Kareem Awaad

Overview

Kareem Awaad has spread anti-Israel propaganda and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.as an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Brooklyn College (Brooklyn), part of City University of New York (CUNY).

Awaad is a 2016 graduate of Brooklyn.

Spreading Anti-Israel Propaganda

On May 14, 2016, Awaad was featured throughout a Brooklyn SJP-produced video that  mischaracterized Israel’s War of Independence as a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

The video promoted a “Nakba Day March for Resistance and Return” scheduled for the following day.

The Brooklyn SJP Facebook post containing the video also promoted the contested allegation “there are more than 7 million Palestinian refugees globally.”

Nakba is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel through defining it as a catastrophe. 

Anti-Israel Campus Activism

On March 10, 2014, Awaad joined other Brooklyn SJP activists during Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). The activists wore costumes demonizing Israel on campus.

Awaad wore a costume featuring the image of Palestinian airline hijacker Leila Khaled.

Khaled is a leader 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 for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.


The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister. 

Promoting BDS

During the March 10, 2014 IAW, Awaad was one of three activists who held up signs that juxtaposed together read: “The right to boycott, the right to divest, the right to sanction.”

On May 14, 2013, Awaad joined a coalition called “Chicago Divests” at a protest outside TIAA-CREF headquarters. The protesters demanded that “as shareholders” they “pressure TIAA-CREF to divest from corporations committing human rights abuses in Palestine.”

Brooklyn SJP - Spreading Lies and Hate

On October 27, 2015, Brooklyn SJP shared an article on Facebook citing a Palestinian Prisoner's’ Club libel that "40% of Palestinian Children Detained by Israel Sexually Abused; Virtually All Tortured."


On November 2, 2015, Brooklyn SJP co-sponsoreda vigil to support former officers of the Holy Land Foundation (HLF) — who were found guilty of funneling $12 million dollars to Hamas. HLF’s founders received sentences ranging between 15 and 65 years in federal prison in the United States. Hamas’ chartercalls for the murder of Jews. Hamas television programing educates school children to hate Jews and its summer camps teach children to wage war.


On November 27, 2015, Brooklyn SJP shared on Facebook a misleading animated map representing lands that were controlled by Britain, Egypt, and Jordan as autonomous “Palestine,” stolen by Israel.


On May 1, 2016 Brooklyn SJP posted a photo supporting British politician and Member of Parliament Naz Shah, who was suspended from Britain's Labour Party for sharingon Facebook a graphic of Israel’s outline superimposed on a map of the US under the headline “Solution for Israel-Palestine Conflict – Relocate Israel into United States”, with the comment: “Problem solved.”


One placard at the October 8, 2015 die-in grossly mischaracterized Israel’s security fence — 97% of which is a low chain link barrier. It falsely claimed that Israel has an “Apartheid Wall” that is “30 times the length of Manhattan!” and “Twice as high as the Berlin wall!”

Brooklyn SJP - Supporting Terrorism  

On April 28, 2016, Brooklyn SJP shared an AJ+ video on Facebook about Dima Al-Wawi. 

12-year-old Al-Wawi was imprisoned for attempting to stab a security guard at the Israeli community Karmei Tzur. Al-Wawi later claimed she intended to kill the guard and hoped she would be killed in the process. “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred,” she said.  


On November 2, 2015, Brooklyn SJP co-sponsoreda vigil to support former officers of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) — who were found guilty of funneling $12 million dollars to Hamas.

The Holy Land Five (HL5) were five individuals associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) indicted for funneling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid. The men were all convicted and sentenced in 2009 to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.


On October 8, 2015, Brooklyn SJP staged an anti-Israel “die-in.” On Facebook, the group claimed the event was in solidarity with an international Palestinian “Day of Rage” called “In light of... israeli aggression against Palestinians, including the murder of 17-year old Hadeel Al Hashlamoun, and 19-year-old Fadi Alloun in cold blood, execution style.”  

Al Hashlamoun (18-years-old) was carrying a knife through a checkpoint and did not respond to orders to step back before she was shot by Israeli soldiers.

Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page. 


The Brooklyn SJP Facebook post featured a photo album of its “die-in” and referred to another “Day of Rage” event on October 6th — co-hosted by American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), NYC SJP and others who supported a “Day of Rage” called by “Palestinian forces.” 

The “Days of Rage” in October of 2015 were heralded by Hamas as the advent of a new intifada. They directly resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians by shootings, stabbings and car rammings.


On October 8, 2015, Brooklyn SJP posted a graphic showing its support for a “third intifada” and called the wave of terror a “spike” in Palestinian “resistance to Israeli oppression.”

Brooklyn SJP - Condemning Interfaith Dialogue  

On March 13, 2016, Brooklyn SJP co-organized a panel event titled “Counterproductive Collaborations - The Faithwashing of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine,” co-sponsored by NYC SJP, Brooklyn SJP and the Muslim American Society

The event featured former New York president of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Brooklyn College graduate Raja Abdulhaq. Abdulhaq has stated that he considers any Muslim group that organizes an interfaith event with a “Zionist” counterpart to be a “betrayal.”

Brooklyn SJP - Demonizing Israel

On November 27, 2015, Brooklyn SJP shared on Facebook a misleading series of 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.


  
On October 27, 2015, Brooklyn SJP shared an article on Facebook promoting a Palestinian Prisoners Club libel that “40% of Palestinian Children Detained by Israel Sexually Abused; Virtually All Tortured.”

The Facebook photo album of Brooklyn SJP’s October 8, 2015 “die-in” featured a placard claiming Israel’s security fence was an “Apartheid Wall” that was “30 times the length of Manhattan!” and “Twice as high as the Berlin wall!”  

Brooklyn SJP - Promoting Hate Speech

On November 21, 2014, Brooklyn SJP hosted an event featuring disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita.

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, 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.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.



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.


Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:www.facebook.com/100000101417952