Jonel Edwards

Overview

Jonel Edwards is the Lead Organizer for Dream Defenders (DD) and former vice president of the DD chapter at the University of Florida (UF) where shegraduatedin 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.

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

Supporting Terrorism

On March 9, 2016, Edwards shared a Facebook post featuring Palestinian women brandishing guns, throwing rocks and firing slingshots with their heads wrapped in keffiyehs.

On October 19, 2016, Edwards shared a link raising money for terrorist Ali Jiddeh who planted four hand grenades in downtown Jerusalem as a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Jiddeh injured nine Israelis and spent 17 years in jail. He claimed, in the link, that his act was part of "being active in the Palestinian national struggle."

On June 2, 2016, Edwards shared a pro-BDS video from the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), starring Bassem Tamimi, a Palestinian propagandist with a history of inciting children to violence against Israel.

Mission to Israel

In January 2015, DD ran its first trip to Israel, led by its co-founder Ahmad Abuznaid — son of veteran Palestinian Diplomat Dr. Nabil Abuznaid. Abuznaid has claimed the DD trips are intended "to build real relationships with those on the ground leading the fight for liberation."

During the January 2015 and May 2016 trips, the DD delegation met with BDS founder, Omar Barghouti and with former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesperson Diana Buttu. Buttu served in the PLO during the Second Intifada when the PLO — via Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — perpetrated terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

The DD delegation met with artist Ayed Arafah in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp (Dheisheh) near Bethlehem, recognized as a PFLP stronghold. Arafah, later that year, produced art featuring PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani and militant Moataz Zawahreh whom Arafah called a "martyr."

The DD delegation also harassed Israeli soldiers in the city of Hebron and called for BDS in the town square of Nazareth.

Abuznaid claimed that while the group was in Ramallah, they met with Addameer, an organization that advocates on behalf of Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are either supporters or members of terror groups.

On May 11, 2016, the DD delegation met with PFLP member Mahmoud Jiddeh — who was arrested in 1968 for planting bombs in Israel and spent 17 years in jail. Didier Ortiz, a DD member on the trip, listed Jiddeh as still being a PFLP member.

On May 12, 2016, the DD delegation participated in a protest to demand the Palestinian "right of return," long discredited as a subterfuge to eliminate Israel.

On May 16, 2016, the DD delegation again met with artist Ayed Arafah in the Dheisheh Refugee Camp (Dheisheh) near Bethlehem.

On May 17, 2016, the DD delegation met with Haneen Zoabi — a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) — who has been investigated for inciting violence on a number of occasions.

On May 18, 2016, the DD delegation again met with BDS founder Omar Barghouti. Former PLO spokesperson Diana Buttu also joined the May 2016 delegation.

Teaching Schoolchildren to Identify with the PFLP

On March 2016, DD produced an educational series that glorifies the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Intended for sixth to eleventh graders, the curriculim titled "Blacked Out History - Rebellion Curriculum Toolkit," preaches violence under the euphemism of “struggle” (page 6).

The curriculim mentions various violent PFLP strategies (page 25) such as "hijackings, assassinations, car bombings, suicide bombings, paramilitary operations against civilian and military targets" and concludes “[t]hey want to be free from global imperialism. They want liberation. They want equal rights. Just like the Dream Defenders” (page 26).

Vilifying Israel

According to the Movement for Black Lives' (M4BL) Platform Israel is accused of committing "genocide" against Palestinians. DD also claimed that Israel is currently engaged in “ethnic cleansing.”

The DD post also implicitly denied the ancient Jewish connection to the Land of Israel.

In addition, DD condemned as "wolves in sheeps clothing" those who criticized BLM for its adoption of these positions. DD concluded the blog post with the declaration that anyone who rejects the M4BL Platform for its anti-Israel positions is someone “who no longer stand[s] with Black people.”

On August 2, 2016, Rachel Gilmer, DD Chief of Strategy co-authored the statement on Israel appearing in the M4BL Platform — which promotes BDS. The Platform states that: "The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance with Israel and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people."

On November 2, 2016, Edwards shared an SJP event demonizing the Jewish youth heritage trip Birthright.

On July 10, 2014, Edwards shared a Facebook post with a photo insinuating that United States aid to Israel is perpetuating poverty in Detroit.

Promoting the “Right to Education” Tour

Dream Defenders

Based in Florida, DD was founded in 2012 and aims to create a "new generation" of organizers working to end domestic and foreign wars, free public education, community control of economic resources, release of prisoners from American prisons and an end to the Capitalist system in the United States.

The group later adopted a harsh anti-Israel position, falsely linking Israel’s existence to the same Capitalist system they view as responsible for the issues their communities face. DD has led several delegations to Israel and where they met exclusively with anti-Israel groups and individuals, including militants from the terrorist organization PFLP.

DD is a project (page 3) of the Tides Center, linked to anti-Israel billionaire George Soros and is a leading organization within the Black Lives Matter (BLM)movement that was founded in 2013.

DD has supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement as early December 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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jonel.edwards

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonel-edwards-90629321

Twitter:https://twitter.com/JONELLEEEE

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/jonelleeee/