Kali Rubaii

Overview

Kali Rubaii works as a strategic planner for the anti-Israel organization Friends of Sabeel, North America (FOSNA), FOSNA supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. The organization’s website hosts a mobile app, "Buycott," which allows shoppers to “scan barcodes of food products, such as a tub of humus, to see if it was produced in Israel, or has any links with companies that support Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.”

Rubaii is also a founder of ISLAH - an organization attempting to convince Americans to pay reparations for the war in Iraq and supporting efforts to sue George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz as war criminals.

Rubaii is a Ph.D. student at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) pursuing a degree in Cultural Anthropology, with a concentration on Displacement and Restorative Justice in Iraq. Kali received a B.A. from the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and an M.A. from UC Santa Cruz.

In 2013, Rubaii worked as the Principal Researcher for the University of California in Jordan and the West Bank. She researched the “economy of military enterprise in the Middle East and Displacement Amongst Refugees.”

During 2012, Rubaii worked as a Senior Program Director for Rebuilding Alliance in Al Aqaba Village in the West Bank. The program ostensibly works to help “war-torn neighborhoods rebuild and promoting policy change to make them safe.” However, the organization’s website is full of anti-Israel statements and imagery.

Demonizing Zionism

On June 9, 2015, Rubaii praised one of her students on facebook, for comparing Zionism to ISIS:

“My student has made an apt comparison between Zionism and ISIS: religious nationalism forging new borders in the Middle East, brutal extermination or subjugation of ‘others,’ international recruitment made easy from ongoing oppression in the West, destruction of art, literature and historical artifacts, and fascist governance policies.”

Deriding Non-Violent Resistance

In November 2014, Rubaii impugned what she called the “dogma” of non-violent resistance, stating “when resistance is so attached [to] the non-violent dogma that it no longer accomplishes resistance at all….it makes me to skeptical of its application.”

Defending Hate Speech

On August 7, 2014 Rubaii posted a letter on Facebook in support of hate speech tweeted by professor Steven Salaita. Salaita became the focal point of controversy when the university of Illinois withdrew its offer of employment for the position of professor of American Indian Studies in 2014. This decision came after attention was drawn to Salaita's anti-Semitic tweets regarding the 2014 Israel–Gaza war. One such tweet posted shortly after three Israelis youths were kidnapped read, "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” A month later, he tweeted, "Zionists: transforming "antisemitism" from something horrible into something honorable since 1948."

Rubaii’s letter referred to Salaita as “a scholar articulating views reflecting a majority opinion worldwide.”

Supporting BDS

Rubaii is a dedicated and active supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In 2015, Rubaii announced her intention to speak to the Middle East Studies Association (MESA), in Denver, CO, promoting BDS. However, MESA’s national home page specifically states that: “The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) is a non-political association that fosters the study of the Middle East...through programs, publications and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom.”

In October of 2014 the website maintained by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), published an An Open Letter to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, written by Rubaii about Boycotting G4S in BDS Movement.In September 2014, Rubaii and FOSNA sent an open letter to General Secretary of United Nations, Ban Moon demanding they cease their contracts with G4S, a British corporation that has investments in the Israeli prison system. She received no response.

During 2015, Rubaii promoted the boycott of American rap artist, Kanye West - who was planning a concert in 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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/kali.rubaii

LinkedIn:https://jo.linkedin.com/pub/kali-rubaii/46/418/89