Laith Matari
Overview
Laith Matari disrupted his graduation ceremony by smearing red paint on his hands to spread hatred of Israel during its war against Hamas terrorists. The May 2024 incident was in support [00:00:53] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.Matari’s disruption occurred in the wake of Hamas war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
As of May 2024, Matari’s LinkedIn profile said he had been working as a mediator at Harvard Mediator Program since 2021. His duties included mediating “conflicts throughout Boston’s five small claims courts.”
Also in May 2024, Matari graduated [p. 110-111] from Northeastern University (NEU) with a master’s degree in “Security and Resilience Studies.” He went by “Laith Maximo Matari” on the official NEU commencement program.
As of the same date, Matari’s LinkedIn said he graduated from NEU with a bachelor’s degree in social sciences in 2023.
NEU is located in Boston, Massachusetts.
May 5, 2024 - Disrupting a Graduation Ceremony
On May 5, 2024, Matari disrupted [00:00:01] the NEU commencement ceremony by smearing red paint on his hands, face and body and holding them up for the crowd to see.Matari showed a white shirt with red handprints and red lettering that said: “NEU Kills.” A security officer later removed [00:00:25] him from the event’s stage.
On May 8, 2024, the Boston Globe reported that Matari “said he was trying to show that the university ‘has blood on its hands’ because of its ties to Israel and demonstrate ‘what it has been like for people in Palestine for the past 75 years and especially in Gaza right now.’”
The modern State of Israel was founded 75 years earlier, in 1948.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation. Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, over 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.
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/laith.matari.1Twitter:https://twitter.com/lmatari20
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/matari2o/ [Private]
LinkedIn:https://linkedin.com/in/laith-matari-112635197
