Joshua Beirich
Overview
Beirich promoted a BDS initiative launched by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Chicago (SJP UChicago) in 2023. He was affiliated with SJP UChicago and the anti-Israel group IfNotNow (INN) in 2021.
As of May 2023, Beirich’s Twitter bio said he was an “incoming phd in german & yiddish literature.” In April 2023, he tweeted: “I’ll be starting my PhD in German(ic Languages) at Columbia in the fall,” a reference to the Department of Germanic Languages at Columbia University (Columbia).
As of June 2023, Beirich was listed as “Eyshe Beirich” on the website of Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook, Illinois, where he taught a Yiddish class. Beirich also served as an editorial intern at In Geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies from 2020 to 2022. He was also listed on the In Geveb website as “Eyshe Beirich.”
In 2020, Beirich tweeted that his name was “Joshua.” In 2021, Beirich tweeted: “my name is not legally eyshe but i just decided that it's my name now.”
As of July 2023, Beirich’s Twitter bio said he was located in “ניו יארק [New York].”
Also as of the same date, Beirich went by the username “איישע [Eyshe]” and the handle “@protosemite” on Twitter. He had previously gone by the usernames “heyshe” and “איישע קיינעהאָרע [Eyshe Keinehara]” on the same Twitter account.
Terror Support (PFLP)
On September 24, 2020, Beirich tweeted: “oh in case I forgot to mention, this twitter account (which is me) wholeheartedly and unequivocally supports the revolutionary Leila Khaled.”Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
Also in the same September 24, 2020 thread, Beirich tweeted: “just posting this for a reminder that i don’t care who you are, if you’re not appalled and distraught (or the converse, inspired and engaged) by the treatment of leila khaled and all palestinian revolutionaries or activists then you should get off my twitter.”
The book is Khaled’s autobiography where she endorsed [p. 49] “the morality of hijacking, the legitimacy of revolutionary violence.” She later described [p. 89] her terror activity “as the exponent of the doctrine of people's war and protracted armed struggle.” Her book’s conclusion began [p. 106] with an explicit call for Israel’s destruction.
On June 17, 2021, Beirich promoted on Twitter the writings of PFLP spokesman Ghassan Kanafani.
In the next tweet in the thread, Beirich linked to a PDF of one of Kanafani’s books on the website pflp-documents.org, which opened [pp. 4-7] with several pages memorializing Kanafani and his time with the PFLP.
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
On July 10, 2022, Beirich tweeted: “i think if there was one thing i want my first article in yiddish to be…it would be a review of the new kanafani translation from @Ebb_Magazine and @LiberatedTexts.”
Beirich retweeted an April 9, 2023 tweet that said: “The revolutionary graphic artist Marc Rudin (also known as Jihad Mansour) had died. He was the PFLP’s cover artist between 1979 to 1991 and created some of the most iconic PFLP posters. These are a few examples of his work, archived by the Palestine Poster Project. Vale.”
The tweet included posters of terrorists holding rifles and one poster showing a child being given a rock, with the caption: “Child of the Uprising-the Future is Yours.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel. It is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States. The EU, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Australia and Israel also list it as a terror group due to its history of carrying out assassinations, suicide bombings, hijackings and multiple murders.
Hatred of Israel
On November 20, 2020, Beirich tweeted: “there is no justification for israel, there is no rereading nor reevaluations of zionism. zionism is violent, zionism is racist, zionism is something that needs to be abandoned.”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 April 16, 2021, Beirich tweeted: “...Israel has no right to exist and never did have a right to exist. Hope that helps.”
On May 14, 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas, Beirich tweeted: “Such a weird feeling reading these tweets from American Jews that say ‘stop implicating us! We have nothing to do with Israel!’ Oh really? Your tax money stopped going to Israel? You successfully cut off ties with Zionist institutions, changed family, didn't go on Birthright?”
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.
In the same May 14, 2021 thread, Beirich tweeted: “You follow the guidelines of BDS in your daily and professional lives? Including the Academic and Cultural boycott? You call out anti-Palestinian racism when you see it and don't tolerate Zionism in your organizations? In your synagogues?...”
Beirich retweeted a December 7, 2022 tweet that read: “zionist means support for the establishment and maintenance of a european state in the land of historic palestine with a permanent demographic majority of jews secured by any means necessary.”
Beirich retweeted a December 19, 2022 tweet that read: “Are we seriously having this conversation? The israeli state is an apartheid state; this is established. Israeli institutions, incl universities, are apartheid institutions.Inviting academics to participate in apartheid is whitewashing apartheid.”
Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, BDS, INN)
On June 1, 2021, Beirich wrote an op-ed in the Chicago Maroon, the UChicago student newspaper, titled: “Join the Incoming USG in Standing with Palestine.” In the op-ed, Beirich wrote in support of a joint statement by SJP UChicago and the incoming Undergraduate Student Government (USG) calling on the school to endorse BDS.Beirich wrote: “A Free Palestine means an end to the ongoing Nakba—the genocide—of Palestinians, an end to Israeli occupation and apartheid, a Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees, and complete equality and agency for all who reside in Palestine.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
SJP UChicago and the UChicago USG issued their joint statement in the wake of Israel’s OGW against Hamas. The statement said: “We support the divestment of the University of Chicago from Israelicompanies [sic] in compliance with the larger standing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, endorsed by 170+ Palestinian organizations…We stand against the ideology of Zionism that has been used as a justification for the murder, displacement, and traumatization of Palestinian people.”
The joint statement also said: “From the river to the sea, USG supports a Palestine that is free.”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
Beirich signed a May 25, 2021 statement by the Chicago chapter of INN in support of the joint statement by the UChicago USG and SJP UChicago.
On May 29, 2021, Beirich tweeted that he “wrote a petition for anyone affiliated with the university of chicago to submit their name in solidarity with the statement on palestine authored by our incoming student government and SJP.” Beirich also signed [p. 3] the petition.
The petition read: “We hope that this petition of University support will show that this statement was a justified and necessary commitment to Palestine, that absolutely does speak for many University constituents, particularly Palestinian students. We, the undersigned, support a USG that stands for a Free Palestine.”
On May 31, 2021, Beirich promoted his petition again on Twitter.
On June 1, 2021, Beirich tweeted: “UCHICAGO, your action is NEEDED URGENTLY. Student Government is voting on *retracting* the statement they made in solidarity with Palestine. Please blow up this 'Get Help' form with why YOU support Palestine, and retraction is a mistake.”
SJP UChicago BDS Campaign
In January 2023, Beirich signed [p. 5] an SJP UChicago statement calling on UChicago to ban Israeli scholars who previously served in the Israeli military from teaching on campus. The statement referred to these scholars as “complicit Israeli military personnel.”Beirich retweeted a January 5, 2023 SJP UChicago tweet that read: “Calling all members of the UChicago community to support our winter campaign against General Elran’s ‘Counter-Terrorism’ course and the presence of the israeli military on our campus. #israeliMilitaryOffOurCampus #CounterColonialism.”
On January 5, 2023, SJP UChicago launched a BDS campaign titled: “#IsraeliMilitaryOffOurCampus,” which they also promoted with the hashtag: “#CounterColonialism.”
The campaign called [slide 5] upon students to boycott a class being taught by retiredIsrael Defense Forces (IDF) General Meir Elran, to “oppose his presence (and the Israeli military’s) on our campus” and to “protest the university’s relationship with the Israel Institute.”
In January 2023, Elran was teaching a course at UChicago titled: “Security, Counter Terrorism and Resilience, the Israeli Case” as a visiting lecturer. The course was organized through an academic exchange program sponsored by the Israel Institute, a nonprofit organization that pairs colleges and universities with Israeli scholars who teach courses about the State of Israel.
SJP UChicago’s January 2023 boycott initiative was part of a BDS campaign [slide 7]the group initially launched in January 2022. The campaign urged students to boycott “S**tty Zionist Classes,” which included “classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows.”
On January 5, 2023, SJP UChicago announced [slide 2] on Instagram that Elran’s course was “the s**ttiest, most racist class of them all…being offered this winter.” Their Instagram bio provided an access link to their “Statement on General Meir Elran’s 'Counter-Terrorism' Course.”
In the statement, SJP UChicago claimed [p. 2]: “Elran’s career has been defined by and dedicated to securing Israel's colonial project and crushing Palestinian resistance to it.”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
SJP UChicago also described [p. 1] as “particularly damning…the role Elran played in repressing the first intifada (1987-93), a popular Palestinian uprising against apartheid and occupation…”
In the statement, SJP UChicago accused Israel of being “an expansionist apartheid state predicated on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land” and a “colonial enterprise” with “genocidal practices.” The statement concluded by urging students to sign a petition “against General Elran's course and the broader presence of the Israeli military on UChicago's campus.”
SJP UChicago linked to a document in their Instagram bio titled: “18 Reasons to Oppose General Elran's 'Counter-Terrorism' Course," in which SJP UChicago wrote: “What he really teaches and represents is militaristic racism.”
The same document said: “The technologies, tactics, ideological justifications and ‘research’ (General Elran’s speciality) Israel uses against Palestinians are the same as those used against racialized peoples in the U.S.”
The accusation that Israeli law enforcement teaches American police brutal tactics during police exchange programs is used to demonize Israel. Participants in these programs have stated [00:02:14] that the training in Israel focuses [00:13:36] on public policy, counterterrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.
In the same document, SJP UChicago wrote: “In fact, Israel is a foundationally racist colonial regime that must be dismantled, held accountable, and replaced by a truly just social order.”
On January 10, 2023, SJP UChicago published an op-ed in the UChicago student newspaper, the Chicago Maroon, titled: “Israeli Military Off Our Campus!” The teaser read: “...Meir Elran’s ‘counter-terrorism’ course represents an incursion of the Israeli military into our campus and classrooms. It must be opposed.”
The op-ed accused Israel of “biological warfare against Palestinian civilians,” the “torture of Palestinian children” and “periodically massacring the Palestinians it holds captive in the Gaza Strip.”
SJP UChicago concluded the op-ed with its desire that “the University’s Palestinian students will no longer be forced to watch leading participants in their ongoing Nakba be hired by their administration, welcomed on their campus, and handed positions of power in their classrooms.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
On February 2, 2023, SJP UChicago held [slide 1] a campus protest outside Elran’s classroom, which they organized to demand “#IsraeliMilitaryOffOurCampus while honoring the 10 martyrs recently massacred in Jenin by Israeli ‘Counter-Terrorist Forces.’”
On January 26, 2023, nine Palestinians were killed in a shootout after IDF soldiers entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a cell of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists, who were reportedly planning a terror attack. During the attempted arrests, members of the cell as well as other Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the soldiers.
The protest included [slide 7] slogans chalked on the building walkway such as “Elran Off Campus,” “IDF Off Our Campus” and “Free Palestine From the River to the Sea,” a chant used to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.
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.
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.
IfNotNow (INN)
INN claims to be “young Jews angered by the overwhelmingly hawkish response of American Jewish institutions” to OPE. INN presents three demands on its website: “Stop the War on Gaza, End the Occupation, and Freedom and Dignity for All.”
INN defines “the Occupation as the military rule over Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza,” which is land Israel has controlled for nearly 50 years since the 1967 Six-Day War. However, INN leaders have made [00:34:32] the claim [00:13:49] at protests that the occupation is 70 years long, referring to Israel’s founding in 1948.
INN actions have aimed to demonize [00:38:13] Israel, harass [00:05:44] mainstream American Jewish organizations like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and decrease support for Israel among American Jews.
INN has used “public action and imaginative ritual” to achieve its goals, including disruptions where activists were arrested.
One of the high-profile arrests occurred at a May 2018 disruption at a U.S. Senator’s office in Washington, D.C. to protest legislation against the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
At the same incident, INN used [00:07:17] the Jewish ritual of the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer to mourn [00:09:10] protesters who were killed during the Hamas-organized and funded Great March of Return riots on the Israel-Gaza border.
INN activists have also staged and promoted walk-offs from Birthright Israel trips, a heritage trip to Israel for young Jewish adults from across the world.
INN claims to take no position on the BDS movement and that it is “open to any who seek to shift the American Jewish public away from the status quo that upholds the Occupation.” However, INN organizes with pro-BDS, anti-Israel organizations including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/eyshebeirichTwitter:https://twitter.com/protosemite
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/eyshebeirich [Private]
Muck Rack:https://muckrack.com/eyshe-beirich/articles
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
