Kaylin Gant

Overview

Kaylin Gant disrupted campus events at the University of Houston (UH) with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), in 2018 and 2017.

Gant was an activist with Students For a Democratic Society (SDS) at UH in 2019 and 2017.

As of July 2019, Gant’s LinkedIn page said she was a student at UH from “2015-2019,” pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology.

Campus Disruptions

On May 22, 2018, Gant participated in an SJP UH disruption of a speech given by former United States Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, at UH.

During Haley’s speech, Mohammed Fattouh, an SJP UH activist, stood up and shouted [00:00:11] that Haley was “continuing to sign off on the genocide of a native people” and that she was “an accomplice to terrorists and colonizers.”

Another SJP UH activist led protestors in chanting [00:00:25] “Nikki Nikki can’t you see? You allowed a killing spree” as well as [00:00:33] “Haley Haley you can’t hide, you signed off on genocide!” and [00:00:56] “Nikki Haley you will see, Palestine will be free!”

After law officials escorted them out of the auditorium, SJP UH protestors chanted [00:01:55] “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!”

On November 3, 2017, Gant was featured in an SDS at UH Facebook photo, alongside SJP activists who disrupted a lecture by David Horowitz at UH. Gant also recorded [00:11:37] the disruption and the chanting that followed, which was uploaded to Facebook by SDS at UH on November 5, 2017.

During the disruption, SJP activists stood up and yelled [00:07:04] at Horowitz, shouting “Zionists! Off our campus! Racists! Off our campus! Islamophobes! Off our campus!” and walked out of the lecture hall, as they continued to chant.

Following the disruption, Brant Roberts, an SJP at UH activist gave a speech in which he accused [00:07:00] Israel of ethnically cleansing Palestinians and claimed [00:06:49] that Horowitz “targeted” SJP UH because the group promotes BDS.

Roberts urged [00:07:30] the crowd to support BDS and to “pressure” UH to “sign a divestment bill” to boycott [00:06:58] Israel and divest [00:07:04] from companies that allegedly “profit from ethnic cleansing.”

SJP and SDS at UH Activism

On November 15, 2018, Gant was featured in an SJP at UH Facebook video speaking at an SJP and SDS at UH co-organized event titled “Eyewitness Palestine: Occupation and Resistance.” During her speech, Gant promoted [00:00:45] SDS at UH.

On September 20, 2018, Gant promoted the event on the Radical Left - Houston, Facebook page.

The event featured a talk by Bassem Kawar, a Chicago-based organizer [00:03:29] for the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN). The Facebook event page description said Kawar “will speak about his recent trip to Palestine, where he met with grassroots activists across Palestinian society resisting Israeli settler-colonialism and military occupation.”

During the talk, Kawar said [00:04:06] that one of the main areas of USPCN’s work was “defending political prisoners, back home and here in the United States,” including [00:04:20]Rasmea Odeh.

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

Kawar went on to say [00:04:40] that “some of the work that we also engage in is BDS.”

Kawar then spoke [00:13:29] about the Dignity Strike and described [00:13:59] it as the “victory of the decade”

Terrorist Marwan Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for some of his crimes, including his role in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. In 2017, he initiated the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners known as the “Dignity Strike.” He headed the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which carried out many terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

On November 14, 2018, following the event, SJP at UH tweeted: “We had an amazing event tonight with the Students for a Democratic Society at UH, & Bassem Kawar, from the U.S Palestinian Community Network! It was empowering & inspiring to hear about the different forms of Palestinian resistance on the ground. Be sure to give @uspcn a follow!”

The tweet featured a group photo with Gant and other SJP at UH activists with Kawar.

SJP UH - Spreading Anti-Israel Propaganda

UH’s IAW featured a mock apartheid wall, erected on campus. Text on the wall read: “If you want to find a safe place in Gaza, do not stand beside a child.” Another piece of text read: “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques and slums to attack a population that has no airforce, no navy, army and calls it a war. It is not war, it is murder.”

SJP UH - Spreading Propaganda

On October 1, 2017, SJP UH shared a Facebook post that read: “17 years ago today, 12yr old Muhammad Al-Durra was shot dead on LIVE TV in his father's arms.
#Coogs4Palestine #FreePalestine.”

The Al-Durah hoax is an iconic piece of anti-Israel propaganda, fabricated on September 30, 2000 at the start of the Second Intifada by a France 2 reporter.

On May 8, 2017, SJP UH organized Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) on UH’s campus. One IAW event featured a mock “apartheid wall” erected on campus. Text on the wall read: “If you want to find a safe place in Gaza, do not stand beside a child.” Other text read: “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques and slums to attack a population that has no airforce, no navy, army and calls it a war. It is not war, it is murder.”

Throughout the summer of 2014 — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Hamas’ continued deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged gazans to act as human shields, to specifically frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel commenced OPEin July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

SJP UH - Supporting Terrorists

On September 5, 2017, SJP UH shared a graphic on Facebook of an image and quote by 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.

On May 25, 2017, SJP UH rallied behind convicted Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike, by organizing a “symbolic hunger strike” and participating in a Saltwater Challenge. The event organizers wrote on the Facebook event page: “we demand that Israel end its policies of apartheid, colonization, military occupation, displacement, dispossession, and mass incarceration.”

The hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings — and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada. Barghouti led the the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.

More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike — most of whom were also convicted for acts of terrorism.

According to CNN , the “Saltwater Challenge” appears to have been started by Aarab Marwan Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti.

On May 26, 2017, SJP UH joined protesters outside the Israeli consulate chanting (1:46): “1234, open up the prison doors… We will fight day and night… to support the hunger strike…”

On March 28, 2016, SJP UH shared a post on Facebook supporting terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

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.