Share:
Margaret Ringler
Margaret Ringler was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Tufts University (Tufts SJP), from 2014 to 2016.
As of June 8, 2017, Facebook indicated that Ringler attended multiple Tufts SJP events. Ringler was involved with the group as early as March 2014, when she attended Tufts SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week. As of June 2017, Ringler remained a member of the Tufts SJP Facebook group.
Also as of June 8, 2017, Ringler’s LinkedIn profile said she worked as an Investigator Fellow at Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia since June 2016.
As of the same date, Ringler’s LinkedIn said she graduated from Tufts with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy in 2016.
On March 10, 2016, Ringler appeared in a photo with other Tufts SJP activists who demonized Israel at a demonstration Tufts SJP held the previous day.
On March 9, 2016, Tufts SJP demonstrated against the “illegal Jewish occupation on Palestinian land,” according to the Tufts student newspaper. The protest focused on Gaza — which Israel left in 2005 — and the Negev Desert, which is internationally recognized as part of Israel. The demonstration was part of Tufts SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).
At the demonstration, Tufts SJP distributed its 2013 publication titled “The Zintifada” — a play on the word “Intifada.”
The term “intifada” translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection” and carries the connotation of terrorist violence, including suicide bombings, hijackings, shootings and stabbings.
The publication showcased another Tufts SJP activist, Sophia Goodfriend, who claimed (p. 8) Israel was a “construction of simulated reality upon a foundation of genocide and delusion.” The pamphlet also featured Tufts SJP co-founder Lucas Koerner, who claimed (p.17) that pro-Israel Jews felt “the imperative to dominate” as a symptom of “internalized oppression.” Koerner is infamous for reportedly biting an Israeli police officer in 2011.
On May 10, 2017, Tufts SJP activists participated in the “Saltwater Challenge,” in solidarity with Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons who were then on a hunger strike.
More than 1,500 Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike — most of whom were also convicted for acts of terrorism.
The hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks — that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada. Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
In a short video of the event produced by Tufts SJP, activist Amira Subaey claimed that Israel practices “apartheid” (0:40) and that Tufts SJP was “protesting the conditions in Israeli prisons” (0:20). Barghouti completed his doctorate in Political Science while in Israeli prison.
Also among the hunger strikers was Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary-General Ahmad Sa’adat, jailed for his role in organizing the assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister, Rehavam Ze'evi in 2001.
On May 11, 2017, Tufts SJP also promoted another event supporting the hunger-striking prisoners.
On February 28, 2017, Tufts SJP shared a video from the BDS movement that called, in its English language subtitles, for “human rights” (0:28) and “nonviolent resistance” (1:02). However, the video also featured multiple indications (0:03 and 0:47) of support for PFLP militant Bilal Kayed. Kayed was incarcerated for 14 years for terrorist operations committed during the second Intifada.
The video also displayed (0:48) the phrase “Support Palestinian Prisoners in Hunger Strike #Boycott Israel.”
On October 14, 2015, Tufts SJP posted various photos on Facebook of its members supporting terrorist Rasmea Odeh. The photo captions included a donation link to Odeh’s legal fund.
Odeh was a key military operative with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college 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.
On 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.
On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On February 26, 2016, Odeh’s immigration fraud case was sent back to the district court, to examine whether trauma-related repressed memories contributed to Odeh’s failure to disclose her prior conviction.
On March 23, 2017, Odeh accepted a plea deal where she would be initially deported to Jordan and lose her U.S. citizenship in exchange for avoiding jail time.
On November 2, 2016, Tufts SJP questioned whether Tufts Hillel was fit to host an event on “indigenous genocide and settler-colonial violence,” since Hillel receives funding from Israel.
Through its program Tufts Against Genocide (TAG), Tufts Hillel hosted a lecture about a massacre of Native Americans in 1864 “as part of a larger conversation on genocide of indigenous peoples in the U.S.”
TAG teaches students about “genocides in countries such as Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Darfur, Armenia and the Holocaust” in order to “understand the root causes of genocide, advocate for prevention, understand the aftermath, and combat prejudice in our own communities today.”
Tufts SJP, in its Facebook statement, said that it was “hurt” and “disturbed” that Hillel hosted the event.
On October 23, 2016, Tufts SJP, on Facebook and in the Tufts Daily, stated: “We will not be silent when extra-judicial killings occur regularly in the West Bank.” The link attached to the word “killings” took readers to a discredited Amnesty International report that accused Israeli soldiers of murdering Sa’ad Al-Atrash and then planting a knife next to his body in October 2015. Al-Atrash had attempted to stab the soldiers who shot him.
October 2015 saw an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” saw young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab scores of Israeli civilians.
Many Palestinians killed during the Knife Intifada were shot after attempting to murder Israeli Jews and refusing to lay down their weapons. For instance, Fadi Alloun [Aloon] — referenced in the Amnesty International report — was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year old Israeli boy in his chest and back. Several hours before his attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
Tufts SJP added, in its above-mentioned October 23, 2016 Tufts Daily piece: “We will not be silent when Palestinian poets like Dareen Tatour are imprisoned for their writings.”
Dareen Tatour was placed under house arrest for inciting violence in the fall of 2015, during the “Knife Intifada.” Tatour posted a Facebook status reportedly “calling for intifada on behalf of al-Aqsa mosque.” Tatour also posted on Facebook “I am the next shahid [martyr],” under a picture of attempted-stabber Asraa Zidan Tawfik Abed. Tatour also posted a Youtube video, narrated with a poem that glorified violence and called for the eviction of Jews from “Arab Palestine.”
On October 5, 2016, Tufts SJP activists appeared in a Tufts SJP Facebook photo where they were building a parade float that expressed their desire to “tear down” Israel’s security fence.
The fence was built as a non-violent deterrent to Palestinian terrorist attacks like suicide bombings. The SJP activists referred to Israel’s barrier as “the Apartheid Wall” and likened it to the “US Mexico border wall.”
On March 9, 2016, Tufts SJP demonstrated against the “illegal Jewish occupation on Palestinian land,” according to the Tufts student newspaper. The protest included Gaza — which Israel left in 2005 — and the Negev Desert which is recognized as part of Israel. The demonstration was part of Tufts SJP’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).
At the demonstration, Tufts SJP distributed its 2013 publication titled “The Zintifada” — a play on the word “Intifada.”
The publication showcased another Tufts SJP activist, Sophia Goodfriend, who claimed (p. 8) Israel was a “construction of simulated reality upon a foundation of genocide and delusion.” The pamphlet also featured Tufts SJP co-founder Lucas Koerner, who claimed (p.17) that pro-Israel Jews felt “the imperative to dominate” as a symptom of “internalized oppression.” Koerner is infamous for reportedly biting an Israeli police officer in 2011.
In March 2015, Tufts SJP profiled some of its activists on Facebook. Tufts SJP activist Nicole Joseph, in her profile photo, decried the “influence of the Zionist lobby and the US-Israel special relationship.”
March 4, 2015, Tufts SJP hung a banner in the main dining hall that claimed: “Israeli weapons tried and tested on Palestinians.” The banner promoted a film screening of “The Lab.”
On November 10, 2014, Tufts SJP held a “die-in” to protest a speech at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) legal advisor Lt. Col Dr. Eran Shamir-Borer. Shamir-Borer’s talk addressed Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014.
Tufts SJP organized a petition against the speech and what they called “the genocidal logic of the Israel’s so-called ‘defense’ forces.” Tufts SJP, at the die-in, called Shamir-Borer a “genocide apologist.”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On April 4, 2017, Tufts SJP hosted anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi, who is known for his aggressive anti-Israel performances. His performance was part of Tufts SJP’s “Israeli Apartheid Week 2017,” which the group hosted from April 3-7, all less than a week before its Passover Eve BDS resolution vote, detailed above.
On November 16, 2016, Tufts SJP hosted former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) spokesperson Diana Buttu. Buttu served in the PLO during the second intifada, when the PLO — via Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — perpetrated terror attacks against Israeli civilians. Buttu was publicly discredited at least twice, in 2014, as a propagandist, who lied to defend terror organizations.
On March 1, 2016, Tufts SJP hosted an event featuring Nada Elia, titled “Refusing to be Complicit: The Question of Palestine and Non-Violent Resistance.” Elia wrote an article the previous fall — during the Knife Intifada — titled “Why Be Afraid of an Intifada?” In that article, Elia said: “Intifadas are good.”
On October 6, 2015, Tufts SJP brought Palestinian propagandist Bassem Tamimi to campus.
Bassem Tamimi is notorious for exploiting young children as political props. Tamimi regularly manufactures confrontations with Israeli soldiers, who respond to the rioting that Tamimi instigates. In 2011, Tamimi was jailed for organizing violent rallies and inciting minors to commit violent crimes, such as rock-throwing.
Tamimi’s U.S. visa was revoked in 2015, after a tour when Tamimi encouraged 3rd graders in Ithaca, New York to become “freedom fighters for Palestine.”
On October 28, 2015, Tufts SJP activists attended a Tufts Friends of Israel (Tufts FOI)- hosted cultural event, with the express purpose of bullying FOI members of at the event. Claudia Aliff, a Tufts SJP activist, told The Tufts Daily: “The disruption of this event” was the purpose of SJP’s presence there.
Tufts SJP members mocked Tufts FOI members and their displays while distributing Tufts SJP flyers. The flyers accused Israel of “theft” and “terrorism,” and blamed the deadly “Knife Intifada” — then taking place in Israel — on “Israeli police violence and oppressive policies.” Tufts SJP posted signs accusing Israel of “[p]racticing expulsion, occupation, apartheid & cultural cuisine appropriation” and declaring that Israel was founded on “stolen Palestinian land.”
On April 25, 2014, Tufts SJP staged a “die-in” next to an FOI event celebrating Israeli Independence Day. Hannah Freedman, a Tufts SJP activist, said that Tufts SJP “crashed” the event “with a memorial for al-Nakba,” a term defining Israel’s founding as a “catastrophe.” Tufts SJP activists laid on red cloth meant to symbolize pools of blood.
On March 5, 2014, Tufts SJP carried out three anti-Israel provocations. First, Tufts SJP slipped leaflets into dorm rooms targeting the Jewish heritage program Birthright Israel. Second, Tufts SJP slipped mock “demolition” notices into other dorm rooms, claiming that Israel had a “project of ethnic cleansing.” Third, Tufts SJP held a “mock annexation” that purported to show Israeli soldiers violently arresting Palestinians without cause.
On March 18, 2014, Tufts SJP members marched in support of SJP at Northeastern University (SJP Northeastern) after the group was suspended by the university for slipping mock eviction notices demonizing Israel under students’ doors. The marchers chanted a call for anti-Israel violence: “Long live the Intifada! Intifada, Intifada!” According to Tufts SJP activist Emma Brown, the marchers also called for Israel’s destruction, chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” is a chant used [00:02:52] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.
On April 21, 2016, Tufts SJP shared an online zine on Facebook targeting Jewish students considering going on Birthright Israel trips.
Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.
Sophia Goodfriend, a Tufts SJP activist, wrote a publication titled “Whose Birthright?” undermining the Jewish millennia-long connection to the Land of Israel, including ancient Jewish religious sites like the Western Wall in Jerusalem (pages 9 and 15). Goodfriend claimed that Jews were “creating their own origin stories, or claims to nativism” (page 18). She also claimed that Israel was established on “expropriated land” and that Israel continues to “evict, incarcerate or kill millions of Palestinians” (page 2).
In 2012, Tufts SJP produced a pamphlet targeting Jewish students considering going on Birthright trips. That pamphlet, too, trivialized the Land of Israel’s significance to Judaism.
On October 24-26, 2014, Tufts SJP hosted the 2014 National SJP Conference.
On October 25, 2014, Tufts SJP quoted Sara Kershner, the founder of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN), as saying at the conference: “Zionism has hijacked [Jewish] history and struggle against genocide to justify genocide today.”
On October 25, 2014, Sa’ed Atshan, then the Tufts SJP faculty advisor, blamed Israel for Palestinian honor killings and persecution of LGBTQ+ people within Palestinian society.
Clothing was sold at the conference, including a shirt with the image of airplane hijacker Leila Khaled — a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — with the text “resistance is not terrorism.”
Although the event was listed as “free and open to the public,” at least one student journalist was refused press credentials. Terror supporter Max Geller and agitator Ahmed Hamad both spoke and presented at the conference.
Conference attendee Ofek Ravid said that he was “booed and hissed at” — and told by “several members in the crowd to f**k off” — for merely suggesting that “Israel needs to be looked at as a complex nation through a dialectic lens, not as a black and white fragment.” An SJP representative also asked Ravid to leave the building.
SJP is the leading 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, who has spread anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campus campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks and pushing the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, and SJP chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for terrorists.
