Maram Safi

Overview

Maram Safi has expressed support for terrorists, spread hatred of Israel and served as the vice president “internal” for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) for the 2021-2022 academic year. Safi was also an activist with SJP UIUC in 2019.

Safi is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of October 2022, Safi’s LinkedIn said she was an Electrical Engineer at Primera Engineers in Chicago, Illinois since June 2022.

As of the same date, Safi’s LinkedIn said she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from UIUC in May 2022.

Also as of October 2022, Safi’s LinkedIn said she was located in the greater Chicago area. She also went by “Maram S.” on LinkedIn.

Supporting Terrorists

On September 17, 2021, Safi spoke [00:05:40] at an SJP UIUC anti-Israel protest held in support of six Palestinian terrorists who had escaped from Israel’s Gilboa Prison earlier that month.

The terrorists were eventually tracked down and imprisoned by Israeli authorities. They were members of the terror groups Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. The six terrorists had been convicted for their involvement in terror attacks carried out during the second intifada.

At the protest, Safi said [00:06:15]: “Here in Champaign the university's administration has continuously showed their bias towards Israel and enabled the spreading of white supremacist ideology by inviting Israeli ambassadors to speak on environmental concerns and promoting disingenuous dialogue that normalizes Israeli violence.”

Safi later said [00:07:05]: “Our struggle…will continue to be vilified by racist Zionists, even on this campus by organizations like Hillel and Chabad. Anywhere that you see an Israeli flag, be it on campus, in someone's home or on their balcony, it is a blatant support of genocide.”

Hillel International is a Jewish campus organization serving college students at more than 550 universities worldwide. Chabad is a branch of hassidic Judaism that has a presence on college campuses across the United States, including UIUC.

At the protest, Safi also said [00:07:26]: “There is nothing complicated or nuanced about ethnic cleansing and that is what the Israeli flag represents…It is so important now more than ever to continue speaking out, raising awareness and boycotting Israel, Israeli products and Israeli institutions at all costs.”

The SJP UIUC protest was titled: “GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA PROTEST IN SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN PRISONERS.”

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.

In one photo from the protest that Safi posted online, she held a sign that read: “END APARTHEID FREE PALESTINE.” In the same photo, she stood next to SJP UIUC treasurer Lina Issa, who held a sign that read: “END THE ISRA-HELL.”

Activists at the protest chanted [00:05:29]: “From Champaign to Gaza, globalize the intifada!” They also chanted [00:12:13] “You can run, you can hide, we’ll still charge you with genocide!”

At the protest, SJP UIUC President Buthaina Hattab also said [00:02:29]: “On September 6, we celebrated the news that six Palestinian political prisoners being held at the so-called maximum-security, Zionist Gilboa prison facility, they escaped overnight through a tunnel that they dug with only a metal spoon. Their escape was one of the most successful jailbreaks in history.” The crowd cheered [00:02:50] in response.

On November 15, 2019, Safi shared a video of an SJP UIUC protest titled: “EMERGENCY GAZA RALLY.”

In the video she shared, SJP UIUC activists read [00:18:57] names from a list of “martyrs” that included Baha Abu al-Ata, a senior PIJ commander in Gaza. Abu al-Ata was targeted by Israel in an airstrike while he was reportedly planning terror attacks. On November 12-14, 2019, Israel launched Operation Black Belt to stop PIJ rocket attacks targeting Israel’s biggest civilian population centers.

The SJP UIUC protest was titled: “EMERGENCY RALLY: #GazaUnderAttack.” SJP UIUC wrote in the Facebook event page: “In Gaza, Israeli airstrikes have killed over 32 Palestinians and injured over 100 in the last 24 hours. Come stand with us in solidarity against Israel's continual genocide and violation of Palestinian human rights.”

At the rally, an activist held [00:00:46] an Israeli flag with the text “GENO

CIDE” and red handprints signifying blood.

Hatred of Israel

On March 9, 2022, Safi led [00:30:23] anti-Israel chants at an SJP UIUC protest, including: “You can’t run, you can’t hide, we charge you with apartheid!” She also joined [00:30:14] in the chant: “You can’t run, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!”

Four days before the rally, SJP UIUC said on Instagram that it would cut ties with the Illinois Student Government (ISG) since its divestment resolution was nullified because it did not follow proper procedure. One speaker claimed [00:42:43] that SJP UIUC was “villified by racist Zionists on campus, in administration, in ISG, in Hillel and Chabad.”

One speaker at the rally alleged [00:18:12]: “Zionism is the root cause of the social issues we see today.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

Another speaker said [00:17:02] “Israel is a settler colony, not a country. Zionism is genocidal… We stand unequivocally with the Palestinian people and support how they choose to resist their oppression.” At the protest, activists chanted [00:10:04]: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.

On May 11, 2021, Safi posted a photo of herself at an SJP UIUC protest that was held on May 10, 2021. In the photo, former SJP UIUC treasurer Lina Issa held a sign in Arabic that read: “May Allah Curse Israel.”

On May 8, 2021, Safi posted a link promoting the rally and wrote on Facebook: “EMERGENCY RALLY for the Palestinian people of sheikh jarrah! Palestinians living in shekh jarrah are being killed and assaulted while their land is being annexed. Come amplify Palestinian vocies and be and ally to the Palestinian cause

”

In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month.

At the May 10, 2021 SJP UIUC protest, activists chanted [00:03:25]: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” They also chanted [00:27:31]: “Stop the killing, stop the hate! Israel is a terror state!”

One speaker at the protest said [00:02:16]: “Zionism is genocidal.” Another speaker said [00:12:55]: “When we talk about violence it’s always from the oppressor so anything else that the oppressed do is self defense and justified.”

On November 18, 2020, SJP UIUC wrote on Facebook that Zionists “advocate for white supremacy and racism,” and that Zionism was a “racist ideology.” The post also said: “The Zionist state in Palestine has carried out and continues a massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

On January 17, 2020, Safi shared an SJP UIUC statement to Facebook that opposed an anti-Semitism training session for student housing employees.

On January 16, 2020, SJP UIUC tweeted a thread protesting a training session on anti-Semitism that had been scheduled for UIUC Housing employees, Resident Advisors, and Multicultural Advocates. The session was organized by the non-profit Jewish United Fund of Chicago (JUF).

In the Twitter thread, SJP UIUC described the JUF as a “hate group.” SJP UIUC also accused JUF of the “brokering of Chicago Police Officers exchange with israeli Occupation Forces” that contributed to a “police culture of systematic violence against Black and Palestinian youth.”

“Israeli Occupation Forces,” or “IOF,” is a derogatory name for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army.

On December 18, 2019, Safi shared an SJP UIUC Facebook post that said: “Lastly, we call attention to the Palestinians on this campus…whose very existence resists Zionist settler colonialism.”

On October 15, 2019, Safi shared an SJP UIUC Facebook post that defended a presentation glorifying anti-Israel terrorism as containing “no anti-Semitic content.”

The post was issued in defense of a presentation by SJP UIUC leader Dunia Ghanimah that praised [slide 14] “Martyrdom” and honored terrorist leaders Leila Khaled and Yasser Arafat. Ghanimah, who was a Mulitcultural Advocate (MA) at UIUC, gave the presentation to other MAs, as well as UIUC Housing employees and Resident Advisors.

On October 10, 2019, Safi posted an SJP UIUC statement on Facebook that said: “Zionism is a political ideology that seeks to maintain an artificial Jewish majority in historic Palestine through the systematic occupation and dispossession of Palestinians’ land and livelihoods.”

Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, BDS)

On November 16, 2021, Safi posted a photo from a November 13, 2021, SJP UIUC event titled: “From Sheikh Jarrah to Chicago: Mohammad El Kurd.”

Anti-Israel activist Mohammed El-Kurd was the featured speaker at the event. He has spread anti-Semitism, celebrated the second intifada and idolized leaders of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. El-Kurd has also denied Jewish history and trivialized anti-Semitism.

On December 23, 2021, Safi posted a photo from the El-Kurd event posing SJP UIUC board members, including Hattab, Issa, Sireen Amra and Malaak Yehya.

On February 7, 2022, SJP UIUC launched a divestment campaign to get the UIUC student body to vote on an anti-Israel divestment measure via a referendum in March 2022.

On February 14, 2022, SJP UIUC authored a “revised resolution” titled: “Human Rights Violations in University Investments.” SJP UIUC called on the Illinois Student Government (ISG) to approve a “referendum question” for that spring’s student government ballot.

The question that SJP UIUC wanted students to vote on said: “Should the University of Illinois divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from or engage in human rights violations in US Prisons, at the US-Mexico Border, and in Occupied Palestine?”

On Februrary 23, 2022, ISG held a meeting to address the possibility of the question being posed to the student body.

At the meeting, Safi was asked [00:08:58] to speak and said [00:10:29]: “The companies we are asking the university to divest from commit war crimes and violate human rights overseas in Palestine.” Safi also said [00:13:00]: “ISG senators must vote yes on this resolution…”

Also at the meeting, Yehya said [00:05:23] at the meeting: “The question of Palestine and what is going on in Palestine is so simple and is nothing new. It is an ongoing struggle against colonialism, it is ethnic cleansing on display.”

On February 23, 2022, the ISG Senate reportedly passed the bill with a vote of 17 to 14 and two abstentions.

On February 24, 2022, a day after the resolution passed, Safi posted a photo of herself online holding a sign that read: “END THE ISRA-HELL.” She stood next to SJP UIUC vice president (external) Eman Zwawi holding a sign that read: “END APARTHEID FREE PALESTINE.”

On March 9, 2022 the ISG Judiciary reportedly nullified the resolution due to three violations of the ISG Constitution, including that it passed using a secret ballot. The question was excluded from the ballot of the 2022 student senate election.

On June 4, 2022, Safi posted a photo from a Palestinian flag raising event held in Chicago on June 3, 2022.

The event featured a number of speakers from anti-Israel organizations, including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) activists Nida Sahouri and Tarek Khalil. The event also featured Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) leader Brant Rosen and Dunyah Abulaban, a former board member of SJP at Loyola University Chicago (SJP Loyola).

SJP UIUC Chapter Overview

SJP UIUC has a history of hate-filled anti-Israel protests on campus, including in April 2022 when someone threw a rock at Jewish students. SJP UIUC leads an annual anti-Israel divestment campaign where other anti-Semitic incidents have occurred.

In November 2020, SJP UIUC featured [pp. 3-8] prominently as a source of anti-Semitism on campus in a civil rights legal complaint filed against UIUC.

SJP UIUC speakers show support for terrorists and spread hatred of Zionists and Israel. Speakers use chants that call for Israel’s destruction and other chants for “intifada,” which is a call for violence.

SJP UIUC speakers also routinely demonize Zionism and in March 2022, one speaker claimed: “Zionism is the root cause of the social issues we see today.” SJP UIUC uses social media to spread the same sort of hatred outlined above.

SJP UIUC - Violent Anti-Semitic Protest 2021-2022

On April 18, 2022, SJP UIUC held an anti-Israel protest that included [00:01:22] a planned stop at UIUC’s Hillel chapter, a Jewish campus organization. Sayed Quraishi, a 2022 UIUC graduate, threw a rock at Jewish students gathered on the Hillel patio. In June 2022, Quraishi was charged with committing a felony hate crime.

After the incident, SJP UIUC treasurer Lina Issa defended the decision to target Hillel, telling [00:01:57] a local television station: “They obviously have a very direct connection to Israel and that's why we’re targeting that area in specific.”

The protest was titled: “EMERGENCY PROTEST HANDS OFF AL-AQSA.” Two days before, SJP UIUC promoted the protest on Instagram, claiming that “Zionist militia forces have once again raided Al-Aqsa mosque” and that “there is an attack by the forces of a racist, apartheid state against peaceful worshippers…”

In April 2022, after 14 Israelis were killed during terror attacks, violent clashes broke out between rioters and Israeli security forces at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jeruaslem. The allegation that Jews threaten to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state.

SJP UIUC - Supporting Terrorists 2021-2022

On April 26, 2022, SJP UIUC hosted an event titled: “Martyrdom in Palestine” and alleged there was “recent violence inflicted by Israeli forces” during a wave of Palestinian terrorist attacks the previous two months where 14 Israelis were killed.

The event’s flyer honored multiple terrorists, including Ra’ed Abd al-Jalil who was serving four life sentences for his involvement in terror attacks during the second intifada. The flyer also honored a Hamas leader who planned a 1995 bus bombing and another terrorist who was also arrested during the second intifada.

SJP UIUC - Creating a Hostile Campus Environment 2015-2020

In October 2020, SJP UIUC was cited [pp. 3-8] in six different incidents in a civil rights legal complaint against UIUC documenting anti-Semitic incidents on campus as early as 2015. Jewish groups filed the complaint under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The complaint said [p.12]: “UIUC has also failed to combat anti-Semitism as vigorously as it has combated other forms of bigotry on its campus prohibited by Title VI.”

One cited incident [p.4] was from 2019 when SJP UIUC members and supporters approached pro-Israel students. At least one SJP supporter spat on a pro-Israel student. Other Israel supporters were called “Nazi” and “white supremacist” and were told they had “dual loyalty” since they were “not a true citizen of the United States.”

SJP UIUC - Hatred of Israel 2020-2021

On November 18, 2020, SJP UIUC wrote on Facebook that Zionists “advocate for white supremacy and racism,” and that Zionism was a “racist ideology.” The post also said: “The Zionist state in Palestine has carried out and continues a massive ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.”

On May 10, 2021, SJP UIUC hosted an anti-Israel protest where protesters chanted [00:03:25]: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” They also chanted [00:27:31]: “Stop the killing, stop the hate! Israel is a terror state!”

One speaker said [00:02:16]: “Zionism is genocidal.” Another speaker said [00:12:55]: “When we talk about violence it’s always from the oppressor so anything else that the oppressed do is self defense and justified.”

SJP UIUC BDS Activities

During the 2019-2020 academic year, SJP UIUC launched a BDS campaign by authoring a student government resolution asking the university to divest funds from companies that are either based in Israel or do business in Israel.

In February 2020, SJP UIUC created the group UIUC Divest to promote BDS on campus and present BDS as an intersectional effort from different campus advocacy groups. In that academic year and each year since then, SJP UIUC or individual SJP UIUC board members authored a divestment resolution.

SJP UIUC BDS Activities - 2019-2020

On February 5, 2020, former SJP UIUC presidents Buthaina Hattab and Dunia Ghanimah, as well as then president Ahlam Khatib, collectively authored an Illinois Student Government (ISG) anti-Israel divestment Resolution 03.61, titled: “Violations of Human Rights in University Investments.”

On February 12, 2020, a female Jewish student spoke [01:56:58] at an ISG meeting held to discuss the divestment resolution, to discuss an incident where someone held a sign that said [p. 7]: “F**K NAZIS SUPPORT PALESTINIANS.”

The female Jewish student said that she attended an ISG meeting during the fall semester that addressed a separate anti-Israel resolution. She said [01:56:58]: “When I walked into the room I was confronted by a huge sign held up by SJP that said ‘F**k Nazis’. They called us Nazis!”

Somone in the crowd then shouted [01:57:07] at the same female Jewish student: “They’re right!”

On February 15, 2020, UIUC Divest tweeted: “...UIUC Divest passes 20-9-7! ISG resolution 03.61 “Violation of Human Rights in University Investments” calls on UIUC to divest from corporations that engage in human rights abuses including Israeli war crimes in Palestine.

#UIUCDivest.”

On February 17, 2020, UIUC Divest tweeted a letter signed by SJP UIUC criticizing the ISG President Connor Josellis for vetoing the resolution one day earlier.

On February 19, 2020, Josellis said [00:37:31] that he vetoed the resolution because of “a level of hate that I have not previously seen firsthand and on behalf of the student government, I condemn any hateful rhetoric that led to students feeling unsafe in this environment.”

SJP UIUC - BDS Activities 2020-2021

On September 23, 2020, UIUC’s student government voted [03:31:41] during a live streamed ISG meeting in favor of a BDS resolution titled: “RES.04.22 Human Rights Violations in University Investments and Police Forces.” Former SJP UIUC presidents Sofia Sinnokrot and Buthaina Hattab authored the resolution.

SJP UIUC’s statement on the vote claimed that “both the BDS and the BLM [Black Lives Matter] movement resist the fundamental racism that Israeli and American entities need to survive.”

During the live stream, Sophia Giakas Ayesh, a former SJP UIUC activist, commented [02:36:58]: “Honestly bruh, Zionism is a political agenda that’s racist and supports genocide so bye.”

Zionism is defined as the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland, Israel, and the right to develop their national culture

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.