Joshua Gomez

Overview

Joshua Gomez has expressed support for terrorists as an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at George Washington University (GWU). He has also supported Hamas-led riots, demonized Israel and America on social media.

In 2018, Gomez co-sponsored a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution at GWU, while serving as a senator [01:40:42] in the GWU Student Association (SA).

Gomez was active in promoting BDS campaigns in 2017 [00:00:27] and 2018 [00:02:17], both titled #DivestThisTime. SJP at GWU activists led both campaigns.

Gomez also participated [00:09:35] in the #returnthebirthright initiative, launched by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization to oppose Birthright Israel (Birthright)-sponsored Jewish heritage trips to Israel.

As of June 13, 2017, Gomez’s Facebook page said that he was a student at GWU, majoring in Political Science and Philosophy.

As of July 2018, Gomez used the alias “Josh Cam” on Facebook.

Support for Terrorists

On May 12, 2017, Gomez appeared [00:00:49] in a Facebook video with fellow SJP at GWU activists participating in the “Saltwater Challenge” in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail.

The “Saltwater Challenge” was held in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prison inmates convicted of terrorism. The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings that killed five Israelis during the second intifada. Aarab Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti, launched the "Saltwater Challenge."

On December 28, 2017 Gomez retweeted a tweet supporting terrorist Khalida Jarrar.

Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.

On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The March of Return was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.

Agitators threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.

On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during a May 14 protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.

Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the Gaza 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.”

Gomez retweeted a May 15, 2018 tweet that said: “Repeat after me: Colonized, colonized, colonized People, people, people Have the right, the right, the RIGHT
to armed resistance.”

The author of the tweet, in the same thread that Gomez linked to, praised Hamas and compared March of Return rioters to Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto battling Nazi Germany.

Supporting Violent Riots

On May 15, 2018, Gomez tweeted: “The Zionist criminals continue their campaign to this day, killing over 50 Palestinians yesterday in the #GreatReturnMarch. All the protesters ask for is the ability to return to their ancestral land. The fascist state of Israel massacres them instead.”

In May 2018, violent riots, instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border, saw thousands of rioters attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with
participants declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border.

Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. On May 15, 2018 senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said that the Gaza protests were a pretext of “peaceful resistance.”

On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during a May 14 protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.

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.”

Gomez retweeted a May 15, 2018 tweet that said: “Repeat after me: Colonized, colonized, colonized People, people, people Have the right, the right, the RIGHT
to armed resistance.”

The author of the tweet, in the same thread that Gomez linked to, praised Hamas and compared March of Return rioters to Jewish fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto battling Nazi Germany.

Gomez retweeted a May 14, 2018 tweet that said: “83% of Jewish Israelis think that the IDF’s brutality in Gaza is appropriate. This isn’t about only Netanyahu or his government. If anything can unite the Israeli right and ‘left’ it’s their hatred for Palestinians and enthusiasm for colonialism.”

Demonizing Israel

Gomez retweeted a June 3, 2018 tweet that featured a banner implying Israel committed “GENOCIDE.”

Gomez retweeted a May 19, 2018 tweet about the March of Return accusing Israel of “#SettlerColonialism” that read: “Israel is expanding a settler frontier as it eliminates the natives.”

Gomez retweeted a May 15, 2018 tweet accusing Israel of having “genocidal” reaction to the March of Return.

On May 15, 2018, Gomez tweeted a debunked propaganda map and accused “Zionist criminals” of initiating a “campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people” in 1948, the year Israel was founded.

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.

Gomez retweeted a May 14, 2018 tweet that supported BDS and implied Israel’s actions during the March of Return were comparable to Nazi Germany’s during the Holocaust, as well as the actions of the apartheid South African government.

On May 14, 2018, Gomez tweeted on two separate occasions: “Israel is a terrorist state.”

Gomez retweeted a May 14, 2018 tweet that said: “zionism is white supremacy”

On March 4, 2018, Gomez appeared [00:01:04] in a Youtube video where he chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” at a rally that day against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The chant is a call to dismantle Israel.

The stated mission of AIPAC is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”

Abbas Hamideh, the head of Al-Awda - The Palestine Right of Return Movement, organized the rally. Hamideh has been called out for spreading anti-Semitism and expressing support for terrorists on social media. At the rally, Hamideh said [00:02:23]: “There is no other classification for AIPAC other than being a criminal lobby that controls American foreign affairs …”

Gomez retweeted a January 8, 2018 tweet that said: “There's no way to dissociate Zionism from racist presuppositions.”

Demonizing America

On May 16, 2018, Gomez tweeted: “The US and Israel are terrorist states.”

Gomez retweeted a December 7, 2017 tweet that said: “#Israel is a fake state #Jerusalem is the capital of #Palestine #Retweet if you agree.”

The tweet protested United States President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Gomez retweeted a December 6, 2017 tweet with a photo of Gaza protesters burning American and Israeli flags.

The tweet said: “Angry Palestinians set fire to the flags of America and the Israeli occupation in protest to Trump administration's plan to announce #Jerusalem as the capital of 'Israel' - #Gaza today. #Jerusalem_CapitalOfPalestine.”

BDS Activism at GWU

On April 23-24, 2018, Gomez spoke [01:40:42] during a GWU Student Association (SA) hearing on Gomez’s BDS resolution. During the hearing, Gomez repeatedly accused [01:41:10] Israel of “apartheid.”

During the resolution’s amendment process, Gomez voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] acknowledging that “Israel is a state and has the right to exist” and that Israelis have the “right to safety, security and self-determination.” Three co-sponsors, including Gomez, voted against the amendment and one abstained.

Gomez also voted [00:11:14] for a secret ballot that allowed SA senators to vote on the resolution without transparency or accountability to their electorate.

Twenty eight senators voted for the secret ballot, while one voted against and none abstained. The BDS resolution passed [00:21:53] with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions.

The resolution implied that “Israel is the worst apartheid regime” and that Israel imposes “forced labour” on Palestinians. It also implied that Israel divides “its population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups.”

The resolution portrayed Israeli military campaigns against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as deliberate attempts to kill children and civilians. It also singled out Israel for alleged violations of the Geneva Convention and war crimes.

Israel commenced Operations Cast Lead (OCL), Pillar of Defense (OPD) and Protective Edge (OPE) in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014, respectively, in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.

Gomez featured in a Facebook photo published on April 7, 2018, as part of a campaign promoting the 2018 #DivestThisTime initiative. Gomez also featured in a March 24, 2018 #DivestThisTime Facebook video.

On May 2, 2017, Gomez spoke [1:36:35] before the SA to promote that year’s BDS resolution. He claimed [01:36:50] the resolution was “exceedingly moderate and tempered” and that there was “no conspiracy to undermine the the state of Israel.”

The 2017 resolution accused Israel of “deliberately” killing Palestinian civilians, including women and children. It also alleged that Israel has committed “crimes against humanity” and an “epidemic of homelessness.”

The resolution invoked the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and exclusively targeted companies providing technology for Israel’s defense and security.

Gomez was featured [00:00:27] in a Facebook video published on March 29, 2017, as part of a campaign promoting the 2017 #DivestThisTime initiative.

Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour

On December 3, 2017, Gomez attended [00:09:29] a JVP-organized Return the Birthright protest, outside the Birthright offices in New York City.

At the rally, Gomez joined [00:09:29] in a chant claiming that Israel is built on “stolen” land: “Birthright! Birth-wrong! The land was stolen all along!”

Return the Birthright Campaign

In September of 2017, JVP issued its #ReturntheBirthright campaign manifesto, calling on American Jews to boycott the Birthright Israel (Birthright) program. Birthright was founded by Jewish philanthropists “in 1999 to address the growing divide between young Diaspora Jewish adults and the land and people of Israel.”

After decades of demographic decline in the American Jewish community, Birthright set out “to strengthen Jewish identity, build a lasting bond with the land and people of Israel, and reinforce the solidarity of Jewish people worldwide.” The program offers “the gift of a life-changing, 10-day trip to Israel to young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 26.”

JVP’s anti-Birthright campaign was launched precisely to coincide with “the very moment that college students across America are returning to campus and registration for Birthright winter visits are underway.”

The #returnthebirthright manifesto accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and alleged “the modern state of Israel is predicated on the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.”

The text claimed: “We reject the offer of a free trip to a state that does not represent us, a trip that is only ‘free’ because it has been paid for by the dispossession of Palestinians.”

The manifesto concluded: “And as we reject this, we commit to promoting the right to return of Palestinian refugees… Israel is not our Birthright… Return the Birthright.”

On June 22, 2017, just prior to the launch of JVP’s #returnthebirthright campaign, JVP received a $140,00 two-year grant for general support for its operations from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF).

Since 2015, JVP has received $280,000 from RBF, which has a history of supporting anti-Jewish causes, including BDS campaigns and various organizations that promote BDS campaigns throughout the United States.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Instigated by SJP at GWU

On March 24, 2018, student groups at GWU launched the second BDS campaign in two years; both were titled “#DivestThisTime.” Activists with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU) led both campaigns.

On the campaign launch day, #DivestThisTime released a Facebook promotional video, in which activists alleged [00:01:23] that Israel has committed “crimes against humanity.” They also claimed [00:03:34] that Palestinians are “bombed every day” and blamed Israel [00:02:06] for police violence against black Americans in Ferguson, Missouri.

SJP at GWU held five events leading up to the launch of #DivestThisTime, which formed part of its 2018 Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). IAW is 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 BDS movement.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Demonizing Israel

On April 23-24, 2018, the GWU Student Association (SA) held a hearing and vote on the BDS resolution. At least 18 SJP at GWU activists and affiliates addressed [01:07:50] the SA in defense of the resolution, where it passed [00:21:53] via [00:11:14] a secret ballot with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions.

During the hearing, many Jewish students said [01:09:05] they experienced [01:24:45] anti-Semitism related to #DivestThisTime. One student spoke [00:50:40] about the Jewish community’s pain when “this hateful and divisive resolution was proposed over Passover.” One Jewish Israeli-American student said [00:48:05] it “creates an environment where I am made to feel that my identity is taboo” at GWU.

One black Jewish student said [01:39:24] that an SJP activist told him he was “weaponizing” his identity when he asked why a clause mentioning the “discriminatory conditions black people face in the Gaza Strip under Palestinian leadership” was omitted from the resolution.

SJP at GWU activists mocked [00:52:48] or dismissed [00:39:50] concerns over anti-Semitism. Other resolution supporters voiced agreement [00:45:40] with the SJP at GWU activists, including one who claimed [01:04:13] that resolution opponents were stoking “racial fears and sowing the divisions.”

A number of Jewish students walked out [00:35:19] of the hearing to protest [00:33:21] the resolution and to protest the SA’s inaction to combat anti-Semitism within its own ranks.

On April 24, 2018, three of the four resolution co-sponsors — Joshua Gomez, Eden Vitoff and Shaheera Jalil Albasit — voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] that said: “Palestinians and Israelis, like all people, have the right to safety, security, and self-determination” and “Israel is a state and has the right to exist.” Jessica Martinez, the other co-sponsor, abstained [00:10:06].

On May 10, 2018, Al Jazeera published a report on Youtube about #DivestThisTime. SJP at GWU activists spoke [00:01:47] to passers-by on campus and stood next to a display [00:01:43] labeled the “Israeli Apartheid Wall” that demonized Israel’s security barrier.

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.

Pushing BDS at GWU

On March 27, 2017, SJP at GWU launched the Divest This Time campaign. The campaign’s name alluded to GWU’s declining to “divest from apartheid in South Africa” and called “for GWU not to make the same mistake with Palestine.”

On March 28, 2017, SJP at GWU held an event titled “Why Divest?” in order to recruit support for divestment.On March 29, 2017, Divest This Time released a video that cameoed SJP at GWU student activists and their supporters promoting the campaign. Students featured in the video invoked “the Occupation of Palestine” to demonize Israel and companies that provided Israel with security technology. In the video, SJP at GWU student activists also equated Israel with Apartheid South Africa and accused Israel of “using the identities” of Transgender people to prove that Israel respects human rights.

The campaign video incorporated footage from a March 26, 2017 protest against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) organized by Al-Awda — The Palestine Right to Return Coalition — and joined by SJP at GWU.

The text of the divestment resolution was introduced to the student senate on April 24, 2017. It was then “leaked to the general public,” just ahead of Israeli and International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Successive “whereas” clauses of the resolution blamed Israel for crimes against humanity, “deliberately” causing “suffering to Palestinian populations,” discriminating against women, “deliberately” killing “Palestinian civilians” and causing an “epidemic of homelessness” among the Palestinians. The resolution also condemned Israel’s detention of Palestinian children for violating Israeli Military Order 1651 which criminalized rock throwing with up to 20 years of prison time.

On April 25, 2017, the bill’s co-sponsor — Jack Jomarron — and others claimed the resolution did not target Israel for boycott, divestment and sanctions. However, the resolution’s third “whereas” clause stated: “The act of divesting creates political pressure on corporations to withdraw their involvement in the occupation…” The bill’s fourth “whereas” clause specifically invoked the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court, calling for criminal responsibility and punishment for ”crimes against peace, humanity, and of war.”

The resolution’s primary sponsor — Keiko Tsuboi — also attempted to distance the bill from BDS and claimed it was not meant to “paint some skewed vision of Israel,” but to “describe the situation on the ground, that palestinian students are talking about.” Tsuboi appealed to the infamous Goldstone Report to buttress paragraphs 7 through 18 of the resolution’s allegations. Although Judge Goldstone himself publicly retracted the central thesis of his report, in April of 2011, Tsuboi, insisted “these are the facts on the ground and they are not up for a debate for the purposes of this resolution.”

Some GWU students noted that the resolution was “one sided.” The bill exclusively singled out for divestment companies that supplied Israel with security technology — and demonized the use of that technology. One student suggested the resolution looked to “alienate pro Israel students from the GW community” and reflected a “hidden agenda.”

Co-sponsor Jomarron admitted that he understood the “fear of a hidden agenda” and went on to observe: “the national BDS movements and the national SJP groups are frankly super troublesome to me.” However, Jomarron continued to insist that the resolution was not connected with the agenda of the BDS movement.

On Saturday, April 27, 2017 — Holocaust Remembrance Day — BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti delivered a talk on behalf of the Jerusalem Fund/Palestine Center about the “Successes and Challenges of BDS.” During the Q & A session that followed, Barghouti said: “... if you join a campaign for justice and freedom, it doesn't have to carry the BDS logo. It doesn’t have to say ‘boycott,’ it doesn't have to say ‘BDS.’ There are many creative ways how to do things without labeling it as ‘BDS.’”

On May 1, 2017, GWU’s Student Association voted down the resolution 15-14, in a sharply divided session.

Following the resolution’s defeat, SJP at GWU organizer — Henry Rosh — said: “we will not stop calling for BDS on this campus.”

Another SJP at GWU student activist — Maryam Alhassani — posted on Facebook to label those who opposed the resolution as “PEP (Progressive Except Palestine)” and “just outright racist.”

SJP at GWU also released a statement on Facebook that read: “At GWU, this action has only just begun — SJP will continue the fight for Palestinian human rights and for those who are oppressed around the world. The Divest This Time coalition is passionate about the GW community and thus looks to further justice on campus.”

The campaign’s Facebook page also released a statement that said, among other things, “The Divest This Time coalition and SJP at GWU will continue to uplift these voices as we move forward in our campaign to end GW complicity in one-sided violence.”

On May 4, 2017, Abby Brook — Divest This Time founder and SJP at GWU student activist — told The GW Hatchet student newspaper that SJP at GWU would push for a referendum vote, in which the entire student body would vote on divestment.

On May 15, 2017, the Editorial Board of the GW Hatchet published an article titled: “Divestment referendum would marginalize part of the student body.” The article recalled the sharply divided Student Association Senate vote and criticized SJP at GWU’s announcement to push for a vote rather than increase dialogue and understanding concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus.

SJP at GWU student activist Maryam Alhassani shared the editorial board’s article on Facebook and commented: “This is a huge f**k you to all the Palestinians on campus and in Palestine. The GW Hatchet thank you for showing us how sh**ty you are and how Palestinians don't matter…”

SJP at GWU - Palestine Awareness Week

On March 27, 2017, SJP at GWU launched Palestine Awareness Week (PAW). The kick-off of PAW was a speaking event that featured Angela Davis. The Facebook event page noted that Davis’ 2015 book, titled” Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement,” purported to reveal “the deep connections between the incarceration of Black Americans and the continued occupation of Palestine by the state of Israel.”

SJP at GWU - Promoting Anti-Semites and Holocaust Deniers

As part of SJP at GWU’s 2017 PAW, SJP at GWU participated in and promoted a demonstration scheduled for March 26, 2017, organized by Al-Awda — The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

The rally demonized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and featured a lineup of speakers who have spread anti-Semitism. Among them was the rally’s lead organizer, Al-Awda co-founder Abbas Hamideh, who has been called out for promoting anti-Semitism on his Twitter account, by a prominent pro-Israel blog. Hamideh personally thanked SJP at GWU for promoting the event on Facebook.

The rally’s Facebook page accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and demanded: “End the illegal occupation of Palestine from the River to the Sea!.” The chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” — which Hamideh confirmed as a call to eliminate Israel — was a constant refrain at the rally.

Another speaker at the rally was Ryan Dawson — a denier of Nazi gas chambers. Dawson mocked ancient Jewish Scriptures and attacked Jewish historical claims to the Land of Israel. Dawson’s comments were greeted with cheers. Dawson also said: “If I can give something across to the scumbags inside … AIPAC is a virus … AIPAC is a parasite.” Those comments were also greeted with shouts of approval.

Anti-Israel activist and author Miko Peled also spoke at the rally, claiming: “We know very well that the Palestinian resistance is not terrorism. Palestinian resistance is legitimate resistance. And all of us today are part of that resistance.” Peled’s comments were met with applause and shouts of approval from the crowd.

On March 27, 2017, SJP at GWU shared a video on Facebook produced by Al Jazeera with footage from the rally including David Feldman, a member of the Neturei Karta — a marginal, anti-Zionist, fringe Jewish group. He has helped to tokenize the radically anti-Zionist Neturei Karta members — and has falsely portrayed their anti-Zionism as emblematic of mainstream Judaism. The group is notorious for its delegation to an Iranian Holocaust denial conference in 2014.

SJP at GWU - Promoting “Anti-Normalization”

On March 30, 2016, SJP at GWU hosted an event titled: “Why You Should Take Sides: Israel/Palestine and Normalization.”

The Facebook event page description referred to the definition of “Anti-Normalization” according to the Palestine Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) which opposes the normalization of relations between Israelis and Palestinians (and/or Arabs). PACBI defines “normalization” as “the participation in any project, initiative or activity” aiming “to bring together Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis (people or institutions) without placing as its goal resistance to and exposure of the Israeli occupation.”

The event comprised a panel discussion with the then events coordinator for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University (Georgetown) Tareq Radi. Radi is also the founder of GMU Students Against Israeli Apartheid — an affiliate of SJP. The panel also included DC Metro Chapter Coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Shelley Cohen Fudge and journalist Jamal Najjab.

On August 2, 2014, Radi spoke on behalf of SAIA at a rally in Washington DC during Operation Protective Edge, in which he denounced the affirmation that Israel has a right to defend itself as “ludicrous rhetoric.”

Radi claimed that Zionists “are trying to soil the words we hold sacred — Shahid, Martyr, Revolutionary’ which are sacred because they "belong to the oppressed. They empower us and strike fear into the hearts of cowards. We are people of resistance and we need to rebuild our culture of resistance.”(1.00)

He also stated: "We must resist the Zionist entity at every turn. They must know that their presence is not welcome anywhere that values justice. I don’t care what the setting may be, there is no room for a diversity of opinions on issues of human rights!" (3.30)

Radi went on to say that “by surrendering to the language of peace, we have handcuffed the means in which our people back home can resist.” (1:04)

SJP at GWU - Saltwater Challenge

On May 12, 2017, Maryam Alhassani — led SJP at GWU student activists in a “Saltwater Challenge,” in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners then hunger striking in Israeli prisons.

The prisoners’ hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, then serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada.

Barghouti completed his doctorate in Political Science while in Israeli prison.

As head of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s terrorist Tanzim force and founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Barghouti was behind attacks that killed scores of Israelis and wounded hundreds of others. Barghouti personally financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe bombing.

According to CNN, the Salt Water Challenge appears to have been invented by Marwan Barghouti’s son, Aarab Marwan Barghouti.

SJP at GWU - Hosting Right to Education Tour 2016

On April 5, 2016, SJP at GWU hosted “two Palestinian students from Birzeit University in the West Bank who are travelling the US on the Right to Education Tour.”

The Facebook event page linked to a video “to learn more about R2E,” by Birzeit University students, published in 2013. The video celebrated the creation of the Palestinian curriculum and attacked what it called “a Jewish-American organization,” The Center for Monitoring The Impact of Peace, for exposing that curriculum’s indoctrination of children to terror.

The 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.

SJP at GWU - Hosting Radicals

On April 9, 2015, SJP at GWU hosted a speaking event featuring Iyad Burnat — the coordinator of the so-called Bil’in Popular Non Violent Resistance Committee, has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS has been accused of personally attacking Israeli soldiers. The weekly demonstrations he has organized against the Israeli security barrier since 2005 have frequently turned violent.

On March 2, 2015, SJP at GWU hosted an event that featured anti-Israel author Miko Peled, titled: “Palestine Beyond Zionism - Hope for Peace and Co-Existence.”

The Facebook event page description claimed: “… In South Africa removing Apartheid was the key to ending the plight of black South Africans, in Palestine removing Zionism is the key to resolving the plight of the Palestinians.”

SJP at GWU – Celebrating Violence

On March 8, 2016, SJP at GWU shared, with supportive comments, photos of numerous women — masked by Keffiyehs — brandishing guns, firing slingshots and collecting large rocks.

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.