Mohammad Barakat
Overview
Mohammad Barakat has equated Israel with ISIS, spread hatred of Israel on social media and supported terrorists.Barakat was a student activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Rutgers University of New Brunswick (Rutgers) in 2013 and is a member of the SJP Rutgers Facebook group.
Barakat is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Barakat is also affiliated with the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Rutgers and is a member of the MSA at Rutgers Facebook group.
Barakat is a 2013 graduate of Rutgers.
Equating Israel with ISIS
On June 30, 2016, Barakat wrote on Facebook: “Lots of people seem to be angry over the comparisons being made between Israel and ISIS so I've decided to make everyone a cheat sheet.Similarities: Both claim that they represent a religion, recruit foreign fighters, and lack defined borders.
Differences: Israel is a form of European colonialism, settler-colonialism, and imperialism. ISIS is a response to those forces, albeit a horrible response, but a response nonetheless.”
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On March 31, 2017, Barakat shared a Facebook post quoting from and linking to an Al Jazeera article titled “Israel - The House of Hate.”Barakat quoted from the article that Israel “slaughters defenceless women and children by the thousands in the name of peace, that imprisons ten times as many in the name of liberty, and silences opposition - Jew and Palestinian alike in the name of speech.”
On March 18, 2017, Barakat shared a Facebook status where he referred to Israel as a “Jewish supremacist project.”
On March 15, 2017, Barakat wrote on Facebook “ISRAEL IS AN APARTHEID STATE!”
On September 30, 2016, Barakat shared a Facebook status that read: “Many will remember September 30 as the day the world paid tribute to Shimon Peres, but for many others it will always be the day Muhammad al-Durrah was murdered in his father's arms by the Israelis.”
The Al-Durah hoax is an iconic piece of anti-Israel propaganda, fabricated on September 30, 2000 at the start of the Second Intifada by a France 2 reporter.
On August 6, 2016, Barakat shared a Facebook post quoting from and linking to an article from the anti-Israel Dream Defenders (DD) website that read: “What is happening in Palestine is a genocide and we will not allow anyone to bully us into sanitizing our words…”
On July 16, 2016, Barakat shared a quote on Facebook that read: “The Zionists harnessed the negative energies of the Western world—its anti-Semitism, its Crusading nostalgia, its anti-Islamic bigotry, its deep racism, its imperialism—and focused them on a new colonial project, the creation of a surrogate Western state in the Islamicate heartland.”
On July 11, 2016, Barakat wrote on Facebook: “The Three Es of Israel:1. Exploitation. 2. Experimentation.3. Extermination.”
Supporting Terrorists
On April 17, 2017, Barakat shared a Facebook post promoting a Palestinian prisoner's hunger strike.SJP Rutgers - Demonizing Israel
On November 12, 2014 — as part of Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) — SJP Rutgers organized a “Die In.” SJP activists lay on the floor covered in fake blood, next to signs that read: “Israel is responsible for murder, occupation and apartheid.”The Die-In demonized Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) that summer. Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 in order to stop rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians and destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On November 18, 2014, the General Body Coordinator of SJP Rutgers — Don Courter — wrote an article in the Daily Targum attacking Hillel students who protested against SJP’s Die In. Courter described OPE as the “abhorrent murder of children carried out by the state of Israel.”
SJP Rutgers Activists - Trivializing Campus Anti-Semitism
In an October 14, 2013 article in The Targum, John Lisowski — then events coordinator of SJP Rutgers — dismissed Jewish student concerns about campus anti-Semitism prompted by a controversial SJP “mock eviction” campaign. Although the campaign violated campus rules and demonized Israel, Lisowski claimed “critics of the fliers only seem to be speaking out against them because they are on the opposite side of this debate from SJP.”Lisowski went on to claim: “Branding criticism of Israel as ‘anti-Semitism’ is inherently anti-Semitic...”
SJP Rutgers Activists - Harassing Jewish Students
Ashraf claimed: “At Rutgers, we single-handedly changed campus dialogue regarding Middle Eastern policy…"
On February 18, 2014, Rutgers SJP activist John Lisowski wrote an article attacking the Board of Trustees of the Daily Targum, Rutgers’ student newspaper, claiming the board “elected to censor" the “Israel-Palestine conflict."
Lisowski also downplayed an anti-Semitic op-ed that the SJP activist Amani Al-Khatahtbeh — then editor of The Daily Targum — chose to publish. Lisowski characterized it as “a false accusation against Hillel that questioned the organization’s funding."
On October 6, 2013, SJP Rutgers members slid hundreds of mock eviction notices under Rutgers dorm and apartment doors in a controversial SJP anti-Israel campaign.
In an October 14, 2013 article in The Daily Targum, John Lisowski — then events coordinator of SJP Rutgers — dismissed Jewish student concerns about campus anti-Semitism prompted by the campaign.
Although the mock eviction tactic violated campus rules and demonized Israel, Lisowski alleged “critics of the fliers only seem to be speaking out against them because they are on the opposite side of this debate from SJP."
Lisowski went on to claim: “Branding criticism of Israel as ‘anti-Semitism’ is inherently anti-Semitic..."
After Rutgers’ Hillel submitted a press release to the Daily Targum criticizing SJP’s campaign, it was reported that Al-Khatahtbeh inappropriately altered the release before publishing it.
SJP Rutgers - Hosting Radicals and Hamas Supporters
On March 6, 2017, SJP Rutgers co-hosted an event with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The event featured a panel that included Josh Ruebner — the Policy Director for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (ETO).Ruebner has accused Israel officers of studying Nazi tactics to use against Gazan Palestinian and and has accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of placing Israeli interests ahead of American interests.
Also speaking at the event was Osama Abu Irshaid, the national policy director of AMP. Abu Irshaid formerly served as editor of Islamic Association forPalestine's Arabic periodical, Al-Zaitounah — a mouthpiece for pro-Hamas propaganda.
On November 9, 2016, SJP organized an event titled: “ISrael: A Manifestation of Imperialism & Colonialism”
The Facebook event description read: “Come out to learn about how ZIONISM embodied the 19th century ethos of the European Mission Civilisatrice, racism, supremacy, and utilitarian principles, to justify the creation of a settler colonialism project on the land of Palestine.” The event featured Raja Abudlhaq, who has claimed that one cannot represent Palestine if one condemns armed resistance.
Abdulhaq believes that Israel is a racist colonial state, asserting that “It’s very important to always remember that Western colonial powers are as guilty as Israel in the mass-murder of Palestinians, especially the USA.” He has also stated that he considers any Muslim organization that organizes an Interfaith event with a “Zionist” counterpart to be a “betrayal to your brothers in sisters in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and other countries.”
On November 23, 2015, SJP Rutgers hosted prominent anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour.
Sarsour frequently uses the word “Zionist” as a pejorative and has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
On March 8, 2011, Sarsour tweeted “Brigitte Gabriel= Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She's asking 4 an a$$ whippin'. I wish I could take their vaginas away - they don't deserve to be women.”
Ali, a former Muslim and victim of female genital mutilation, responded to Sarsour’s criticism by calling her a “fake feminist.”
In 2014, Sarsour attacked a documentary calling attention to the plight of women in the Islamic world, in part because Ali was an executive producer of the film. Sarsour worked together with CAIR to ban the film from being screened at American universities.
On April 29, 2015, SJP Rutgers hosted an event featuring Haneen Zoabi. The Facebook event description read: “SJP invites you to a discussion with Haneen Zoabi on Israeli Apartheid, Zionism and more from a viewpoint of a Palestinian living in Israel.”
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.
SJP Rutgers - Supporting Terrorists
The prisoners’ hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, then serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings, and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada.
Barghouti led the the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
In January 2014, SJP Rutgers participated in Right To Education Week, where they hosted two visiting students from Birzeit University.
Birzeit is a hotbed of anti-Israel agitation. The university has been accused of radicalizing students as well as promoting and encouraging political violence.
The student body elected Hamas to power in 2003, 2015 and 2016.
In January of 2016, Birzeit characterized an IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent ... attack on the university and our right to education …"
SJP Rutgers - Spreading Anti-Israel Propaganda
On May 5, 2013, SJP Rutgers hosted anti-Israel agitator, Miko Peled. In an October 1, 2012 video, Peled claimed: “The Israeli Army which I like to refer as the best trained, best equipped, best fed terrorist organization.” On August 19, 2013, Peled tweeted that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “lusts for blood.”On February 25, 2014, SJP Rutgers hosted David Sheen as part of a PAW event.
David Sheen is an anti-Israel activist and filmmaker who works to portray Israel as an extremist racist state. To this end, Sheen has been accused of purposefully mistranslating Hebrew articles and other media to make Israelis appear racist.
On February 26, 2014, SJP Rutgers organized Palestine Awareness Week (PAW).
On March 15, 2014, SJP Rutgers hosted anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: “Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit.”
On September 11, 2014, as part of PAW, SJP Rutgers hosted radical Muslim cleric Zaid Shakir, who established the Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, with SJP founder Hatem Bazian and others.
Radical cleric Zaid Shakir co-founded Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, with SJP co-founder Hatem Bazian and others.
In a January 2009 article, Shakir claimed that terrorist organizations Hamas and al-Qaeda were pursuing legitimate objectives. He also defended Hamas as an organization that “was never given a chance to prove its commitment to the peace process.”
In October 2007, Shakir promoted a 9/11 conspiracy theory, describing the September 11 attacks as having “occurred under dubious circumstances that have yet to be thoroughly examined.”
On April 6, 2016, SJP Rutgers hosted an event with Iyad Burnat.
Iyad Burnat is the coordinator of the Bil’in popular resistance committee, organizing weekly, often violent demonstrations against the Israeli security barrier since 2005. Burnat has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS. He has also claimed that Zionism is a “racist ideology” and accused “Zionists” of controlling American politics.
Also attending the event with Burnat were members of the Neturei Karta — a fringe anti-Israel Jewish group.
Neturei Karta is an anti-Israel Jewish fringe group whose leader, Yisroel Dovid Weiss, was excommunicated from many Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups for participating in a 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Iran. The group opposes Zionism on religious grounds and has called to dismantle Israel.
On October 26, 2016, SJP Rutgers hosted violent agitator Issa Amro — the head of Youth Against Settlements — known for vandalism and attacking Israeli soldiers. Amro has been charged with numerous acts of violence against Israeli civilians and security forces.
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.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:www.facebook.com/100000164630978Twitter:https://twitter.com/mbarakat1990 [Deleted]
