Marcel Hanna

Overview

Marcel Hanna is the co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Northwestern University (NU).

Hanna is a very active member and one of the founders of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on the NU campus (NU Divest). Recalling the founding of NU Divest, Hanna stated, "We launched divestment and the next day, there was the opposition." Hanna was one of several speakers at a 2015 NU Divest hearing.

Hanna is a student at NU pursuing degrees in Mathematics and Philosophy.

SJP NU

Hanna was one of 12 co-authors of a "Letter to the Editor" of the Daily Northwestern, wherein the group chastised a J Street U Northwestern hosted event, which presented both a Palestinian and Israeli perspective on major milestones in Israeli history.

Hanna and his co-authors where indignant due to the fact that the presentation did not include an "authentic Palestinian perspective," which presented the "ethnic cleansing of Palestinians" by Israelis and "the systematic uprooting of Palestinians for the Zionist project and maintained by the Israeli state."

Advocating for BDS on Campus

The NU-Divest Resolution, which called for the university to boycott six Israeli corporations, narrowly passed on 19 February 2015 after a hearing lasting over five hours. Prior to the vote, the NU Divest team campaigned to promote the resolution. Abdullah-Smith presented a pro-BDS workshop to spotlight the "corporations that are profiting off of the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands." NU Divest have continued to put pressure on the university since the vote, most recently through engaging in discussion with the chief Investment Office at NU. Despite this, it was reported in May 2015 that no policy changes or divestment have taken place at NU, which is usually the case following the passing of these non-binding divestment resolutions.

Hanna was one of ten Palestinian NU students who signed a letter after the passing of the resolution that expressed their desire to continue to support "the greater struggle for liberation."

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/marcel.hanna.77