Lina Bearat

Overview

Bearat served as the president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Arizona State University (SJP ASU) in 2012. She also served as a senator with the ASU Undergraduate Student Government (ASU USG) from 2011-2012.

While she was SJP president and senator, she authored an ASU Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) divestment bill and organized an Israel Apartheid Week.

Bearat led the charge for divestment bill to be passed. The bill targeted the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Sudan, grouping Israel together with the genocide in Darfur. The bill was ultimately passed by ASU USG, but was not signed by the President of the ASU USG and it essentially remained a pocket veto.

Bearat is employed as an Analyst at Kimley-Horn and Associates, Inc, in Phoenix Arizona. Bearat graduated from ASU in 2012, with a BSE in Civil Engineering.

Calling for Israel’s Destruction

On March 29, 2013, Bearat tweeted : "Israel is the big illegal settlement and we want to end the occupation" #landday #Palestine #Israel"

On November 29, 2012, Bearat tweeted : "Palestine means the right of return for refugees and it means that Jerusalem belongs to us. So no thanks PA. #UNBid #UN #Palestine.”

On the same day Bearat also tweeted: "Palestine means all of historic Palestine. Not just the 22% that Israel left when they took the land. #UNBid #UN #Palestine"

On November 16, 2012, Bearat and SJP members participated in an anti-Israel demonstration, where Bearat led the demonstrators in the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Delegitimizing Israel

On February 5, 2015, Bearat retweeted the tweet which stated: “Zionism uses Judaism as a human shield.”

On March 21 2014, Bearat retweeted the tweet : "’The current Israel is not the biblical Israel. It's an experiment in European and American white supremacy.’ Bingo.”

Demonizing Israel

On July 29, 2014, Bearat retweeted the tweet: "So sick watching our Secretary of State have to grovel so hard to tell Israel how much he loves them while Israeli cabinet shs on him."On March 20, 2014, Bearat tweeted: “Thank goodness! @Beyonce isn't performing in #apartheidisrael !! I can be obsessed with her still!!”

Endorsing Islamic Jihad Militant

On February 20-21, 2012, Bearat tweeted a series of tweets in support of Khader Adnan, including: "Khader Adnan is an inspiration to all of us. Palestine will be free."

Adnan was invited to address the 2012 SJP National Conference, held November 2-4, which Bearat attended. On November 4, 2012, Bearat tweeted: “Khader Adnan was such an inspiration! #sjpconf”

Adnan is the spokesperson for Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), an Islamic Palestinian organization that violently opposes the existence of Israel. The PIJ advocates the destruction of Israel through violent means, and the establishment of an Islamic state in its stead. As the spokesperson for the PIJ, Adnan’s role during the second intifada was to incite terror and violence against Israelis.

In 2007, during the funeral of one of the senior commanders of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of PIJ, Adnan said: “Who among you is the next Hasan Abu Zeid [suicide bomber who murdered five Israeli civilians in Hadera in October 2005]? Who among you is the next suicide bomber? …Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?”

Promoting BDS and Omar Barghouti

On Feb 4th, 2016, Bearat signed a National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) petition in favour of BDS. The petition rejects dialogue and coexistence and accuses Israel of being a "system of colonial and racist oppression" and “apartheid.”

On January 11, 2012, Bearat coordinated an anti-Israel lecture at ASU, featuring Omar Barghouti.

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.