Malcolm Lizzappi

Overview

Malcolm Lizzappi [Malcolm Chong Lizzappi] co-sponsored a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution at Stanford University (Stanford) and glorified a terrorist, in 2015. Lizzappi was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) from 2014 to 2017.

Lizzappi was an organizer and part of the “Steering Committee” for the National SJP Conference in 2017 and led a workshop at National SJP 2017.

NSJP 2017 was held October 27-29, 2017 at the University of Houston (UH). The conference was themed “A Reimagined World: Dismantling Walls from Palestine to the Rio Grande.” Per the 2017 National SJP Conference website, the conference aimed to strengthen “collaborative efforts within all regions to pass BDS” and envision “pathways to achieving sanctions in the future.”

Lizzappi was a photographer for National SJP 2016 and attended National SJP 2015.

Lizzappi was a member of the anti-Israel organization Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) in 2015. SOOP defines itself as a coalition of 19 student groups promoting divestment from "human rights abuses in Palestine & around the world."

Lizzappi was also the cultural director of Stanford’s Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN) in 2015. As of April 2021, MSAN was a member of SOOP.

As of November 2020, Lizzappi was listed as a medical student at John Hopkins University (JHU) and a “former” lab member at the Rockefeller University (Rockefeller).

As of November 2020, Lizzappi’s LinkedIn page said he was a residential computing consultant at Stanford and an undergraduate Senator for the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) since 2014. Lizzappi majored in Comparative Literature and his LinkedIn page said he graduated from Stanford in 2017.

As of November 2020, Lizzappi went by the name “Malcolm Al Zaabi” on Facebook.

BDS Activism

Lizzappi co-sponsored [page 5] SOOP’s January 27, 2015 divestment resolution, which was titled: “A Resolution to Divest from Companies Violating Human Rights in Occupied Palestine.”

The resolution was co-authored [page 5] by Ramah Awad, SOOP leader and co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Stanford (Stanford SJP) at the time, as well as by then-members of SOOP, Clayton Evans, Laura Perez and Emma Hartung.

The resolution called for Stanford University Trustees to divest from companies that it alleged: “violate international humanitarian law by: maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation.”

The resolution also called for divestment from companies it claimed facilitates Israel’s “collective punishment of Palestinian civilians…[and] state repression against Palestinians.”

Lizzappi also signed SOOP’s 2015 petition accompanying the divestment resolution.

In February 2015, members of SOOP presented the petition and divestment resolution to the ASSU Undergraduate Senate to further the agenda of the BDS movement.

On February 8, 2015, The Stanford Review, a student-run political magazine reported that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings showed no evidence that Stanford was invested in any of the companies that SOOP targeted for divestment over the prior ten years, with the exception of Raytheon, for one filing period.

On February 10, 2015, Lizzappi featured [00:01:30] in a SOOP Divest campaign video supporting divestment on behalf of Stanford’s MSAN.

In a vote held on February 10, 2015, the resolution Lizzappi co-sponsored initially failed [00:00:42] to garner the required 66% majority senate vote required for approval.

On February 11, 2015, Lizzappi appeared [00:00:07] in a SOOP Facebook video. The Facebook post read: “We finished our post vote debrief an hour ago in high spirits! If anyone thought the Senate was our end goal, you don't understand grassroots organizing and you haven't understood our campaign. No rest till we divest! #StanfordDivest #FreePalestine.”

Approximately a week later, Senate Chair Ana Ordonez brought forward a motion calling for a re-vote. Ordonez reportedly initially abstained from voting and was later quoted in the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily, as saying: “Now that the noise has subsided, I know that I voted incorrectly.”

Ordonez voted in favor of the resolution in the re-vote, which passed on February 17, 2015. However, the Stanford Board of Trustees later announced on April 14, 2015, that Stanford would take no action.

In accordance with the board’s Statement on Investment Responsibility, the board said in its statement on the resolution that they focused on “questions of divisiveness and negative impact” and determined that acting on the request would be “likely to impair the capacity of the University to carry out its educational mission.”

Glorifying a Terrorist

On October 10, 2015, Lizzappi tweeted a photo of Rasmea Odeh. The photo showed Odeh speaking virtually, via video link, at the National SJP 2015 conference. Lizzappi wrote: “soaking in the wisdom of a heroine. #Justice4Rasmea #NSJP2015.”

Odeh was a military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated her as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States. In 2017, Odeh was deported to Jordan and stripped of U.S. citizenship, after admitting to immigration fraud.

SJP Activism

On November 2, 2017, Lizzappi was identified as an organizer of that year’s National SJP Conference on Instagram.

In April 2017, Stanford SJP listed Lizzappi as their point of contact for “For accessibility concerns” regarding all of their events during Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) 2017.

Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding for American audiences 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” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
On January 26, 2017, National SJP posted several photos of Lizzappi to their Facebook page from their “2016 National SJP Conference “ in an album captioned: “Official conference photos taken by Malcolm Lizzappi…”

On November 2, 2016, Lizzappi represented [00:01:03] National SJP in a 2016 interview on an Electronic Intifada (EI) podcast, where he promoted [00:03:15] SOOP’s January 27, 2015 divestment resolution, as well as [00:04:01] the National SJP conference and [00:09:15] joining SJP.

On August 24, 2016, Lizzappi tweeted: “Invest in movement building, #donate to the #SJPNational Conference! http://nationalsjp.org/donate.html #nsjp #FreePalestine.”

On September 22, 2015, Lizzappi created a gofundme page to raise funds for “Stanford SJP travel to SJP National.” The next day, StanfordSJP promoted the fundraiser page to their Facebook page.

On November 12, 2014, Lizzappi attended a Stanford SJP event, titled: “Education Under Occupation: A Night With Students From Palestine.” The Facebook event page description read: “Stanford SJP is proud to host a stop of the nationwide Right To Education tour!”

The Right to Education Tour brings Palestinian students to U.S. campuses to promote a claim that Israel arbitrarily obstructs the rights of Palestinians to higher education. The organization has demonized Israel for its security sweeps made to shut down terror cells operating from Palestinian campuses.

SOOP #Stanford Divest

Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) was reportedly a coalition of 19 student groups campaigning for Stanford University (Stanford) to “divest from corporations profiting from human rights abuses in occupied Palestine.”

The campaign was initiated [00:12:16] by Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and promoted on social media under the hashtag “#Stanford Divest.”

As of January 2020, SOOP’s Facebook page said its mission was “To end Stanford's investments in corporations which profit from the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian Territories.”

SOOP has reportedly stated that it is not connected to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and is focused on “selective divestment.” However, the coalition has reportedly disseminated BDS materials and promoted a video that solicited donations for BDS.

SOOP - 2015 Divestment Campaign

In February 2015, members of SOOP presented a petition and a divestment resolution to the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Undergraduate Senate to further the agenda of the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The resolution, titled: “A Resolution to Divest from Companies Violating Human Rights in Occupied Palestine,” was co-authored by Ramah Awad, SOOP leader and co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Stanford (SJP Stanford) at the time and then-members of SOOP, Clayton Evans, Laura Perez and Emma Hartung.

The resolution called for Stanford University Trustees to divest from companies that it alleged: “violate international humanitarian law by: maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation.”

The resolution also called for divestment from companies it claimed facilitates Israel’s “collective punishment of Palestinian civilians…[and] state repression against Palestinians.”

On February 8, 2015, The Stanford Review, a student-run political magazine reported that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings showed no evidence that Stanford has been invested in any of the companies that SOOP targeted for divestment over the last ten years, with the exception of Raytheon, for one filing period.

The resolution initially failed [00:00:42] to garner the required 66% majority senate approval, in a vote held on February 10, 2015.

Senate Chair Ana Ordonez then brought forward a motion calling for a re-vote. Ordonez reportedly initially abstained from voting and was later quoted in the student newspaper, the Stanford Daily, as saying: “Now that the noise has subsided, I know that I voted incorrectly.”

Ordonez voted in favor of the resolution in the re-vote, which passed on February 17, 2015. However, the Stanford Board of Trustees later announced on April 14, 2015, that Stanford would take no action on SJP’s request.

SOOP - Promoting BDS

On February 10, 2015, SOOP promoted a BDS Youtube video on Facebook, titled: “Stanford Student Groups Support #StanfordDivest.”

The video featured members of student groups, including [00:03:38] SJP Stanford, expressing why they support “#StanfordDivest.” Ramah Awad, SOOP leader and co-president of SJP Stanford at the time, said [00:03:45]: “We recognize divestment as one step on that path to liberation.”

On January 23, 2015, SOOP posted a photo album on Facebook titled: “Human of ‘Out of Occupied Palestine,’” which featured photos of Stanford students holding posters with anti-Israel messages and showing support for #StanfordDivest.

One photo showed a student holding a sign which read: “I support divestment because collective punishment is a war crime.” Another sign read: “There are better & more commendable ways to fiscally profit that doesn’t contribute to the displacement & exploitation of human lives.”

On January 21, 2015, SOOP reportedly organized a panel discussion to promote its BDS petition, which called for Stanford’s divestment from corporations that allegedly “facilitate human rights violations in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories.”

On January 9, 2015, SOOP published a Youtube video titled: “FilasteenFridays: Collective Punishment in the Palestinian Territories.” The video urged Stanford students to support their BDS campaign as “the only way to show true moral neutrality.”

On January 8, 2015, SOOP hosted an informational event titled: “Case for Divestment from the Occupation of Palestine.”

The event’s Facebook description said it would include an explanation of SOOP’s “divestment criteria, followed by a moderated discussion with some of the campaign organizers.”

Stanford SJP - Protesting Against a Vigil for Terror Victims

In October 2015, SJP Stanford organized a protest as a “preemptive response” to a vigil scheduled to mourn Israeli civilians and soldiers killed in stabbing and ramming attacks, during the “Knife Intifada,” then occurring in Israel.

SJP Stanford co-president Fatima Zehra was quoted in Stanford’s campus newspaper, saying: “We wanted to do something because we felt that Sunday’s protest was going to be really one-sided.”

October 2015 saw a wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” where young Palestinians throughout Israel were stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians. The upsurge in violence across Israel was incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The attacks were sparked and fueled by Palestinian leaders propagating the libel that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Zehra reportedly considered e-mails advertising the scheduled mourning vigil problematic, because they referred to Israelis who had been murdered as “victims of terror.” Zehra claimed: “There’s implicit racism in that, because it’s like, all Palestinian Arabs are terrorists...”

SJP Stanford - Hosting Anti-Israel Agitators

On April 27, 2016, Stanford SJP held an event hosting Omar Barghouti for a live-video lecture.

Barghouti, who is the founder of the BDS movement, rejects Israel’s existence. Barghouti has claimed [00:04:28] that international law allows anyone with Palestinian ancestry the right to settle in Israel and said [01:18:21] BDS demands are “inflexible” and “non-negotiable.”

On November 9, 2015, Stanford SJP held a “Visual Talk” featuring Dr. Mads Gilbert, noting that he was “hit with a lifetime ban from entering Gaza by the Israeli government.”

Gilbert, who is banned indefinitely from entering Gaza via Israel due to his connections with Hamas leadership, was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014.

While at the hospital, Gilbert acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza and was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert called the attack a “legitimate response.”

SJP Stanford - Supporting the “Right To Education” Tour

On November 12, 2014, Stanford SJP hosted an event titled: “Education Under Occupation: A Night With Students From Palestine.” The Facebook event’s description described the event as a “stop of the nationwide Right To Education tour!” at Stanford.

The Right to Education Tour brings Palestinian students from schools such as Birzeit University to U.S. college campuses, where they accuse Israel of obstructing the access of Palestinians to higher education. These students routinely demonize security sweepsby the Israeli military to shut down terror cells. These cells are also linked to Hamas, whose ideology dominates on Palestinian campuses, like Birzeit.

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.