Kei Pritsker

Kei Pritsker’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University & Anti-Israel Rally, & Support for Hamas War Crimes and Terrorists

Kei Pritsker participated in a rally supporting Hamas terrorist war crimes, including mass murder and kidnapping of civilians, in October 2023. Pritsker also expressed support for terrorists as an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at George Washington University (GWU).

Pritsker has also participated [00:48:35] in the #returnthebirthright initiative launched by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization to oppose Jewish heritage trips to Israel sponsored by Birthright Israel (Birthright).

In March 2017, Pritsker was reportedly a student at GWU. In March 2015, Pritsker ran for student government at the University of Connecticut (UCONN).

As of October 2018, Pritsker was a segment producer for the show “In Question,” broadcast by the Russian government-funded RT America channel.

In March 2017, Pritsker was reportedly arrested for “unlawful entry,” after refusing police orders to leave a federal building. Pritsker was protesting a temporary suspension on the issuance of new United States travel visas to citizens of Iran, Syria, Sudan, Lybia, Somalia and Yemen.

Pritsker said he wanted to “normalize civil disobedience and push people to take their activism to the next step.”

As of November 2024, Pritsker was listed as “a journalist with BreakThrough News, socialist activist and an active member of PSL, the Party for Socialism and Liberation.”

Also as of November 2024, Pritsker’s X bio said he was located in Brooklyn, New York.

Attending a Rally in Support of Hamas Terrorist War Crimes

On October 8, 2023, Pritsker participated [00:19:19] in an anti-Israel rally held that day in New York City’s Times Square. The rally was in support of Hamas terror attacks on Israeli communities bordering Gaza, resulting in hundreds of deaths, as well as many kidnappings of civilians.

At the rally, Pritsker stood [00:19:19] on the speaker’s platform where he filmed [00:20:21] Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) activist Naye Idriss telling the crowd of cheering onlookers: “Early morning on Saturday, October 7th our resistance stormed illegal settlements and paraglided across colonial borders…”

On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

On October 8, 2023, the anti-Israel groups Al-Awda and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) joined with other groups in New York City for a rally in support of the previous day’s Hamas terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Activists repeatedly celebrated the mass murder of Israeli civilians. They stomped on [00:00:01] and burned [00:00:21] Israeli flags. Speakers led [00:17:43] calls for Israel’s violent destruction and celebrated [00:20:45] Hamas firing rockets at Israeli cities and the taking [00:27:27] of hostages.

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization founded in 1987 that is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing Jews. Since 2001, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and on October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped over 200 hostages, including children and the elderly.

Support for Terrorists

On May 12, 2017, Pritsker appeared [00:00:52] in a Facebook video with fellow SJP at GWU activists participating in the “Saltwater Challenge” in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jail.

The “Saltwater Challenge” was held in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prison inmates convicted of terrorism. The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings that killed five Israelis during the second intifada. Aarab Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti, launched the "Saltwater Challenge."

Anti-Israel Activism

On March 4, 2018, Pritsker appeared [00:03:40] in a Youtube video from that year’s Al-Awda anti-AIPAC rally. At the rally, Hamideh said [00:02:23]: “There is no other classification for AIPAC other than being a criminal lobby that controls American foreign affairs and, in particular, fully responsible for the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

On April 9, 2017, Pritsker appeared [00:14:39] in a Youtube video from an anti-Israel protest against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on March 26, 2017.

In the video, Pritsker repeatedly nodded or shouted in agreement with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate speech from Ryan Dawson, who is known for denying [00:00:54] the existence of Nazi gas chambers.

Dawson said [00:14:21]: “AIPAC is a parasite.” Pritsker then yelled: “Yes!”

Dawson then said [00:14:30]: “God is not a real estate agent. You cannot confiscate private property from people who have lived in their land for centuries by claiming ‘in these books we wrote thousands of years ago my great great great great grandpappy pissed here.’ It is Palestinian land.”

Pritsker can be seen nodding throughout the comment.

Al-Awda, a national anti-Israel group, organized the March 26, 2017 rally. Protestors at the rally shouted [00:15:27] “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!!” Al-Awda co-founder Abbas Hamideh, who has regularly spread anti-Semitism on his Twitter account, confirmed [00:02:52] that the chant is a call to eliminate Israel.

BDS Activism

On May 10, 2018, Pritsker appeared [00:01:47] in a Youtube video speaking to passers-by on campus, while seated next to a display [00:01:43] labeled as the “Israeli Apartheid Wall.” The display demonized Israel’s security barrier and promoted BDS.

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 “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

On April 23, 2018, Pritsker spoke [00:43:29] before the GWU Student Association (SA) where he promoted the BDS resolution that capped the #DivestThisTime campaign.

In his speech, he claimed [00:43:41] that Israel “brutalizes Palestinians.”

The BDS resolution passed [00:21:53] the SA with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions via a secret ballot.

The resolution implied that “Israel is the worst apartheid regime” and that Israel imposes “forced labour” on Palestinians. It also implied that Israel divides “its population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos for the members of a racial group or groups.”

The resolution portrayed Israeli military campaigns against Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) as deliberate attempts to kill children and civilians. It also singled out Israel for alleged violations of the Geneva Convention and war crimes.

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.

Three of the resolution’s four co-sponsors voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] acknowledging that “Israel is a state and has the right to exist” and that Israelis have the “right to safety, security and self-determination.” The fourth co-sponsor abstained.

On March 23, 2018, Pritsker promoted [00:01:02] #DivestThisTime in the campaign’s Facebook video, where he alleged [00:01:23] that Israel has committed “crimes against humanity.”

On March 29, 2017, Pritsker appeared [00:01:25] in that year’s #DivestThisTime Facebook promotional video, where he also promoted [00:00:52] SJP at GWU.

On March 20, 2017, Pritsker promoted on Facebook an upcoming SJP at GWU speaking event that was part of “Palestine Awareness Week” (PAW). The promotion featured a JVP image that said: “In 2016, Palestine is our South Africa.”

Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding 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.”

Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour

On December 3, 2017, Pritsker attended [00:06:20] a JVP-organized Return the Birthright protest outside the Birthright offices in New York City.

At the rally, Pritsker joined in a chant claiming [00:48:35] Israel is built on “stolen” land, yelling: “Birthright! Birth-wrong! The land was stolen all along!” Pritsker was in the crowd, holding [00:45:20] a sign that said “Not Our Birthright. ”

On September 1, 2017, Pritsker appeared in an SJP at GWU Facebook photo, tabling alongside a display promoting BDS and displaying a series of discredited anti-Israel propaganda maps. Pritsker held a sign that said: “How was your trip to Israel? The 5,149,742 Palestinian refugees are curious.”

In September 2017, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an anti-Israel group, issued its#returnthebirthright campaign manifesto, calling for the boycott of the Birthright heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults. The manifesto accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and alleged “the modern state of Israel is predicated on the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.” The text claimed the trip “is only ‘free’ because it has been paid for by the dispossession of Palestinians,” and concluded: “we commit to promoting the right to return of Palestinian refugees…Israel is not our Birthright…”

Kei Pritsker’s Participation in the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia

On May 2, 2024, Pritsker was featured in an Instagram post participating [slide 2] in the Columbia encampment. The post said: “Students protest the war in Gaza on the campus of Columbia University…[They] declared Tuesday morning that they have taken over a building near the campus’s South Lawn, raising the prospect of further turmoil at the Ivy League institution…”

The encampment was also in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Columbia is located in New York, New York.

On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Many participants were arrested and the encampment featured multiple violent incidents, including taking over a campus building and taking a university worker hostage.

Activists protested Israel’s war against Hamas and demanded that Columbia “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation…”

The action had reportedly been planned for months and was organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. The encampment was also organized by Columbia’s banned pro-Hamas activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the university chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Activists reportedly received training from National SJP and other anti-Israel organizations.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Instigated by SJP at GWU

On March 24, 2018, student groups at GWU launched the second BDS campaign in two years; both were titled “#DivestThisTime.” Activists with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at GWU (SJP at GWU) led both campaigns.

On the campaign launch day, #DivestThisTime released a Facebook promotional video, in which activists alleged [00:01:23] that Israel has committed “crimes against humanity.” They also claimed [00:03:34] that Palestinians are “bombed every day” and blamed Israel [00:02:06] for police violence against black Americans in Ferguson, Missouri.

SJP at GWU held five events leading up to the launch of #DivestThisTime, which formed part of its 2018 Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW). IAW is 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 BDS movement.

#DivestThisTime at GWU 2018 - Demonizing Israel

On April 23-24, 2018, the GWU Student Association (SA) held a hearing and vote on the BDS resolution. At least 18 SJP at GWU activists and affiliates addressed [01:07:50] the SA in defense of the resolution, where it passed [00:21:53] via [00:11:14] a secret ballot with 18 votes for, six against and six abstentions.

During the hearing, many Jewish students said [01:09:05] they experienced [01:24:45] anti-Semitism related to #DivestThisTime. One student spoke [00:50:40] about the Jewish community’s pain when “this hateful and divisive resolution was proposed over Passover.” One Jewish Israeli-American student said [00:48:05] it “creates an environment where I am made to feel that my identity is taboo” at GWU.

One black Jewish student said [01:39:24] that an SJP activist told him he was “weaponizing” his identity when he asked why a clause mentioning the “discriminatory conditions black people face in the Gaza Strip under Palestinian leadership” was omitted from the resolution.

SJP at GWU activists mocked [00:52:48] or dismissed [00:39:50] concerns over anti-Semitism. Other resolution supporters voiced agreement [00:45:40] with the SJP at GWU activists, including one who claimed [01:04:13] that resolution opponents were stoking “racial fears and sowing the divisions.”

A number of Jewish students walked out [00:35:19] of the hearing to protest [00:33:21] the resolution and to protest the SA’s inaction to combat anti-Semitism within its own ranks.

On April 24, 2018, three of the four resolution co-sponsors — Joshua Gomez, Eden Vitoff and Shaheera Jalil Albasit — voted [00:09:59] against an amendment [00:07:15] that said: “Palestinians and Israelis, like all people, have the right to safety, security, and self-determination” and “Israel is a state and has the right to exist.” Jessica Martinez, the other co-sponsor, abstained [00:10:06].

On May 10, 2018, Al Jazeera published a report on Youtube about #DivestThisTime. SJP at GWU activists spoke [00:01:47] to passers-by on campus and stood next to a display [00:01:43] labeled the “Israeli Apartheid Wall” that demonized Israel’s security barrier.

SJP at GWU - Palestine Awareness Week

On March 27, 2017, SJP at GWU launched Palestine Awareness Week (PAW). The kick-off of PAW was a speaking event that featured Angela Davis. The Facebook event page noted that Davis’ 2015 book, titled” Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the Foundations of a Movement,” purported to reveal “the deep connections between the incarceration of Black Americans and the continued occupation of Palestine by the state of Israel.”

SJP at GWU - Promoting Anti-Semites and Holocaust Deniers

As part of SJP at GWU’s 2017 PAW, SJP at GWU participated in and promoted a demonstration scheduled for March 26, 2017, organized by Al-Awda — The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

The rally demonized the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and featured a lineup of speakers who have spread anti-Semitism. Among them was the rally’s lead organizer, Al-Awda co-founder Abbas Hamideh, who has been called out for promoting anti-Semitism on his Twitter account, by a prominent pro-Israel blog. Hamideh personally thanked SJP at GWU for promoting the event on Facebook.

The rally’s Facebook page accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and demanded: “End the illegal occupation of Palestine from the River to the Sea!.” The chant “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” — which Hamideh confirmed as a call to eliminate Israel — was a constant refrain at the rally.

Another speaker at the rally was Ryan Dawson — a denier of Nazi gas chambers. Dawson mocked ancient Jewish Scriptures and attacked Jewish historical claims to the Land of Israel. Dawson’s comments were greeted with cheers. Dawson also said: “If I can give something across to the scumbags inside … AIPAC is a virus … AIPAC is a parasite.” Those comments were also greeted with shouts of approval.

Anti-Israel activist and author Miko Peled also spoke at the rally, claiming: “We know very well that the Palestinian resistance is not terrorism. Palestinian resistance is legitimate resistance. And all of us today are part of that resistance.” Peled’s comments were met with applause and shouts of approval from the crowd.

On March 27, 2017, SJP at GWU shared a video on Facebook produced by Al Jazeera with footage from the rally including David Feldman, a member of the Neturei Karta — a marginal, anti-Zionist, fringe Jewish group. He has helped to tokenize the radically anti-Zionist Neturei Karta members — and has falsely portrayed their anti-Zionism as emblematic of mainstream Judaism. The group is notorious for its delegation to an Iranian Holocaust denial conference in 2014.

SJP at GWU - Promoting “Anti-Normalization”

On March 30, 2016, SJP at GWU hosted an event titled: “Why You Should Take Sides: Israel/Palestine and Normalization.”

The Facebook event page description referred to the definition of “Anti-Normalization” according to the Palestine Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) which opposes the normalization of relations between Israelis and Palestinians (and/or Arabs). PACBI defines “normalization” as “the participation in any project, initiative or activity” aiming “to bring together Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis (people or institutions) without placing as its goal resistance to and exposure of the Israeli occupation.”

The event comprised a panel discussion with the then events coordinator for the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University (Georgetown) Tareq Radi. Radi is also the founder of GMU Students Against Israeli Apartheid — an affiliate of SJP. The panel also included DC Metro Chapter Coordinator of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Shelley Cohen Fudge and journalist Jamal Najjab.

On August 2, 2014, Radi spoke on behalf of SAIA at a rally in Washington DC during Operation Protective Edge, in which he denounced the affirmation that Israel has a right to defend itself as “ludicrous rhetoric.”

Radi claimed that Zionists “are trying to soil the words we hold sacred — Shahid, Martyr, Revolutionary’ which are sacred because they "belong to the oppressed. They empower us and strike fear into the hearts of cowards. We are people of resistance and we need to rebuild our culture of resistance.”(1.00)

He also stated: "We must resist the Zionist entity at every turn. They must know that their presence is not welcome anywhere that values justice. I don’t care what the setting may be, there is no room for a diversity of opinions on issues of human rights!" (3.30)

Radi went on to say that “by surrendering to the language of peace, we have handcuffed the means in which our people back home can resist.” (1:04)

SJP at GWU - Saltwater Challenge

On May 12, 2017, Maryam Alhassani — led SJP at GWU student activists in a “Saltwater Challenge,” in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners then hunger striking in Israeli prisons.

The prisoners’ hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, then serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada.

Barghouti completed his doctorate in Political Science while in Israeli prison.

As head of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s terrorist Tanzim force and founder of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, Barghouti was behind attacks that killed scores of Israelis and wounded hundreds of others. Barghouti personally financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe bombing.

According to CNN, the Salt Water Challenge appears to have been invented by Marwan Barghouti’s son, Aarab Marwan Barghouti.

SJP at GWU - Hosting Right to Education Tour 2016

On April 5, 2016, SJP at GWU hosted “two Palestinian students from Birzeit University in the West Bank who are travelling the US on the Right to Education Tour.”

The Facebook event page linked to a video “to learn more about R2E,” by Birzeit University students, published in 2013. The video celebrated the creation of the Palestinian curriculum and attacked what it called “a Jewish-American organization,” The Center for Monitoring The Impact of Peace, for exposing that curriculum’s indoctrination of children to terror.

The campaign brings students to U.S. campuses, who claim that Israel is obstructing the rights of Palestinians to higher education. These claims mischaracterize sweeps Israeli security forces have taken to shut down terror cells operating from Birzeit’s campus.

Birzeit’s student body elected Hamas to power in 2003, 2015 and 2016.

In January of 2016, Birzeit characterized an IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent ... attack on the university and our right to education …”

In September of 2014, pro-Palestinian Haaretz reporter Amira Hass was thrown off of Birzeit’s campus — because Hass is Jewish.

SJP at GWU - Hosting Radicals

On April 9, 2015, SJP at GWU hosted a speaking event featuring Iyad Burnat — the coordinator of the so-called Bil’in Popular Non Violent Resistance Committee, has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS has been accused of personally attacking Israeli soldiers. The weekly demonstrations he has organized against the Israeli security barrier since 2005 have frequently turned violent.

On March 2, 2015, SJP at GWU hosted an event that featured anti-Israel author Miko Peled, titled: “Palestine Beyond Zionism - Hope for Peace and Co-Existence.”

The Facebook event page description claimed: “… In South Africa removing Apartheid was the key to ending the plight of black South Africans, in Palestine removing Zionism is the key to resolving the plight of the Palestinians.”

SJP at GWU – Celebrating Violence

On March 8, 2016, SJP at GWU shared, with supportive comments, photos of numerous women — masked by Keffiyehs — brandishing guns, firing slingshots and collecting large rocks.

Pushing BDS at GWU

On March 27, 2017, SJP at GWU launched the Divest This Time campaign. The campaign’s name alluded to GWU’s declining to “divest from apartheid in South Africa” and called “for GWU not to make the same mistake with Palestine.”

On March 28, 2017, SJP at GWU held an event titled “Why Divest?” in order to recruit support for divestment.On March 29, 2017, Divest This Time released a video that cameoed SJP at GWU student activists and their supporters promoting the campaign. Students featured in the video invoked “the Occupation of Palestine” to demonize Israel and companies that provided Israel with security technology. In the video, SJP at GWU student activists also equated Israel with Apartheid South Africa and accused Israel of “using the identities” of Transgender people to prove that Israel respects human rights.

The campaign video incorporated footage from a March 26, 2017 protest against the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) organized by Al-Awda — The Palestine Right to Return Coalition — and joined by SJP at GWU.

The text of the divestment resolution was introduced to the student senate on April 24, 2017. It was then “leaked to the general public,” just ahead of Israeli and International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Successive “whereas” clauses of the resolution blamed Israel for crimes against humanity, “deliberately” causing “suffering to Palestinian populations,” discriminating against women, “deliberately” killing “Palestinian civilians” and causing an “epidemic of homelessness” among the Palestinians. The resolution also condemned Israel’s detention of Palestinian children for violating Israeli Military Order 1651 which criminalized rock throwing with up to 20 years of prison time.

On April 25, 2017, the bill’s co-sponsor — Jack Jomarron — and others claimed the resolution did not target Israel for boycott, divestment and sanctions. However, the resolution’s third “whereas” clause stated: “The act of divesting creates political pressure on corporations to withdraw their involvement in the occupation…” The bill’s fourth “whereas” clause specifically invoked the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court, calling for criminal responsibility and punishment for ”crimes against peace, humanity, and of war.”

The resolution’s primary sponsor — Keiko Tsuboi — also attempted to distance the bill from BDS and claimed it was not meant to “paint some skewed vision of Israel,” but to “describe the situation on the ground, that palestinian students are talking about.” Tsuboi appealed to the infamous Goldstone Report to buttress paragraphs 7 through 18 of the resolution’s allegations. Although Judge Goldstone himself publicly retracted the central thesis of his report, in April of 2011, Tsuboi, insisted “these are the facts on the ground and they are not up for a debate for the purposes of this resolution.”

Some GWU students noted that the resolution was “one sided.” The bill exclusively singled out for divestment companies that supplied Israel with security technology — and demonized the use of that technology. One student suggested the resolution looked to “alienate pro Israel students from the GW community” and reflected a “hidden agenda.”

Co-sponsor Jomarron admitted that he understood the “fear of a hidden agenda” and went on to observe: “the national BDS movements and the national SJP groups are frankly super troublesome to me.” However, Jomarron continued to insist that the resolution was not connected with the agenda of the BDS movement.

On Saturday, April 27, 2017 — Holocaust Remembrance Day — BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti delivered a talk on behalf of the Jerusalem Fund/Palestine Center about the “Successes and Challenges of BDS.” During the Q & A session that followed, Barghouti said: “... if you join a campaign for justice and freedom, it doesn't have to carry the BDS logo. It doesn’t have to say ‘boycott,’ it doesn't have to say ‘BDS.’ There are many creative ways how to do things without labeling it as ‘BDS.’”

On May 1, 2017, GWU’s Student Association voted down the resolution 15-14, in a sharply divided session.

Following the resolution’s defeat, SJP at GWU organizer — Henry Rosh — said: “we will not stop calling for BDS on this campus.”

Another SJP at GWU student activist — Maryam Alhassani — posted on Facebook to label those who opposed the resolution as “PEP (Progressive Except Palestine)” and “just outright racist.”

SJP at GWU also released a statement on Facebook that read: “At GWU, this action has only just begun — SJP will continue the fight for Palestinian human rights and for those who are oppressed around the world. The Divest This Time coalition is passionate about the GW community and thus looks to further justice on campus.”

The campaign’s Facebook page also released a statement that said, among other things, “The Divest This Time coalition and SJP at GWU will continue to uplift these voices as we move forward in our campaign to end GW complicity in one-sided violence.”

On May 4, 2017, Abby Brook — Divest This Time founder and SJP at GWU student activist — told The GW Hatchet student newspaper that SJP at GWU would push for a referendum vote, in which the entire student body would vote on divestment.

On May 15, 2017, the Editorial Board of the GW Hatchet published an article titled: “Divestment referendum would marginalize part of the student body.” The article recalled the sharply divided Student Association Senate vote and criticized SJP at GWU’s announcement to push for a vote rather than increase dialogue and understanding concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus.

SJP at GWU student activist Maryam Alhassani shared the editorial board’s article on Facebook and commented: “This is a huge f**k you to all the Palestinians on campus and in Palestine. The GW Hatchet thank you for showing us how sh**ty you are and how Palestinians don't matter…”

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.

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 Student 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.