Laila Issa
Overview
Laila Issa has spread hatred of Jews and led an anti-Israel campus event at the University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), as a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCSC.Spreading Hatred of Jews
Leading SJP UCSC Die-In
On April 19, 2018, UCSC’s student newspaper City on a Hill Press (CHP) reported that Issa assisted in coordinating a UCSC SJP “die-in” on UCSC’s campus. Demonstrators simulated falling down dead as a “speaker read off instances of injustice committed by Israel against Palestine, starting in 1948.”On April 20, 2018, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook photos of the “die-in” and wrote that the protest was held “in protest of an event commemorating Israeli ‘independence’. For a settler colonial project like Israel, ‘independence’ means genocide against Palestinians.”
On April 27, Issa posted to Facebook: “Thank you so much for CHP for covering our story and channeling our voice! #FreePalestine.” She also posted a link to the April 26, 2018 CHP article.
Support for the March of Return
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
On April 5, 2018, Issa posted on Facebook: “750 human lives changed by the terrorist state of Israel,” along with an MSNBC video titled: “Israeli troops shoot 750 Palestinians at Gaza border.”
Most of the Gazans who died between March 30, 2018 and April 11, 2018 were identified as terror operatives who were killed while rioting against the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), carrying out terrorist attacks, or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
On April 7, 2018, Issa shared a photo of Yaser Murtaja on Facebook, claiming that he was “shot down and killed by an Israeli sniper while clearly wearing a PRESS vest and attempting to do his job documenting protesters in Gaza. #greatreturnmarch.”
On May 16, 2018, senior Hamas official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
Support for Anti-Israel Agitators
On October 3, 2018, Issa posted to Facebook an AJ+ video glorifying Ahed Tamimi and violent protests in Nabi Saleh.
The village of Nabi Saleh is a Tamimi family stronghold. It is notorious as a place where photographers gather nearly every Friday to document scenes of Palestinian residents and international activists clashing with Israeli soldiers. Much of this is instigated by the Nabi Saleh Tamimi clan.
On July 29, 2018, Issa shared to Facebook a post that said: “Israeli’s [sic] protesting the release of 17 year-old Ahed Tamimi just comes to show their pride in being an ethno-religious state and their fear of moral and political courage standing up against their Zionism. ”
Promoting Hatred of Israel
On October 9, 2018, Issa shared a libelous article on Facebooktitled “Israeli soldier gives 74-year-old Palestinian woman water then shoots her in the head.” The article claimed that “he gave her the water, took a photo with her and then he shot her in the head from a distance of one metre. He then watched as she bled to death.”
On August 1, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), a Facebook user featured a tweet and photo of Issa taken while she was at a demonstration. In the photo, Issa held up a sign that said: “One flag .. One nation.. one desire… closing the zionist embassy.”
Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Demonizing Birthright
On July 1, 2018, Issa shared a video of INN activists walking off a Birthright tour, and commented: “So much backlash for an act so reasonable. I appreciate the Jewish community that has the courage to stand up to the Zionist regime, you are truly heroes.”
Promoting BDS
On November 14, 2018, Issa shared to Facebook a post by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) that read: “Congresswoman-elect Ilhan Omar becomes the first member of Congress to explicitly support BDS. Many thanks to her ❤.” Issa commented: “❤️❤️❤️.”
On June 7, 2018, Issa posted to Facebook a graphic thanking Argentina’s soccer team and star player Lionel Messi for refusing to play against Israel’s soccer team. The post featured text reading: “Apartheid Will Not Be Entertained.”
SJP UCSC Activism
On May 15, 2018, Issa promoted on Facebook SJP UCSC’s Nakba Day March, adding: “March with us and be a part of the ongoing resistance. It is extremely important, especially in times like these, that we stand strong against forces of evil and show them that we are here, standing strong!”
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.
Shortly afterward, Issa posted to Facebook SJP UCSC’s poster advertising the Nakba Day March and commented: “Come through tomorrow!!!!!!!!!” The poster declared that “May 15 marks the 70th anniversary of the illegal occupation of Palestine” and called on students to march “against genocide” and the “atrocities of imperialism.”
On May 4, 2018, Issa shared a link on Facebook to an SJP UCSC’s gofundme page to raise money for the group’s “upcoming events and actions,” including “printing, posters/ banners, flags, other protest materials and educational materials.”
Attending the 2018 National SJP Conference
2018 National SJP - Celebrating Violence
Since the early 2000’s, the term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence. The second intifada was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
Anti-Israel activist Omar Zahzah also reportedly [00:00:07] led National SJP attendees in chanting, in Arabic, “With our bodies and our blood, we will free Palestine.”
As of November 2018, the 2018 National SJP website glorified “radical hope and upfront defiance of Zionism,” citing as examples the “early revolts through the Intifadas to the Great Return March.”
The Great Return March of 2018 was organized and funded by the terror group Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.
Tens of thousands of rioters gathered on Israel’s Gaza border, attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with leaders andparticipants declaring their intention to harm Jews.
National SJP originally promoted a conference logo featuring a keffiyeh-wearing bear, looking toward a kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag.
On October 27, 2018, National SJP said the kite signified “the power in the Gaza March of Return.”
Since March 2018, March of Return participants and Hamas’s “Kite Unit” have sent hundreds of kites bearing incendiary devices and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) across the border into Israel to terrorize Israelis. The kites are often marked with swastikas.
By the time National SJP produced its 2018 conference logo highlighting the kites in October 2018, Gazan terror kites and balloons had ignited more than 1,300 fires in Israel, over seven months.
2018 National SJP - Undermining U.S. Support for Israel
On November 18, 2018, the US Palestine Community Network (USPCN) posted on Facebook the 2018 National SJP keynote speech by Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN’s co-founder.Abudayyeh has supported [00:08:45] convicted terrorists, praised terror organizations, called for Israel’s destruction and is an activist in theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In his 2018 National SJP Keynote, Abudayyeh said [00:53:01] that the “specific role” of Palestinian and Arab students was to organize [00:53:42] in order to weaken “Zionist Israel” and force [00:54:23] the U.S. to “no longer provide it with diplomatic, political, financial and military cover and support.”
Abudayyeh predicted [00:55:37] that once U.S. support to Israel ends, National SJP attendees would return to Palestine as “conquering heroes,” end [00:54:38] the “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands including the Golan Heights” and replace “Zionist Israel” with a Palestinian state.
2018 National SJP - Whitewashing Terror Organizations
During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh also painted [00:14:01] terrorist organizations as “liberation movements” and “resistance organizations,” stating [00:14:21] “what we also know is that the majority of the resistance organizations in Palestine are on the U.S. state department list of foreign terrorist organizations.”Abudayyeh also celebrated [00:52:00] that all of the “armed resistance” organizations in Gaza are part [00:52:14] of a “unified resistance in Gaza, that includes all of the resistance organizations, working together under a unified military command.”
2018 National SJP - Defending Terrorist Rasmea Odeh
During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh claimed [00:08:28] that pro-Israel organizations “go after students like you,” adding [00:08:20] “just like they went after my friend and colleague, Rasmea Odeh.”2018 National SJP - Demonizing Israel and Jews
During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh defended [00:27:25] the “Irvine 11” — eleven Muslim Student Union (MSA) members who were arrested in 2010 for repeatedly shouting down former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren during an address at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine).Abudayyeh referred [00:27:37] to Oren as a “racist fascist speaker, representative of a racist, fascist country.”
Abudayyeh went on to claim [00:29:48] that “today, even in the United States, Israel is finally being seen as the criminal, apartheid, racist state that it is.”
Abudayyeh also called for increased action in the face of President U.S. Donald Trump, and referred [00:48:41] to Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior advisor, as “that pig son-in-law of his.”
2018 National SJP - Excluding Students
The 2018 National SJP Conference welcomed only students who were verified and vouched for by an SJP (or otherwise named campus Palestine solidarity group). Media requests needed to be “approved by the NSJP press team” prior to the conference.A November 7, 2018 Columbus Jewish News article reported that the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on UCLA to cancel the 2018 NSJP conference, stating that a “public university should not allow any group to implement a litmus test for event participation on their campus.”
On November 12, 2018, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that criticized National SJP’s exclusion of members of pro-Israel student groups.
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.
PYM
In 2012, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM USA) released a statement saying: “Our liberation...will be gained with the path that was written with the blood of our martyrs. We reaffirm that the only path that we are concerned with is the path that explicitly heads towards the liberation of our land and the return of our people to Palestine.”
PYM organized rallies demonizing Israel where it displays propaganda posters supporting the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
On October 25, 2015, PYM called to support “intifada” during a period when Palestinian radicals across Israel stabbed and hacked to death scores of Israeli civilians. PYM alleged that “Al-Aqsa Mosque has been the target of particularly brutal assaults” and that “... arbitrary killings are committed daily by the Zionist military and settlers.”
On November 10, 2015, the PYM Facebook page displayed a photo of masked Palestinian radicals throwing rocks and firing rocks from slingshots. That photo was used to promote at least 25 anti-Israel rallies across the globe on or around November 29, 2015 under the banner of “Transnational mobilization for Palestinian resistance.”
On November 30, 2015, PYM displayed a photo on Facebook from one of the rallies showing a sign in support of PFLP member Khalida Jarrar, who confessed to inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.
Another sign showed support for PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sadat, who was convicted for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.
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