Kais Zafer

Overview

Kais Zafer disrupted a campus event, expressed support for violent protesters and was an officer of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at San Jose State University (SJP at SJSU).

In April 2019, Zafer was listed on Facebook as the contact for SJP at SJSU. In a 2017 Facebook post, he was listed as the “Secretary” of SJP at SJSU. In a 2015 Facebook post, he was listed as the “SJP Treasurer.”

Zafer also promoted a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution launched by SJP at SJSU in 2015.

As of September 2021, Zafer’s WayUp page said he received a bachelor’s degree in Business Analytics from SJSU in May 2019.

Zafer was affiliated with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at SJSU (SJSU MSA).

As of September 2021, Zafer’s LinkedIn page said he has been a Product Owner at Saama Information Technology & Services in Cupertino, CA, since January 2020.

Disrupting a Campus Event

On April 2, 2014, Zafer and fellow SJSU students disrupted [00:01:55] a lecture given by former Israeli soldiers Lital Shemesh and Elad Almog. The students walked out [00:00:08] of the lecture as soon as Shemesh mentioned “serving in the IDF [Israel Defense Forces].”

On April 14, 2016, Zafer appeared [00:02:00] in a Youtube video of the walk-out. The video also featured [00:01:16] other SJP activists recapping the walk-out.

In the video, Abdelhamead Ibrahim, an SJP at SJSU activist, spoke [00:01:12] to the students who participated in the walk-out and said: “I appreciate all you guys coming out here. I appreciate your dedication.” Ibrahim added [00:01:30] “There were some moments where I felt my blood was boiling…”

Supporting Violent Protesters

On March 30, 2018, Zafer shared an article on Facebook, published by the anti-Israel publication Mondoweiss and titled: “Israeli forces shoot unarmed protesters from across Gaza security fence, killing at least 15.” Zafer commented both in Arabic and English: “الله اكبر على الظالم God is Greater than the oppressor.”

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 violent demonstrations were instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border. Participants declared their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”

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

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

The article that Zafer shared referred to the “March of Return” as a “nonviolent gathering.” It also stated: “The outrage on the left is reminiscent of the Mavi Marmara onslaught in 2010, when Israeli commandos boarded a Turkish aid ship trying to reach Gaza… ”

The Mavi Marmara was the lead ship in the “Freedom Flotilla” that attempted to sail to Gaza in May 2010. Activists aboard the ship agitated for violent confrontation and chanted a slogan glorifying the killing of Jews. When Israeli security forces boarded the Marmara, protesters attacked them with iron bars, metal chairs, knives, stun grenades and firearms, rocks and bottles. A United Nations report found that the flotilla agitators initiated an organized, violent confrontation with Israeli forces, and that the Marmara was carrying no humanitarian aid, only weaponry.

SJP Activism

On April 5, 2019, SJP at SJSU listed Zafer as its “Contact” for a “Press Release” on Facebook. The post referred to an SJP at SJSU event called “Palestinian Flag Raising” that took place on that same day at San Jose’s City Hall.

On September 4, 2017, a Facebook post referred to Zafer as being the “Secretary” of SJP at SJSU. The post’s text was attributed to Zafer and promoted an SJP at SJSU event titled, “Palestine Unlimited: Art Exhibit,” that occured on September 14, 2017.

On November 30, 2015, Zefer was listed on Facebook as the “SJP Treasurer” in a post promoting a BDS campaign at SJSU.

Zafer was listed as an attendee of an October 21, 2015 SJP at SJSU event titled, “The Bullet, The Ballot, & The Boycott,” which featured David Sheen.

David Sheen is an anti-Israel activist and filmmaker who works to portray Israel as an extremist racist state. To this end, Sheen has been accused of purposefully mistranslating Hebrew articles and other media to make Israelis appear racist.

The Facebook event page description said: “The core of the presentation concerns the dehumanizing discourse towards Palestinians… by top Israeli political and religious leaders, and the vigilante attacks they inspire, which spiked during last summer's assault on the Gaza Strip.”

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

On October 12, 2015, Zafer promoted an SJP at SJSU event titled “CREAM SALE” to Facebook and wrote: “Don't forget to come out to get a CREAM sandwich tomorrow at 12:15 PM on 7th street next to the Student Union!”

Promoting BDS

In 2015, Zafer reportedly spoke about SJP at SJSU’s divestment campaignto launch a BDS resolution on campus.

The resolution, titled “Resolution 15/16-01 In Support of Divestment from Companies That Profit from the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories,” called on the Board of Directors of the Tower Foundation to divest SJSU’s holdings in a number of companies doing business with Israel.

According to SJSU’s website, the Tower Foundation assists with the investments and banking of all “SJSU philanthropic donations.”

The BDS resolution claimed that the listed companies violated international humanitarian law by “Maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation… Facilitating Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians… Facilitating state repression against Palestinians by Israeli security forces.”

The resolution was submitted to SJSU’s University Affairs Committee of Associated Students (AS) by Abid El-Miaari, SJP at SJSU’s co-founder, and was endorsed by 28 SJSU student groups.

On November 18, 2015, Zafer was listed as an attendee of the AS Board of Directors’ “Divestment Hearing and Vote.”

Also on November 18, 2015, the AS Board of Directors held a hearing and vote on the divestment resolution. The resolution passed with a 10-5-0 vote which reportedly made SJSU the first campus in the California State University system to pass a divestment measure.

On November 30, 2015, a letter attributed to Zafer was posted on Facebook where he was referred to as the “SJP Treasurer.”

The post read: “First off, I wanted to thank everyone that helped in getting the divestment resolution passed!” Zafer then said that the Tower Foundation would hold a hearing on campus the following day to consider “actually implementing divestment.”

Zafer also said in the letter: “This hearing will be taking place tomorrow at 10:50 in room 300 in Clark Hall and we need all the support we can get. Please do your best to come out to the hearing. There is unfortunately no space for additional speakers, although we need a presence.”

On December 1, 2015, Zafer was quoted in an Electronic Intifada (EI) article titled “Broad coalition passes divestment call at San Jose State.” Zafer reportedly said: “As a student body, we didn’t want to be involved in reckless investment policies that are complicit in human rights violations.”

Zafer also reportedly said that the SJP at SJSU chapter was formed “with the explicit intent to ‘get divestment done.’”

On December 15, 2015, Board Members of SJSU’s Tower Foundation unanimously rejected the divestment resolution.

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.

MSA

The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."

The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.

The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.