Mina Aria
Overview
In 2021, Aria was the Secretary and Steering Committee member with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
Aria gave a workshop at the 2019 National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Conference. National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”
Aria was also affiliated with SJP at Washington University (WashU), in 2015.
In January 2020, Aria was listed as an organizer with the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) and has been involved with PSC since 2016.
Aria was also a member of St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and affiliated with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) in 2018. She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In December 2019, Aria fundraised to attend the 2nd Zapatista Women's Gathering. The Zapatista National Liberation Army is a militant, separatist Mexican guerrilla organization.
As of 2020, Aria was the Midwest Regional Coordinator for Real Food Generation, the umbrella organization for Uprooted and Rising (UNR), and was a member of the Know Your IX team.
In January 2016, Aria was reportedly a senior at WashU’s College of Arts and Sciences. In May 2016, Aria posted to Facebook two photos of herself in a graduation cap and gown.
As of December 2020, Real Food Generation listed Aria as located in St Louis, Missouri.
Supporting Terrorists
On July 14, 2018, Aria appeared [00:00:11] in an AMP Missouri Facebook video commemorating Saji Darwish. Aria spoke [00:00:11] on behalf of Darwish, claiming: “In 2014, I was shot in the head by Israeli forces while feeding my goats… I was a son, I was a student, and I was only 18 years old. I am Saji Darwish and I was loved.”
The video was titled: “THIS IS WHO WE ARE” and had the caption “In memory of all the Palestinians massacred by Israeli forces, these are just a few of the millions who had dreams, and hopes for justice, dignity, love and life.”
Spreading an Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theory
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange” (DX) campaign, accusing American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses by coordinating exchange programs between American and Israeli security personnel to advance “worst practices" and racist policies. The campaign blamed [00:04:04] Jewish organizations for violence against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
During the November 8, 2017 JVP protest, Aria read [00:06:29] out a “call on behalf of St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace” where she expressed [00:06:43] support for BDS to “pressure Israel to end its occupation and colonization of Palestinian Arab land.”
Aria alleged [00:08:10]: “The ADL and the JCRC [Jewish Community Relations Council] support and embolden violent racist policing across the US and in the St. Louis region by organizing and funding exchanges between US law enforcement officers, ICE officials, and Israel security forces.”
Aria also claimed [00:08:26] that St. Louis police officers “have been schooled in Israel’s practices of extrajudicial executions, shoot-to-kill policies, police murders.” Aria then stated [00:08:51]: “ADL and JCRC, it’s clear that you stand with the violence that this policing unevenly inflicts on black, brown and gender non-conforming bodies.”
Aria also condemned [00:07:02] Jewish organizations in St Louis, including the ADL and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), for describing BDS as anti-Semitic.
Leading Anti-Israel Protests
During the conference, Aria led a protest against the organizers for their refusal to give an official space to discuss “pinkwashing.”
On January 25, 2019, Aria tweeted: “COME THRU” and linked to a tweet that said: “#CancelPinkwashing #CC19 guerrilla session schedule!!”
On January 26, 2019, Aria tweeted: “Lol at #CreatingChange tokenizing Indigenous folks while censoring Palestine #cancelpinkwashing.”
Aria linked to another tweet that said: “TFW [That Feeling When] #CreatingChange is like ‘we honor the indigenous land where we hold our conference’ and then like ‘you can’t talk about Palestine’ and NO ONE is ready to go along with it. Queer activists are fabulous. Our institutions need to try harder to be worthy of us. #cancelpinkwashing.”
She also attached a photo of herself and other anti-Israel activists taking the stage, displaying Palestinian flags to disrupt the Creating Change Conference.
On that same day, Aria tweeted: “Check me out!” and attached a video of herself speaking at the podium during the Creating Change conference where she accused [00:00:00] Israel of “apartheid and occupation.”
Aria also claimed [00:00:04] that “Zionist pinkwashing” was a major focus of “queer anti-racist organizing around the U.S.” and accused [00:00:31] the Taskforce of not giving space for issues that affect Middle Eastern and North African queer communities, including “pinkwashing” and “Zionism.”
In June 2018, Aria represented St. Louis JVP at the 223rd United States Presbyterian Church General Assembly and spoke in support of several resolutions critical of Israel.
On June 19, 2018, Anna Baltzer, a national organizer with USCPR, tweeted: @stepharia17 of @stlpsc @AMPalestine @jvplive speaks at Presbyterian #GA223 on grounding interfaith work in justice.”
Baltzer linked to a periscope video clip of Aria attending the Assembly and expressing her support for the anti-Israel resolutions on the agenda for deliberation. Aria urged [00:00:53] the Church to "build an even larger community" of people fighting for "Palestinian Liberation."
On June 22, 2018, the Assembly voted in favor of several resolutions critical of Israel, including one that reportedly referred to Israel as an apartheid state, and another opposing anti-BDS legislation on the state and federal level.
Supporting Violent Protests
Aria linked to an April 27, 2018 New York Times Op Ed titled: “Why I March in Gaza,” in which the author characterized the Great March of Return as “unarmed, direct, civilian-led mass action” and a “nonviolent struggle” that was carried out “peacefully.” The article denied that the march was a “violent provocation by Hamas.”
The author also claimed that “39 protesters have been killed” and that journalists were targeted.
On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The March of Return was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.
Agitators also threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.
On May 15, 2018, senior Hamas official, Mahmoud Al-Zahhar, said that the Gaza protests were under a pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during a May 14 protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
Demonizing Israel
In the article, Aria accused JNF of being “central in the ongoing settler colonial occupation and theft of Palestinian land” and that “settler colonialism and racial exclusion are central to the core logic of the Israeli state.”
Aria also wrote that the disruption was to send a message that “the Jewish National Fund and supporters of ethnic cleansing and colonization are not welcome in St Louis.” She added: “We took this action in support of the Great Return and in memory of the more than 140 Palestinians massacred by Israeli snipers for peacefully demonstrating at the Gaza barrier zone.”
Promoting an Anti-Israel Agitator
Anti-Israel Activism
On October 25, 2019, Aria posted on Facebook that she would be teaching a USCPR Workshop titled “Palestine Solidarity and Reproductive Justice” at the SisterSong's Let's Talk about Sex! conference. Aria also linked to a USCPR primer titled “PALESTINE: A Reproductive Justice Issue!"The primer claimed that “No place is safe for Palestinians under Israel’s separate-and-unequal apartheid regime.“ The primer also said that Israel enacts “racist reproductive injustice” and that “Palestinian lives and bodies are simultaneously devalued, dehumanized, and obsessively controlled.”
On April 14, 2019, Aria spoke at the Civil Liberties and Public Policy 2019 Conference (CLPP 2019) on “Palestine Solidarity and Reproductive Justice.”
On September 30, 2018, Aria posted to Facebook that she was “attending US Campaign for Palestinian Rights National Conference.”
On September 18, 2015, Aria promoted to Facebook a September 21, 2015 “WashU Students for Justice in Palestine GBM [General Board Meeting] #1” event.
Attending the 2019 National SJP Conference
On November 3, 2019, Aria tweeted: “So grateful to be at the 2019 @NationalSJP conference spreading the word about @unr_now and food sovereignty, from Turtle Island to Palestine! (Forgive our typo)
#nsjp2019 #Uprooted&Rising #FreePalestine #foodsovereignty.”On that same day, Aria also posted the same tweet to Facebook.
On that same day, UNR posted the same photo to Instagram, adding: “ur very own Amanda and Mina, presenting at the @nationalsjp conference about food sovereignty, from Palestine to Turtle Island.
#NSJP2019 #Uprooted&Rising #foodsovereignty (Forgive our typo!).”The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS
The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”
The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.
2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism
The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.
Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.
2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy
The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations
National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari.
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.
PSC
The PSC is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
In November 2015, PSC posted a call to protest a talk by U.S. Navy veteran Admiral William McRaven, a UT Austin graduate,who led the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. PSC accused UT Austin of hosting "a swarm of US intelligence and military officials on campus" who would “recruit students to a life of crime.”
Also, in November 2015, while Palestinian radicals were carrying out daily stabbings throughout Israel, PSC posted a Facebook event entitled "Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising: Call to Action!" The post expressed the PSC’s support for the violence, stating “ Long “Live the Resistance! Long Live the Intifada!” The Intifadas involve a bloody series of “uprisings” which have variously featured the murder of Israeli civilians via shooting, stabbing, suicide bombing, rock-throwing, rocket fire and car ramming.
In March 2015, PSC organized a protest opposite an Israel Block Party held by Texas Hillel and Texans for Israel celebrating the cultural achievements of the Jewish State. PSC members constructed an "Apartheid Wall" and chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” —a genocidal call for Israel’s elimination.
In October 2014, 15 PSC members disrupted a talk on the creation of ISIS given by Major Gen. Meir Dagan, a former head of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Soon after the talk began, a row of 15 PSC members stood up and began yelling. The group then left, but not before one member declared that anyone who stayed to listen to what Dagan had to say was complicit in the deaths of Palestinians.
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