Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi

Overview

Leila Moumouni-Tchouassi shut down Jewish and pro-Israel clubs at the University of Ottawa (UOttawa). She also pushed a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution at UOttawa.

Moumouni-Tchouassi is a member of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UOttawa’s closed Facebook group: “SPHR Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights uOttawa 2018-2019.” SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As of April 2018, Moumouni-Tchouassi’s LinkedIn page said she was the 2017-2018 vice-president of Equity, on the Executive Board of the Student Federation at the University of Ottawa (SFUO). As vice president, she was “responsible for all SFUO Clubs.”

Moumouni-Tchouassi’s LinkedIn also said that she was the vice president of philanthropic affairs with the Association Étudiante de Développement - International Development and Globalization Student Association (AEDSA) at UOttawa, since May 2015.

Moumouni-Tchouassi’s LinkedIn listed her as a “student in her fourth year of an honours bachelors in International Development and Globalization” at UOttawa, slated to graduate in 2017.

Shutting Down Jewish and Pro-Israel Clubs

At the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year, Moumouni-Tchouassi decertified [00:18:37] Hillel Ottawa (UOttawa Hillel) and the Israeli Awareness Committee (IAC) of their club status.

After UOttawa Hillel and the IAC informed [01:32:41] the SFUO that [00:20:10] they would be pursuing legal action, their club status was reinstated.

On March 13, 2018, during the SFUO General Assembly (GA)’s winter session, was asked [01:31:07] why the two Jewish clubs were “provisionally banned from campus” and why they had not been reinstated. At first, Moumouni-Tchouassi blamed [01:32:25] the groups’ executives for the delay in reinstatement, but gave no reason for her decision to ban the clubs.

When pressed [01:34:27] to “clarify” her reason for banning the Jewish clubs, Moumouni-Tchouassi said [01:34:41] her decision to remove their club status was "because of the stance that the SFUO has taken over time … for BDS."

Moumouni-Tchouassi elaborated [01:35:00] that she banned the clubs because the mandates in their constitutions included a statement about “being pro-Israeli state.”

BDS Activism

On November 5, 2017, Moumouni-Tchouassi proposed [00:02:45] a BDS resolution during a Student Federation at the University of Ottawa (SFUO) Board of Administration (BOA) meeting. The resolution sought to legislate SFUO support for the BDS movement and command SFUO to “take a Pro-Palestine stance."

Student were notified of the upcoming resolution vote two days prior, on a Friday, hours before the onset of Shabbat.

The board rejected the motion, opting for an amended version that committing the SFUO “to do all in its power to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

Moumouni-Tchouassi clarified [01:14:22] that the amendment would not change then-current purchasing policy, which was already being conducted [00:09:01] in line with BDS.

SPHR/IJV/RSM UOttawa - Pushing BDS

On March 13, 2018, SPHR, IJV and RSM at UOttawa jointly proposed a divestment initiative, during the SFUO General Assembly (SFOU GA)’s winter session.

This divestment proposal called on the SFUO to revise its policy manual and mandate that the SFUO “support this [BDS] movement as well as take a Pro-Palestine stance.” The proposal also called for the SFOU to “put pressure on the Board of Governors of UOttowa to support BDS campaigns.”

The proposal called for the SFUO to divest from companies “complicit in violation of Palestinian human rights,” to boycott Israeli artists and to “work for the cancellation of all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.”

The divestment proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds majority to pass, with 241 votes for and 231 votes against.

After the vote, SPHR posted on Facebook ”... this moment remains a victory for all students who stand in solidarity with Palestinian human rights.”

On March 25, 2018, SPHR UOttawa attempted to push the failed BDS motion at another SFUO BOA meeting. Once more, it failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the resolution.

The following day, UOttawa President and Vice-Chancellor, Jacques Frémont, released a statement strongly denouncing the SFUO BDS campaign:

“This issue is divisive and a detriment to an open and welcoming campus environment,” said Frémont. “The University of Ottawa will have no part of the BDS movement nor any movement that boycotts academic institutions.”

SPHR UOttawa

As of June 2007, Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UOttawa (SPHR UOttowa)’s Mission Statement said the group was committed to the “struggle against the colonialist and imperialist policies of the Israeli government and the ideology upon which the state was formed.”

Since 2008, SPHR UOttawa has hosted and co-hosted Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) on UOttawa’s campus.

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

As of May 3, 2018, SPHR UOttawa’s Facebook group description said that SPHR would advocate for UOttawa to adopt “the academic boycott of Israel” and divest “from all economic ties and investments in Israel by the uOttawa or its associated subsidiaries.”

In 2018, SPHR UOttowa worked closely with Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and the Revolutionary Students Movement (RSM) at UOttawa to host anti-Israel campus events. These events included Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and a divestment initiative.

On March 29, 2018, as part of IAW, SPHR UOttawa promoted on Facebook a film screening hosted by RSM that celebrated terrorist Leila Khaled.

SPHR UOttawa's Facebook post referred to Khaled as a “Palestinian revolutionary who became a household name after she became the first woman to hijack a plane.”

Leila Khaled is a leading member 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 [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

On April 20, 2016, SPHR UOttawa posted to Facebook messages of solidarity to Palestinian prisoners from two Palestinian women involved in terror activity — Lina Jarbouni and Khalida Jarrar, in honour of Palestinian Prisoners day.

As of January 2016, Jarbouni was serving a 17-year prison sentence for aiding Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists during the second intifada and for conspiring to commit terrorist attacks.

Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.

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.