Mika Zacks

Overview

Mika Zacks was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, Brown (SJP Brown).

On March 28, 2013, Zacks signed and shared on Facebook a petition started by NYC SJP member Maya Wind which called on UWC to cancel plans to open a branch in Israel.

Zacks graduated from Brown University (Brown) in 2015 with a Bachelor’s degree in Africana Studies and Education. In 2010, Zacks received an international baccalaureate from Red Cross Nordic United World College (UWC Red Cross).

Demonizing Israel

On December 4, 2011, Zacks wrote an "open letter" in the Brown Daily Herald criticizing Brown Students for Israel, a student group, for inviting Colonel Richard Kemp to speak at Brown, in November. Zacks fraudulently accused Israel’s Jewish citizens of being “utterly insentient to the suffering of others,” mistakenly labeled Judea and Samaria as “territories that were never rightfully ours” and falsely accused Israel of maintaining ”roads only Jewish settlers can use.” Zack went on to urge confronting what she misleadingly called “the illegal settlement construction in East Jerusalem.”

Finally, Zacks thoroughly misrepresented the substance of Kemp’s hour-long talk — intoning: "bringing Colonel Richard Kemp to tell us all the unfortunate truth that other war crimes receive little to no media attention as means of legitimizing Israel’s thoroughly illegitimate conduct."

On September 20, 2012, Zacks wrote another column in the Brown Daily Herald, making the libelous claim that Israel was guilty of "ethnic cleansing." Zacks also falsely presented the eviction of Palestinian Bedouin, who illegally squatted in Susya, as an illegal demolition of a Palestinian village by Israel, a falsehood that Zacks has also posted on Facebook.

Zack repeated the "ethnic cleansing" claim in a December 5, 2012 column — in which she also branded Israel a “colonialist, militarized occupation state” that “brainwashes” students.

Zacks wrote that article to discourage Jewish students from going on Birthright, a sponsored trip to Israel encouraging Jewish identity. Zacks — who has not been on a Birthright trip — characterized the trip as an attempt "to whitewash atrocities committed against Palestinians." She also fraudulently accused Israel of being “the only ethnocracy in the Middle East.”

Zacks encouraged students shun Birthright and to tour, instead, with "Breaking the Silence." Breaking The Silence is an Israeli NGO that operates to “raise awareness about the reality in the Occupied Territories” through anonymous — and therefore unverifiable— soldiers’ testimonies, often used to delegitimize and vilify Israel.

Zacks also encouraged students to tour with Ta’ayush, a non-profit organization that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. In 2015, Ta’ayush leader Ezra Nawi was filmed bragging about his entrapping and handing over Palestinians who sold their property to Jews — to be tortured and executed.

On October 25, 2012, Zacks posted a picture on Facebook of an huge SJP banner on Brown’s Main Green, asking students the misleading question, "Do you want your University profiting from apartheid?"

Promoting Disruption over Dialogue

On April 2, 2014, Brown Hillel, an independent, apolitical Jewish organization, hosted a talk with former Israeli soldier Benjamin Anthony. Hillel invited student leaders from a wide variety of campus groups — including the libertarians, socialists, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and others — to participate in the discussion. Anthony answered audience questions for over an hour immediately following the talk.

On April 1, 2014, Zacks co-wrote a column with SJP co-leader Josette Souza that called on Hillel to cancel the event. The article stated that Anthony’s presence at Brown would be a violation of "safe campus" space and went on to condemn Israel for violence in “New York City to Los Angeles to Rio de Janeiro and beyond.”

Zacks and Souza organized an SJP Brown protest that was held before the lecture and marched outside Hillel — chanting, waving signs and Palestinian flags. The group also circulated a petition to cancel the event.

Criticism of Gay Rights in Israel

On March 28, 2013, Zacks argued on Facebook that Israel’s protection of sexual minorities is the country’s was of "seek[ing] to use queer voices to justify its human rights violations." Zacks accused Israel of “branding itself as a gay haven – pinkwashing – and by cultivating its image as an environmentally progressive state – greenwashing.”

SJP Brown

Since its founding in 2009, SJP Brown has promoted the boycott of Israel at Brown and also pressured Brown to divest from Israel.

In 2010, SJP Brown began bringing Israeli Apartheid Week to Brown’s campus, to smear Israel with accusations of "apartheid policies" and “to build support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

In March 2010, SJP Brown set up a 75-foot long banner on Brown’s Main Green, asking students the misleading, rhetorical question, "Do you want your University profiting from apartheid?"

Defending PFLP Terrorists

On November 4, 2014, SJP Brown held a gathering in support of terrorist-murderer Rasmea Odeh — who was a key military operativefor the PFLP.

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]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 [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind. 

In 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. 

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

Siding with Terrorist Violence

On November 8, 2015, SJP Brown’s Facebook page approvingly featured an article originally posted on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) website. PFLP’s website calls for "resistance until victory," “revolutionary violence” and is replete with pictures of armed militants and other violent images, such as burning molotov cocktails.

The article urged the "liberation" of “occupied Palestine 48” — a call to eradicate the state of Israel and delegitimize the Jews’ claim to sovereignty in their ancestral national homeland. The article further proclaimed that “occupied land cannot be recovered except through resistance and confrontation of the occupation.”

The PFLP is designated a terrorist organization by the European Union, Canada, The United States and Israel. and promotes the violent destruction of Israel. The PFLP has claimed "credit" for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, the 2011 butchering of the Fogel Family (including two boys, aged 4 and 11 — and a three month old girl.)

On November 19, 2014 — one day after PFLP terrorists murdered six more people, with a gun, axes and and a butcher knife during morning prayers in a West Jerusalem synagogue — SJP Brown posted on Facebook an article complaining that the killings received undue condemnation as "pure terror" from United States officials. Hani Thawbta, a PFLP leader in Gaza praised the massacre, as “heroic.”

Spreading Hate and Disinformation

In November of 2014, SJP Brown slammed Israel for banning anti-Israel propagandist Dr. Mads Gilbert from entering Gaza through Israel. 

Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership. 

In 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 Gilbert was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site. During that time he acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza.

In 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert expressed support for the terror acts as a “legitimate response.” In December of 2009, Gilbert was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

In October 2015, SJP Brown shared on Facebook an article falsely blaming Israel for the death 54-year-old Palestinian agitator Hashem Azzeh. 

In October 2015, Al Azzeh died of a chronic cardiac condition. On October 21, 2015, Al Azzeh suffered chest pains and was taken to a nearby hospital, which claimed his death was due to heart failure. Palestinian news sources later claimed his death was caused by the IDF’s use of tear gas nearby.  

Disguising Anti-Semitism as Anti-Zionism

On March 16, 2016, SJP Brown forced Brown Hillel to cancel an event featuring American transgender activist Janet Mock, who was scheduled to talk about her experiences as a transgender person of color. Mock withdrew from the event after SJP Brown circulated a petition demanding that the event either exclude Hillel sponsorship or be canceled. On March 20, 2016, Brown’s President issued a statement in response to the event’s cancellation, writing that "it is counter to Brown’s norms and values for expressions of dissent to be targeted at a student group because of its religious affiliation."

On March 18, 2016, anti-Semitic and homophobic messages were discovered written on the walls of Marcy House, a Brown student dormitory. Marcy House is home to the campus’ Jewish fraternity and houses many LGBT students. The graffiti read "Gay will die" and “Holocaust 2.0,” and was written directly across from a Jewish student’s room that had a mezuzah and Hebrew writing on its door.

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/mika.zacks

Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mika-zacks-49278475

Google+:https://plus.google.com/112519007980535834388/posts

Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/user/l30d53

Pinterest:https://dk.pinterest.com/mikazacks/

Columns:http://www.browndailyherald.com/author/mikazacks/