Maya Wind
Overview
Maya Wind [Maya Yechieli Wind] has whitewashed terrorism and spread hatred of Israel. Wind has also engaged in anti-Israel activism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of August 2021, Wind was listed as a doctoral candidate in the American Studies program at New York University (NYU). As of June 2024, Wind was a lecturer at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Wind graduated from Barnard College (Barnard) with a bachelor’s degree in 2013.
Whitewashing Terrorism
In November 2012, following the launch of Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD), Wind was interviewed on the Russian network RT America program “Breaking the Set.” In the interview, Wind accused Israel of occupation of Palestine, alleging that [00:02:21]: “Any political activity is deemed terror activity… and there is a sort of systematic arrest and torture and imprisonment of young people who resist…”Israel launched OPD to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Over the course of eight days in November 2012, Palestinian terrorist groups fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel. The majority struck Israel, damaging homes, schools and other civilian areas. Human Rights Watch noted: “Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim.”
On November 21, 2012, the same day Wind’s interview was published on Youtube and the 8th day of OPD, a terrorist, reportedly connected to Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups, carried out a bombing of a civilian bus in central Tel Aviv, injuring 28.
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On September 10, 2019, Wind published an article titled “How Liberal Americans Sustain Israel’s Occupation.” In the article, she accused Israel of “apartheid policies,”writing that: “Israel needed to be exonerated of its own sins—from the Nakba to the invasion of Lebanon and the Second Intifada”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
The second intifada (2000-2005) was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
In a December 6, 2010 interview posted to YouTube, Wind said [00:00:19] that: “the Israeli army is not a defense force, as I thought, it is also an occupying force.”
Referring to the Israeli military as an “occupying force” or “IOF” (“Israeli Occupation Forces”) is a derogatory name used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army, in place of its name the “Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).”
In September and October 2009, following her refusal to enlist in the Israeli army, Wind participated in a U.S. speaking tour sponsored by CODEPINK and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Wind reportedly joined the tour to speak about “the wide range of injustices perpetrated by the Occupation, focusing on the settlements, checkpoints and the separation wall/barrier.”
Israeli checkpoints were built to prevent terror attacks, such as suicide bombings, against Israel's civilian population.
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.
Anti-Israel Activism
On November 5, 2015, Wind co-hosted an event with 2013 SJP NYU President Shafeka Hashash titled: “UAW, Time to Stand Against Israeli Apartheid.” The event was co-sponsored by NYU SJP.On April 26, 2015, Wind appeared in an NYU SJP Facebook group photo with fellow SJP activists posing with Haneen Zoabi. The photo was taken at an NYU SJP event titled: “Israel, Racism, and Apartheid: An Insider's View with Haneen Zoabi.”
Haneen Zoabi, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, has a long history of inciting violence. In 2014, she was suspended from the legislature after defending the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by the terror group Hamas, and who were later found executed in a field. In 2015, a criminal investigation was opened against Zoabi after she reportedly condoned anti-Israel violence and called for a new intifada.
In 2013, Wind launched an online petition calling on the International Board of the United World Colleges (UWC) to cancel Israel’s plans for Eastern Mediterranean United World College (EMUWC), a new college project in Israel, and to reject the Eastern Mediterranean College (EMC)’s application for membership in UWC.
In November 2010, Wind reportedly organized a campus display depicting Israeli soldiers at checkpoints. On November 18, 2010, Wind participated in a mock Israeli checkpoint on Columbia’s Low Plaza, staged by CJSP as part of CSJP’s “Right to Education Week” at Columbia.
Supporting BDS
On April 21, 2016, Wind was tagged in a Graduate Student Organizing Committee(GSOC) for BDS Facebook photo holding a sign that read: “I voted Yes for BDS.”On April 14, 2016, Wind co-hosted an event titled “BDS: The Case for Academic Boycott” to “discuss the BDS academic boycott and the GSOC referendum!”
A March 21, 2016 AlterNet article quoted Wind as saying: “I believe that the BDS movement is clearly the most effective Palestinian movement right now… ultimately I believe it will lead to the disintegration of the regime.”
In March 2016, Wind reportedly co-organized a GSOC BDS referendum, which called on NYU to “withdraw their investments from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in the ongoing violation of Palestinian human and civil rights.”
The GSOC referendum also called on NYU to close its study abroad program at Tel Aviv University and asked members to pledge to adhere to the academic boycott of Israel by refraining from participating in research and programs sponsored by Israeli universities.
In October 2015, Wind signed an October 4, 2015 open letter urging NYU to endorse the broader NYU Out of Occupied Palestine (NOOP) campaign, a campus coalition of faculty, students and student organizations that called on NYU to divest from companies that “contribute to and profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
In May 2015, Wind was a signatory on a Boycott From Within petition calling on FIFA [Fédération Internationale de Football Association] to suspend Israel from international soccer tournaments.
On August 18, 2013, Wind posted on Facebook a group photo of student activists holding a sign which read “Columbia Says Divest.”
On May 11, 2010, Wind participated in a BDS panel event sponsored by Tikkun Magazine, titled “Is BDS the Way to End the Occupation.” During the panel discussion, Wind said (p.3): “I fully advocate BDS....”
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.”
CSJP’s Mock Israeli Checkpoint 2010
On November 20, 2010, CSJP uploaded a video to their YouTube channel, titled: “Mock Israeli Checkpoint at Columbia University”On November 18, 2010, CSJP activists staged [00:00:01] a mock Israeli checkpoint on Columbia’s Low Plaza.
Activists, dressed as Israeli soldiers blindfolded [00:01:08] and taped over the mouths of other activists, who were meant to portray Palestinians.
Israeli checkpoints were builtto prevent terror attacks, like suicide bombings, against Israel's civilian population.
The video claimed [00:02:21] that “91% of students at An-Najah University miss classes because of delays at checkpoints.”
Al-Najah (alternatively, An Najah) University is the largest Palestinian university in the West Bank and is notorious for its triumphal exhibit lauding the August 9, 2001 Sbarro cafe suicide bombing. The blast killed 15 civilians, including 7 children and a pregnant woman and wounded 130.
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.
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish values.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
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
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