Johanna Mustafa

Overview

Johanna Mustafa demonstrated in favor of the “March of Return,” attended an event in support of a terrorist, defended anti-Israel agitators, and demonized the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Mustafa also promoted the Boycotts, Divestments, Sanctions (BDS) movement and was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Southern California [USC].

Mustafa attended the 2018 National SJP Conference.

The 2018 National SJP conference was held on November 16-18, 2018 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The conference was themed “Radical Hope: Resistance in the Face of Adversity.” The conference website stated: “[t]he reason we can have hope is that Zionism...can be destroyed.”

Mustafa also attended an anti-Israel demonstration titled, “Rise Up & End Israeli Occupation,” in November 2015.

As of December 2018, Mustafa’s LinkedIn page said that she was a “Yalla Vote Field Organizer” at the Arab American Institute in California. In October 2018, Mustafa posted to Facebook that she joined the ‘Take on Hate” campaign.

Mustafa’s LinkedIn also listed her as an NNAAC "Transformative Leaders Fellow" at the Arab American Civic Council (AACC) in 2017-2018.

Mustafa’s LinkedIn detailed that Mustafa graduated from USC in 2016, with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science.

Mustafa’s LinkedIn also said she participated in USC’s Washington semester program at George Washington University (GWU) in 2015, as well as attended Fullerton College (Fullerton) in 2013-2014 and Rutgers University (Rutgers) in 2012-2013.

Demonstrating in Favor of the March of Return

On April 8, 2018, Rashad Al-Dabbagh, the founder and executive director of the AACC tagged Mustafa, indicating attendance, at a Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) co-organized [00:00:09] protest titled: “The Great Return March - Action in Solidarity.”

During the demonstration, Al-Dabbagh challenged [00:01:28] voters to make the issues of the Palestinian “right of return” and BDS the focus of upcoming local elections.

Mustafa also indicated on Facebook that she “went” to the event co-hosted by Arab American Activists (AAA) and the ‎PYM titled: Great Return March - Action in Solidarity” on April 7, 2018.

The Facebook event description said: “Since the beginning of the Great Return March, 29 Palestinians protesting in Gaza have become martyrs because of bullets from Zionist forces.”

On March 30, 2018, about 30,000 Gazans approached Israel’s border fence to join in “Land Day Protests,” which were also called the “March of Return.” The march was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests to spotlight the “right of return,” a policy discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

Most of the Gazans who died between March 30 and April 6, 2018, were identified as terror operatives who were killed while carrying out terrorist attacks, rioting against IDF forces or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border [with Israel] and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”

Support for a Terrorist

Mustafa indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a “Fundraiser for Rasmea Odeh” on March 13, 2015.

The event’s Facebook page said it would be: “An evening to celebrate the resilience of Palestinian Community Leader Rasmea Odeh and raise funds for her legal defense fund.”

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.

Defending an Anti-Israel Agitator

On January 21, 2018, Mustafa was featured in a photo series taken during the 2018 Orange County Women’s March on January 20, 2018. Mustafa held a sign that said: “Support H.R.4391! End Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children #FreeAhed.”

Mustafa attended thewith March with the AACC.

Ahed Tamimi has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.

Demonizing the ADL

On December 20, 2018, Mustafa was tagged on Facebook that she and other activists: “asked local groups to reconsider participation with the local ADL - Anti-Defamation League before the first ironic panel on Hate in Orange County.Ironic because we know the ADL does not believe in the liberation of Palestinian people and is active in supporting an apartheid occupation.”

The post also said: “ask ADL to be accountable for their stance on Palestine and it’s deadly exchange trainings.”

In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange (DX)” campaign, which accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] U.S.-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.

Promoting BDS

In March 2018, the LA Times reported that Mustafa, as part of the NNAAC and JVP in Los Angeles worked on “lobbying against the national Israel Anti-Boycott Act, which would make it illegal for Americans to engage in certain boycotts against Israel.”

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.720/H.R. 1697) declared that U.S policy opposed a March 24, 2016 UN Human Rights Council Resolution which called to boycott and divest from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

On October 26, 2017, Mustafa was featured in an AACC photo on Facebook holding a sign that said: “I Have the Right to Boycott #RightToBoycott.”

SJP Activism

On April 6, 2016, Mustafa was tagged in photos on the National SJP Facebook page. The photos were taken during SJP USC’s event: “Right to Education tour: The Impact of Colonialism on Education in Palestine.”

On April 4, 2016, USC SJP hosted student representatives from Birzeit University (Birzeit) participating in the “Right to Education tour.” The Facebook event description said: “Last year, NSJP and R2E hosted the first ever Right to Education tour through the US...and it is happening again in April 2016!”

The “Right to Education” campaign brings students to U.S. campuses, who claim that Israel is obstructing the rights of Palestinians to higher education. These claims mischaracterize sweeps Israeli security forces have taken to shut down terror cells operating from Birzeit’s campus.

Birzeit’s student body elected Hamas to power in 2003, 2015 and 2016.

In January of 2016, Birzeit characterized an IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent ... attack on the university and our right to education …”

In September of 2014, pro-Palestinian Haaretz reporter Amira Hass was thrown off of Birzeit’s campus — because Hass is Jewish.

In an April 1, 2016, post to the USC SJP Right to Education Tour: The Impact of Colonialism on Education in Palestine Facebook event page, Mustafa wrote: “4 DAYS LEFT to our event with Mai and Nour! You don't want to miss this event. Be sure to come and bring all your friends. We look forward to meeting you all! #EducateToLiberate #InvestInEducationNotWar.”

On February 16, 2016, Mustafa uploaded to Prezi a slideshow titled: “USC Students for Justice in Palestine.” The first slide said: “Students for Justice in Palestine General Body Meeting February 4, 2016.”

The slideshow transcript said: “Divestment means targeting corporations complicit in the violation of Palestinian rights...to pressure Israel to end its systematic denial of Palestinian rights.”

Slide 22 featured a series of misleading maps of Israel, titled “Palestinian Loss of Land” which claimed they showed Israel’s increasing encroachment on Palestinian land.

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

Mustafa indicated on Facebook that she “went” to the SJP at UCLA event titled: “Palestine Awareness Week [Week 4]” at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on January 28, 2016.

Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding for American audiences of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), originally presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Mustafa indicated on Facebook that she “went” to USC SJP event titled: “Palestine 101: History, Resistance, and Activism” on November 11, 2015.

Attending the 2018 National SJP Conference

In November 2018, a Facebook post said that she tabled at the 2018 National SJP Conference for Take on Hate, sponsored by the National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC).

Attending an Anti-Israel Demonstration

On November 1, 2015, during the “Knife Intifada” which saw young Palestinians throughout Israel stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians, Mustafa indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an Al-Awda-hosted event titled: “Rise Up & End Israeli Occupation.”

The event’s Facebook description said: “RISE UP against illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine! March for an end to indiscriminate shootings, child imprisonment, and the Apartheid Wall!”

Demonstrators at the event held various anti-Israel signs, including one showing support for convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh that said: “Free Rasmea NOW!”

2018 National SJP - Celebrating Violence

During the 2018 National SJP conference, anti-Israel activist Mohammed Nabulsi led the attendees in the chant [00:00:52] “Long Live the Intifada! Intifada! Intifada!”

Since the early 2000’s, the term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence. The second intifada was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.

Anti-Israel activist Omar Zahzah also reportedly [00:00:07] led National SJP attendees in chanting, in Arabic, “With our bodies and our blood, we will free Palestine.”

As of November 2018, the 2018 National SJP website glorified “radical hope and upfront defiance of Zionism,” citing as examples the “early revolts through the Intifadas to the Great Return March.”

The Great Return March of 2018 was organized and funded by the terror group Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

Tens of thousands of rioters gathered on Israel’s Gaza border, attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with leaders andparticipants declaring their intention to harm Jews.

National SJP originally promoted a conference logo featuring a keffiyeh-wearing bear, looking toward a kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag.

On October 27, 2018, National SJP said the kite signified “the power in the Gaza March of Return.”

Since March 2018, March of Return participants and Hamas’s “Kite Unit” have sent hundreds of kites bearing incendiary devices and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) across the border into Israel to terrorize Israelis. The kites are often marked with swastikas.

By the time National SJP produced its 2018 conference logo highlighting the kites in October 2018, Gazan terror kites and balloons had ignited more than 1,300 fires in Israel, over seven months.

2018 National SJP - Undermining U.S. Support for Israel

On November 18, 2018, the US Palestine Community Network (USPCN) posted on Facebook the 2018 National SJP keynote speech by Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN’s co-founder.

Abudayyeh has supported [00:08:45] convicted terrorists, praised terror organizations, called for Israel’s destruction and is an activist in theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In his 2018 National SJP Keynote, Abudayyeh said [00:53:01] that the “specific role” of Palestinian and Arab students was to organize [00:53:42] in order to weaken “Zionist Israel” and force [00:54:23] the U.S. to “no longer provide it with diplomatic, political, financial and military cover and support.”

Abudayyeh predicted [00:55:37] that once U.S. support to Israel ends, National SJP attendees would return to Palestine as “conquering heroes,” end [00:54:38] the “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands including the Golan Heights” and replace “Zionist Israel” with a Palestinian state.

2018 National SJP - Whitewashing Terror Organizations

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh also painted [00:14:01] terrorist organizations as “liberation movements” and “resistance organizations,” stating [00:14:21] “what we also know is that the majority of the resistance organizations in Palestine are on the U.S. state department list of foreign terrorist organizations.”

Abudayyeh also celebrated [00:52:00] that all of the “armed resistance” organizations in Gaza are part [00:52:14] of a “unified resistance in Gaza, that includes all of the resistance organizations, working together under a unified military command.”

2018 National SJP - Defending Terrorist Rasmea Odeh

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh claimed [00:08:28] that pro-Israel organizations “go after students like you,” adding [00:08:20] “just like they went after my friend and colleague, Rasmea Odeh.”

Abudayyeh added that he was asked [00:08:45] to talk about Odeh’s case, and praised SJP and SDS students who organized [00:09:15] “absolutely valuable” events on behalf [00:9:11] of Odeh, “as she was fighting to stay in the U.S.”

2018 National SJP - Demonizing Israel and Jews

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh defended [00:27:25] the “Irvine 11” — eleven Muslim Student Union (MSA) members who were arrested in 2010 for repeatedly shouting down former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren during an address at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine).

Abudayyeh referred [00:27:37] to Oren as a “racist fascist speaker, representative of a racist, fascist country.”

Abudayyeh went on to claim [00:29:48] that “today, even in the United States, Israel is finally being seen as the criminal, apartheid, racist state that it is.”

Abudayyeh also called for increased action in the face of President U.S. Donald Trump, and referred [00:48:41] to Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior advisor, as “that pig son-in-law of his.”

2018 National SJP - Excluding Students

The 2018 National SJP Conference welcomed only students who were verified and vouched for by an SJP (or otherwise named campus Palestine solidarity group). Media requests needed to be “approved by the NSJP press team” prior to the conference.

A November 7, 2018 Columbus Jewish News article reported that the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on UCLA to cancel the 2018 NSJP conference, stating that a “public university should not allow any group to implement a litmus test for event participation on their campus.”

On November 12, 2018, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that criticized National SJP’s exclusion of members of pro-Israel student groups.

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 Student 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.