJP Conference
On November 2, 2019, Hedrick was featured in a UNC SJP photo posted to the group’s Instagram stories, along with fellow UNC SJP activists Fouad Abu-Hijleh and Aisha Jitan, attending the NSJP 2019 Conference.
The 2019 National SJP Conference was held at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3. The Conference themes centered on support for BDS as well as the rejection of Israel and Zionism.
The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”
The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.
The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.
Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.
Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari. National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”
The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS
The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”
The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.
2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism
The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.
Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.
2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy
The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”Members of allied student groups could register only as part of an SJP chapter delegation which, in turn, needed to be “vouched for by their campus’s SJP” for “security culture and accountability reasons.”
The Conference also restricted media access to journalists “registered and confirmed by our Media Committee in advance to attend the conference. Absolutely no exceptions will be made.”
During the Conference, National SJPreportedly covered the windows of the conference hall.
2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations
National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari. National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100006227220023Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/jacqhedrick/ [Deleted]
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- North-Carolina-Chapel-Hill
- Organizations:
- SJP
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
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