Mariam Rimawi
Overview
Mariam Rimawi was an activist with the Columbia University (Columbia) Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter (CSJP) from 2014 -2016.She also spread hatred of Israel and expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In 2016, Rimawi was affiliated with Columbia’s Muslim Students Association (MSA).
As of September, 2019, Rimawi was reportedly a student at Barnard College (Barnard)from 2013-2017, where she studied Economics and Computer Science.
SJP Activism
The event was listed on Facebook as part of Columbia’s 2016 Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), which was hosted by CSJP and Coumbia Barnard’s Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapter.
The event was also scheduled to host anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi. Kanazi has justified terrorism, belittled the Holocaust, supported terrorists and compared Zionists to the KKK.
On March 29, 2015, Rimawi participated in an event that was part of IAW 2015 and was tagged in multiple photos from the event in CSJP’s Facebook photo album named: “Israeli Apartheid Week 2015.”
On October 27, 2014, Rimawi updated her Facebook cover photo and captioned it: “NSJP [National SJP]2014
Inshallah first of many!”On March 12, 2014, Rimawi shared on Facebook a post from CSJP about that year’s banner controversy that said: “URGENT please contact Barnard administration about the blatant censorship of our student group. The following is a form letter you can use and the emails of administrators. Make your voices heard!.” Rimawi wrote: “Please speak out!!”
CSJP organizer Salman made a banner that was hung at Barnard’s entrance and was reportedly removed because it gave the impression that it had the university’s endorsement.
Rimawi also commented on the CSJP Facebook post: “GUYS PLEASE DONT IGNORE...please please send this email!! It would mean so much to me and the cause !!” and tagged multiple people in her comment.
Anti-Israel agitator, Linda Sarsour also commented on the CSJP Facebook post, writing in one post: “I been tweeting too. Maybe we should have a twitter rally and tag Columbia? I can coordinate it and create sample tweets. We need a hashtag and day/time to do it.”
Rimawi thanked Sarsour and asked her to: “share whats been going on (from our page) that would be awesome! Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.”
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On December 7, 2013, Rimawi posted to Facebook a video of a song by Israeli artist Natali Peretz and wrote: “‘Apparently an Israeli version of the song ti rash rash exists. We truly can not have one thing without Israelis taking it and trying to make it their own. Nope our lands not enough..”Rimawi continued: “They gotta take our thobes, keffiyehs, Dabke, hummus, falafels, tabouleh, kibbeh, and call it theirs. It's like a package deal, take the land and don't stop there have the entire culture too!”
On November 18, 2013, Rimawi shared a graphic to Facebook from the “I Acknowledge Apartheid Exists” Facebook page that said: “I Acknowledge Israel is the Oppressor…‘If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor…..’”
Supporting BDS
On November 10, 2013, Rimawi shared a petition to Facebook titled: “American University Dining Services: Stop Sales of Sabra Hummus” and wrote: “Do not rob us of our land and then our culture.”Rimawi continued: “Please sign for the boycotting of subra [sic] hummus aka ‘israeli hummus’ when we ALL know hummus is NOT Israeli.”
Sabra Hummus is partially owned by an Israeli company, the Strauss Group.
Anti-Semitism at Columbia 2016-2017
A 2017 report by AMCHA Initiative found that Columbia, which includes Barnard College (Barnard), had the highest overall anti-semitic activity (35 incidents) in 2016, the highest rate of incidents of anti-Semitic expression (23 incidents) and the highest rate of BDS activity on campus (22 incidents).The AMCHA Initiative documents anti-Semitism at U.S. colleges, using “the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the U.S. State Department definitions to identify” anti-Semitic incidents.
Also in 2017, Columbia was listed as third in the Algemeiner newspaper’s “Annual List of the Most Challenging North American Campuses for Jewish Students.” In 2016, the Algemeiner listed Columbia as the worst campus.
CSJP Demonizing Israel 2015
In December 2015, CSJP promoted a video, originally produced by Al-Jazeera, that referred to Israel’s security fence as “The Apartheid Wall.” The video also suggested that a non-binding, advisory opinion on the security fence issued by the International Court of Justice is binding international law.Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
On November 17, 2015, CSJP protested opposite an event hosted by Aryeh: Columbia Students Association for Israel, titled: “Israel Week.” CSJP members held signs accusing Israel of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
In March 2015, CSJP’s yearly Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) featured the building of a mock “Apartheid” wall on campus, meant to demonize Israel’s security barrier.
CSJP BDS Campaign 2016
On February 1, 2016, Columbia SJP and Columbia/Barnard JVP launched a joint divestment campaign on Facebook, titled: “Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).”The campaign was launched with a petition and inaugural event titled: “BDS 101,” scheduled for February 4, 2016.
CUAD’s Facebook post stated that the campaign was “embedded in the larger BDS movement.”
CUAD also described the campaign in its Facebook post as a “call for the University to divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from the State of Israel's ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law.”
CSJP’s Banner Controversy at Barnard 2014
In March 2014, Columbia SJP organizer Jannine-Masoud Salman made a large banner that was hung at the entrance of Barnard college. The banner read: “Stand for Justice, Stand for Palestine” and featured a map of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with no internal borders, colored uniformly green.The banner was reportedly removed after “students, their parents and alumni” said it made them “feel uncomfortable and unsafe in the space” and that it gave the impression Barnard was “endorsing SJP's message that Israel as a Jewish state does not have the right to exist.”
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.
MSA
The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
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/100003709988292
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Columbia
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- MSA,
- more...
- Related Profiles:
- Marianne Hirsch,
- Blake Turner,
- Alaa Milbes,
- Randa Wahbe,
- Ayah Zaki-Sabet,
- Brian Boyd,
- Jordan-Scott Kushner,
- David Scott,
- Premilla Nadasen,
- Victoria De Grazia,
- Fatima Rimawi,
- Partha Chatterjee,
- Feride Eralp,
- Gil Anidjar,
- Dayana Khatib,
- Marina Hansen,
- Yasmeen-Abdel Majeed,
- Qais Malhas,
- Dirk Salomons,
- Shezza-Abboushi Dallal,
- Naor Ben-Yehoyada,
- Dina Omar,
- Maya Wind,
- Jeffrey Jacobs,
- Tory-Webster Brykalski,
- Michael Kennedy,
- Paige West,
- Matt Swagler,
- Joseph Massad,
- Isabel Penaranda,
- Robert Tiburzi,
- Rosalind Morris,
- Zoe Crossland,
- Darializa Avila-Chevalier,
- Rhoda Kanaaneh,
- Elizabeth Povinelli,
- Rahim Kurwa,
- Yousr Shaltout,
- Mona Abdullah,
- Adrian McAfee,
- Stathis Gourgouris,
- Gayatri Spivak,
- Rashid Khalidi,
- Sumaya Awad,
- Michael Harris,
- Timothy Mitchell,
- Anna Baltzer,
- George Saliba,
- Mahmood Mamdani,
- Aleq Abdullah,
- Valentine Daniel,
- Bashir Abu-Manneh,
- Thaer-Al-Sheik Theeb,
- Bruce Robbins,
- Ahmed Hamad,
- Jannine-Masoud Salman,
- Nathalie Handal,
- Max Fineman,
- Josh Whitford,
- Tanya Keilani,
- Hanine Hassan,
- Ann Yacoubian,
- Michael Taussig,
- Alay Syed,
- Brinkley Messick,
- Neferti Tadiar,
- Elizabeth Bernstein,
- Eliza Moss Horwitz,
- Nadia Abu-El-Haj,
- Maymouna Sissoko Thiam,
- Anupama Rao
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
