Mariah Denman

Overview

Mariah Denman defended Hamas, called for intifada and revolution, compared Israel to ISIS and spread demonization of Israel and hatred of America.

Denman also ridiculed pro-Israel students, endorsed anti-Israel hate speech and promoted the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of November 16, 2016, Denman was a member of Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) at Portland State University (PSU), an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As of April 2018, Denman’s LinkedIn page said she graduated from PSU in 2017 with a B.A. in Applied Linguistics.

Denman’s LinkedIn also listed her as a Legal Specialist at Alleman Hall McCoy Russell & Tuttle LLP, in Portland, Oregon, since October 2013.

Defending Hamas

On December 30, 2014, Denman tweeted: “Imagine what the UN conferences on Palestine would be like if they allowed Hamas to rebut all of Israel's claims.”

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization by the European Union, Canada, Australia, the United States and Israel.

Calling for An Intifada

On July 24, 2014, Denman used a hashtag — #48kmarch — which was a reference to violent protests against Israeli soldiers, tweeting: “#48kmarch could be the beginning of a third and final intifada. Inshallah.”

Since the early 2000’s, the term “Intifada” has carried the connotation of violence.

Denman’s tweet came during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Anticipating Revolution

On June 20, 2017, Denman tweeted: “I can't wait for mitch mconnell to die a painful agonizing death at the hands of the revolution.”

Addison Mitchell McConnell, Jr. is the U.S. Senate Majority Leader since January 3, 2015.

On January 2, 2018, Denman tweeted extensively about the difficulties of procuring anti-venom for a snake bite, finally tweeting: “so, when the revolution comes, y'all are gonna wanna read up on snakes.”

Comparing Israel to ISIS

On October 21, 2014, Denman used the hashtag — #JSIL (Jewish State of Israel in the Levant) — equating Israel to ISIS, tweeting: “��@ajam: UN: ISIL assaults against Yazidi may be genocide http://alj.am/1CTiSRN ‘ and #JSIL against Palestinians isn't...?????????????????”

On October 1, 2014, Denman tweeted: “The #JSIL hashtag is genius.”

Demonizing Israel

On August 4, 2015, Denman tweeted: “Now I just need to get her to admit that Zionism is a racist political ideology which requires the genocide of indigenous Palestinians......”

On January 8, 2015, Denman tweeted: “Whenever Hebrew comes up in my Ling classes I'm like OH YOU MEAN A LANGUAGE REVIVED BY SETTLER COLONIALISM AND APARTHEID.”

On January 3, 2015, Denman tweeted: “Killing buffulo/burning olive trees. Two sides of the same intent-to-commit-genocide coin.”

On August 6, 2014, Denman tweeted: “Mikhaela fell asleep during my lecture on Israeli apartheid lol. Maybe I should reign it in.”

On August 1, 2014, Denman tweeted: “It's 10:26 and Israel is still an apartheid state ethnically cleansing Palestinians. FYI.”

On July 31, 2014, Denman claimed that Israel practices “apartheid,” tweeting: “Yo it you still think Israel has a right to defend itself...then obvi you don't know what land theft, home demolitions, and APARTHEID mean.”

On July 19, 2014, Denman tweeted: “Sabra Hummus is not an innocent company with a coincidental name. It is a sponsor of Israeli occupation and genocide.”

On April 27, 2014, Denman tweeted: “@AP it will be breaking news when, in a ‘rare acknowledgement,’ the Israeli government recognizes the 1948 war as ethnic cleansing.”

Ridiculing Israel Supporters

On October 26, 2016, Denman tweeted: “wore @mustafadana's keffiyeh in a class i have with a zionist. i watched his face go from ‘oh shit’ to ‘gotta text my zionist friends.’"

On April 1, 2016, Denman tweeted: “There's a zionist in each class I'm taking this term wtf.”

On December 23, 2015, Denman tweeted: “NOBODY EVER ASKS HOW ISRAELI-JEWISH YOUTH GET RADICALIZED.”

On October 9, 2015 — while Palestinians across Israel stabbed scores of Israeli civilians during the “Knife Intifada” — Denman tweeted: “Days like today I want to argue with my Zionist coworkers.”

On May 22, 2015, Denman tweeted: “It's ridiculous how hard Israel/Zionists have to try to trick young Jews into supporting their bullsht.”

Supporting Steven Salaita

On April 10, 2015, Denman posed for a photo alongside disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

Promoting Omar Barghouti and JVP

On February 20, 2015, Denman shared an event notice for SUPER’s BDS panel featuring BDS founder Omar Barghouti and Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director of the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Denman tweeted two of Surasky’s quotes the day of the talk.

On May 23, 2016, Denman tweeted: “jewish voice for peace is

.”

Barghouti, founder of the BDS movement, has claimed [00:04:28] that international law grants everyone with Palestinian ancestry the unqualified right to settle in Israel. Barghouti has also insisted [01:18:21]that the demands of BDS are “inflexible” and “non-negotiable” — and if people object, then “tough.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States” that “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism.”

SUPER - Honoring Terrorists

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted its Palestinian Cultural Night where the group set up multiple displays honoring terrorists. Among them were Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) members Leila Khaled and Rasmea Odeh.

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

Yasser Arafat was the former leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and is known by some as the “father of modern terrorism.” Under Arafat, the goal of the PLO was the violent destruction of Israel.

On November 19, 2014, SUPER hosted an event exclusively supporting Odeh.

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

On March 1, 2014, SUPER hosted another Palestinian Cultural Night where they honored Arafat.

SUPER - BDS Passed at PSU

On October 24, 2016, SUPER authored a BDS resolution which passed the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU), the PSU student government.

The resolution, which attempts to portray the State of Israel as a modern incarnation of Apartheid South Africa, called on the university to divest from companies with ties to the Jewish state in an effort to discourage these companies from doing further business with Israel.

SUPER - Bringing Anti-Israel Speakers to PSU

On May 23, 2016, SUPER hosted an event featuring Nada Elia who — in October of 2015, while Palestinians across Israel stabbed scores of Israeli civilians during the “Knife Intifada” — wrote an article titled “Why Be Afraid of an Intifada?” where she said “Intifadas are good.”

On February 27, 2016, SUPER hosted anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi who is known for his aggressively anti-Israel performances.

On April 9, 2015, SUPER hosted Professor Steven Salaita, the Edward Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB).

On February 24, 2015, SUPER hosted BDS founder Omar Barghouti and Cecilie Surasky, Deputy Director of anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

On May 13, 2014, SUPER hosted anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: “Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit.”

On December 13, 2013, SUPER hosted terror supporter Eva Bartlett.

On May 25, 2012, SUPER hosted blood libel propagator Jasbir Puar who has claimed that Israel harvests Palestinian organs and stunts Palestinian growth.

On February 25, 2012, SUPER hosted conspiracy theorist As’ad Abu Khalil who said two weeks earlier that among the “anti-Semitic kooks” within the Palestinian movement were possibly “infiltrators to sabotage our cause and smear our campaigns.”

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.