Jenna Saadeh

Overview

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

Saadeh is an anti-money-laundering support specialist at Umpqua Bank in Portland, Oregon. She graduated from PSU in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, Middle East Studies and Arabic.

Saadeh is a member of multiple anti-Israel Facebook groups, including the NW-Campus-BDS Coalition and the JVP-Pdx Discussion Group, where members discuss material from Jewish Voice for Peace.

Supporting BDS at PSU

On October 24, 2016, SUPER authored a BDS resolution which passed the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), the PSU student government. Saadeh was present in support of the vote.

The resolution, which attempts to portray the State of Israel as a modern incarnation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the university to divest from companies with ties to the Jewish state in an effort to discourage these companies from doing further business with Israel.

On May 9, 2016, Saadeh spoke before the ASPSU in favor of the BDS resolution.

On May 23, 2013, SUPER posted a radio interview where Saadeh represented SUPER and was asked which food products to avoid in order to support BDS. She said: "I know there are a lot of food products. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head. But I know there’s a lot of, sort of like, kind of like biscuits, some kosher wines and all that" (5:52). She also accused Israel of ethnic cleansing (10:40).

Endorsing Hate Speech

On April 10, 2015, Saadeh appeared in a Facebook photo with professor Steven Salaita following his SUPER-hosted talk the day before at PSU. Steven Salaita is the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

SUPER - Honoring Terrorists

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted its Palestinian Cultural Night where the group set up multiple displays honoring terrorists. Among them were Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members Leila Khaled and Rasmea Odeh.

Khaled hijacked airplanes with the PFLP in 1969 and 1970 while Odeh masterminded a 1969 bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket and also attempted to bomb the British consulate. Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated her as the mastermind.

The same event honored the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Chairman Yasser Arafat and senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi, as well as Haneen Zoabi — a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) — who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions.

On November 19, 2014, SUPER hosted an event exclusively supporting Odeh.

On March 1, 2014, SUPER hosted another Palestinian Cultural Night where they honored Arafat.

SUPER - Bringing Anti-Israel Speakers to PSU

On May 23, 2016, SUPER hosted an event featuring Nada Elia who — in October of 2015, while Palestinians across Israel stabbed scores of Israeli civilians during the "Knife Intifada" — wrote an article titled “Why Be Afraid of an Intifada?” where she said “Intifadas are good.”

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi who is known for his aggressively anti-Israel performances.

On April 9, 2015, SUPER hosted Professor Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

On February 24, 2015, SUPER hosted BDS founder Omar Barghouti and Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director of anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

On May 13, 2014, SUPER hosted anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: "Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit."

On December 13, 2013, SUPER hosted terror supporter Eva Bartlett.

On May 25, 2012, SUPER hosted blood libel propagator Jasbir Puar who has claimed that Israel harvests Palestinian organs and stunts Palestinian growth.

On February 25, 2012, SUPER hosted conspiracy theorist As’ad Abu Khalil who said two weeks earlier that among the "anti-Semitic kooks" within the Palestinian movement were possibly “infiltrators to sabotage our cause and smear our campaigns.”

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/574614310

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-saadeh-97053897