Manny Thompson

Thompson was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Stanford University (Stanford) in 2014. In 2015, he was a member of Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP).

 
As of 2015, SOOP was reportedly a coalition of 19 student groups campaigning for Stanford to “divest from corporations profiting from human rights abuses in occupied Palestine.” The campaign was initiated [00:12:16] by Stanford SJP.

As of October 2019, 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.”

Thompson graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in Human Biology in 2015.

On April 30, 2015, Thompson wrote an article for the Stanford student newspaper legitimizing “violent resistance” as “self-defense.” The article was in defense of earlier comments Thompson made in an email exchange with Stanford’s Provost, John Etchemendy.

 
In the email exchange, Etchemendy wrote that the Stanford community seemed “to have lost the ability to engage in dialogue,” with regard to political issues such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Thompson claimed in a later email that Stanford’s administration did not care about “Sexual assault, police brutality against black and brown bodies, Israeli apartheid, and unfounded attacks against [Students of Color Coalition] SOCC.” He wrote: “I’d boycott dialogue and commit to violent resistance before I engage with such evil.” 

 
Responding to Etchemendy, who requested to meet with Thompson to discuss his concerns, Thompson accused the university of “normalizing” injustice by advocating dialogue and wrote: “I’d rather commit to violent resistance before participating in dialogue that's just a diversionary tactic.”

In the same email, Thompson accused the “board” at Stanford of “investing in ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians.

On May 21, 2015, Thompson published an op-ed on STATIC, “a site for Stanford activists,” titled: “Israel has no right to exist - and neither does the U.S.,” to which fellow SOOP member Laura Perez also contributed.

Thompson’s article said: “If we are working towards a world in which Black and Palestinian people are finally free, then by definition we are working towards a world in which both these states [America and Israel] no longer exist.”

Thompson’s article also referred to America’s founding fathers as “the founding racists,” claimed that Israel and the United States are “settler colonial states,” which “discriminate by design” and “share founding values...which justify and require their ethnic cleansing of indigenous populations.” 

Thompson’s article went on to condemn Israel for the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani. 

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.  

 

Demonizing Israel

On February 6, 2015, Thompson co-narrated a SOOP BDS campaign video with fellow anti-Israel activist Clayton Evans, titled: “#FilasteenFridays - Mass Incarceration.” 

Thompson alleged [00:00:26] that “almost 40% of the male Palestinian population” had been arrested by Israel and that Israel “justified [the arrests] under an extremely broad set of criteria that leaves Palestinians susceptible to nearly indiscriminate detention.” 

Thompson also claimed [00:00:52] that “conditions for Palestinians while detained are continual insults to all standards of human decency.”

On November 13, 2014, Thompson featured in a photo posted on Facebook by SJP Stanford captioned: “our welcome crew,” from SJP Stanford’s “Right 2 Education” event hosting Birzeit University students. 

In 2003, 2015 and 2016, Birzeit University students elected Hamas’ student wing to power. As a result, Bilal Barghouti, who is serving 16 life terms in prison for his role in a series of suicide attacks against Israel, was made the "Honorary Chairman of the Bir Zeit University Student Council."  

Supporting BDS

On January 8, 2015, Thompson changed his profile picture to an image promoting a SOOP BDS campaign. 

On February 9, 2015, Thompson featured [00:03:48] as a representative of SJP Stanford in a video of various Stanford student groups expressing their support for SOOP’s BDS campaign. 

The video invited [00:04:16] viewers to attend the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Undergraduate Senate’s vote on a SOOP BDS resolution on February 10, 2015.

The SOOP BDS resolution called for Stanford to divest from companies it claimed “violate international humanitarian law by: maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation…facilitating Israel and Egypt’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians…[and] facilitating state repression against Palestinians.” 

A Stanford Review article reported that 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 SOOP BDS resolution initially failed [00:00:42] to garner the required 66% majority senate approval, in the vote held by the ASSU on February 10, 2015. During the initial vote, fellow senators cited a “hostile” environment and footage showed [00:01:28] a student shouting in anger after the result was announced. 

Senate Chair, Ana Ordonez, later brought forward a motion calling for a re-vote and the resolution passed in the re-vote, on February 17, 2015.

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.”

SJP Stanford - Hosting Anti-Israel Agitators  

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

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.

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 - 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.”

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.