Kaleb Adney

Overview

Kaleb Adney [Kaleb Herman Adney] has spread hatred of Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism. Adney is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Adney was the 2014 Director of Resources and Education of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).

As of October 2021, UCLA’s History department indicated that Adney was a Ph.D. candidate in Middle East Studies.

As of October 2021, Adney graduated from UCLA with a master’s degree in Near Eastern Languages and Culture in 2016. He also graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in Arabic and History in 2014.

As of October 2021, Adney indicated on his LinkedIn page that he was located in Culver City, California.

Hatred of Israel

On May 22, 2013, Adney promoted the Kairos Palestine Document on his Facebook page.

Launched in 2009, thirteen anti-Israel Palestinian Christian clergy members drafted the Kairos Palestine Document, calling on churches worldwide to support BDS and to “stand against injustice and apartheid.” The document has also justified Palestinian terrorism as a form of “legal resistance.”

On May 16, 2013, Adney posted to Facebook: “Today is the commemoration of al-nakba, the beginning of the Palestinian refugee crisis…”

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 November 15, 2012, during Israel’s “Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD)” against Hamas in Gaza, Adney shared an article to Facebook titled: “Gaza under Israeli Attack.” Adney commented on his post: “‘Operation pillar of defense’ how is the murder of civilians including children related to peace OR defense?”

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.

SJP Activism

On February 6, 2013, Adney posted to Facebook: “Support SJP, especially if you attend a California University.”

Adney linked to a February 5, 2015 blog post by National SJP titled: “SJP National Voices Support for University of California Organizers.”

The blog post stated that the Ad Hoc Steering Committee for the National SJP conference expressed “solidarity with organizers and academics at California public universities advocating for Palestinian rights.”

National SJP denied the findings of a July, 2012 “University of California Jewish Student Campus Climate Fact-Finding Team Report & Recommendations” that reported heightened levels of anti-Semitism on University of California (UC) campuses. National SJP also condemned “ongoing Federal investigations at several UC campuses” into allegations of anti-Semitism.

National SJP also expressed opposition to the 2012 California State Assembly non-binding House Resolution 35 that labeled “campus events and divestment campaigns that criticize Israel as a racist or Apartheid state as ‘anti-Semitic.’”

National SJP then endorsed “the growing campaign to divest California universities from corporations that enable and profit from Israel’s abuses of Palestinian human rights.”

On February 25, 2013, Adney promoted SJP at UCLA’s Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) on Facebook.

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.

On February 27, 2013, SJP at UCLA posted a photo of Adney tabling in front of a “Mock apartheid wall,” which demonized Israel’s security barrier, during PAW.

SJP groups on campuses have constructed mock “apartheid” walls to draw attention to alleged Israeli human rights violations against Palestinians.

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.

The wall also displayed a series of misleading maps.

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.

In January 2014, Adney and SJP at UCLA opened a library of anti-Israel literature and included a book by Palestinian terrorist Ghassan Kanafani.

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.

Supporting BDS

In November 2014, Adney promoted SJP at UCLA’s divestment resolution “calling on the Regents to divest from companies that enable and profit from violations of Palestinian rights.”

The resolution claimed that Boeing, Caterpillar, Cemex, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), General Electric (GE) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) “provided weapons used” by Israel “in attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip” and that investment in these companies “shows implicit support” for “the killings of civilians.”

On November 7, 2014, Adney posted a poster to Facebook promoting UCLA Divest, and added in the comments section: “I wish I could have been around this week... every time I tried to come to something there was an issue and I couldn't make it…”

On November 18, 2014, the undergraduate student government adopted the divestment resolution with a vote of 8-2-2.

SJP at UCLA - Intimidating Students 2014-2016

In 2016, SJP at UCLA reportedly harassed and intimidated Milan Chaterjee, the former president of UCLA’s Graduate Student Association (GSA), to such an extent that he stepped down from his student government position and left UCLA altogether.

In November 2015, Chaterjee attempted to block an effort by SJP at UCLA to use school funds to promote the BDS movement during a diversity caucus Town Hall event, in accordance with a policy requiring viewpoint neutrality.

Chaterjee said that, as a result, he was “relentlessly attacked, bullied, and harassed by BDS-affiliated organizations and students” for months.

In April 2014, SJP at UCLA members submitted a petition to the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) Judicial Board against two former USAC members who participated in trips to Israel that were sponsored by pro-Israel Jewish organizations.

SJP at UCLA alleged that the council members committed: “conflict of interest violations” by participating in the sponsored trips and should have abstained from voting on a February 2014 BDS resolution. SJP at UCLA also argued the council members’ votes on the divestment resolution should have been disqualified.

Although the ballot on the divestment resolution was secret, it was assumed that the two council members voted against the resolution because they both spoke against the resolution during discussions prior to the vote.

The USAC Judicial Board later ruled that the trips taken by the council members did not constitute a conflict of interest.

SJP at UCLA - BDS Activism 2013-2015

In December 2013, SJP at UCLA launched its first divestment campaign, drafting a resolution that, according to two former UCLA students, including one SJP at UCLA activist Omar Zahzah, which called on the UC Regents to pull funding from five companies they described as “complicit in the occupation,” including Caterpillar, Cemex, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), General Electric (GE) and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

After a debate on February, 25, 2014 lasted over ten hours and went until six in the morning the following day, the resolution was voted down.

In November 2014, SJP at UCLA again pushed a divestment resolution “calling on the Regents to divest from companies that enable and profit from violations of Palestinian rights.”

The resolution claimed that the same five companies “provided weapons used” by Israel “in attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip” and that investment in these companies “shows implicit support” for “the killings of civilians.”

On November 18, 2014, the undergraduate student government adopted the divestment resolution with a vote of 8-2-2.

In February 2015, SJP at UCLA pushed BDS beyond the UCLA campus by promoting a divestment resolution to the UC Student Association (UCSA). The resolution also called on the UC Regents to divest from American-based corporations that “violate Palestinian human rights.”

The UCSA Board of Directors passed the resolution by a 9-1-5 vote.

SJP at UCLA also used their 2014 Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) to promote divestment. During PAW 2014 SJP at UCLA erected a “mock apartheid wall” and hosted a screening and discussion of the film “Roadmap to Apartheid,” which compared Israel to apartheid in South Africa.

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

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.