Motaz Nashawaty

Ahed Tamimi has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.

UMN’s Chief Investment Officer reportedly told The Minnesota Republic, a student-run newspaper at UMN, that the university had “no direct exposure” to the four companies highlighted by the UMN Divest campaign.

In March 2016, Nashawaty featured [00:01:59] in an SJP UMN produced video divestment promoting UMN Divest.

On March 8, 2016, Nashawaty tweeted: “It’s been so nice outside but I’ve been in labs for 7 hours so :( but #UMNDivest is in 15 minutes so :)))))))).” 

Nashawaty also tweeted that day: “#UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest #UMNDivest.”

Later that day, the MSA voted [00:26:24] to strike the divestment resolution from the MSA agenda.

In April 2016, the MSA passed a heavily amended resolution that removed all references to Israel and any specific corporations. The amended resolution endorsed divestment generally from “corporations involved in human rights violations,” and from “companies profiting from human rights abuses and violations of international law.”

SJP Activity

On May 3, 2015, Nashawaty featured in photos shared on Facebook by SJP UMN, taken at their annual banquet. 

On March 5, 2015, Nashawaty featured in a group photos shared on Facebook by SJP UMN with Dan Cohen. 

On March 4, 2015, SJP UMN hosted an event with Dan Cohen, a journalist with the anti-Israel Mondoweiss, speaking about his experiences reporting from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). OPE was launched by Israel to stop Hamas rocket attacks and destroy Hamas attack tunnels. 

During his talk, Cohen reportedly said the war was “not an attack on Hamas....it was an attack on Palestinian society.” He also claimed that “Israeli soldiers were allowed to take revenge” and that they intentionally shot civilians. 

On April 4, 2015, Nashawaty featured in a group photo shared on Facebook with SJP UMN activists before participating in a 5K run, SJP UMN wrote that it was the “first event of the IAW 2015.”

SJP UMN - Praising Violence  

On October 20, 2017, SJP UMN shared on Instagram a graphic that featured a Palestinian woman carrying an assault rifle. The graphic was based on a poster originally published by the terror group, the Palestinian Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). 

The graphic shared by SJP UMN had the caption: “Glory to the Women of the Intifada.” 

“Intifada” has carried the connotation of violence since the early 2000’s.

SJP UMN wrote on their Instagram post: “..come learn about Palestinian women’s resilience, contribution to the movement, and what a Palestinian feminist vision for liberation looks like…”

SJP UMN - Supporting a Terrorist 2018 

On July 8, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Facebook a post that read: “This week marks the anniversary of the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani. A writer, intellectual, and spokesperson for the Palestinian resistance, he is remembered as one of the most significant literary and political figures of the 1960s-70s Palestinian revolution.”

SJP UMN - Promoting BDS 2018  

The 2018 UMN Divest campaign launched a petition calling to “demand that the University of Minnesota Investment Committee and any other responsible bodies authorized to make investment decisions divest fully from the companies mentioned in the UMN Divest campaign.” 

On February 25, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Instagram a post launching the UMN Divest 2018 campaign that said: “UMN Divest is back and this time we’re doing a campus wide referendum. March 5-7 all undergraduate and graduate students can vote ‘yes’ to divest.”

SJP UMN’s “explanation statement” in support of its proposed “campus-wide” referendum claimed that UMN had investments in companies “that violate human rights” and called on UMN to divest from G4S, Boeing and Raytheon and Elbit Systems for being “complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights,  2) maintaining and establishing private prisons and immigrant detention centers, or 3) violating Indigenous sovereignty.”

In March 2018, the divestment referendum reportedly was passed by the UMN “All Campus Elections Commission” and sent to the UMN Board of Regents for review.

SJP UMN - Hosting National SJP 2019  

On September 16, 2019, SJP UMN shared a flier on Instagram announcing that the chapter would be hosting the 2019 National SJP Conference on November 1-3, 2019. 

SJP UMN - Hosting Anti-Israel Propagandists 2019  

On March 30, 2019, SJP UMN and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) Minnesota co-hosted an event titled: “Palestine Day Conference.”

The Facebook event page description said the events speakers included Miko Peled and Taher Hezallah. 

Miko Peled is an anti-Israel activist. In January 2017 Peled said [00:00:06] that the Israeli army was one of the “best trained, best equipped, best fed, terrorist organizations in the world,” and claimed [00:00:16] that “their entire purpose is terrorism.”

Taher Herzallah is the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of AMP, working to expand AMP activism.

On November 27-29, 2014, during the seventh annual AMP conference, Herzallah idolized [00:47:27] violent revolutionaries as models for change — and rhetorically asked [00:49:06]: “What if, as Muslims we wanted to establish an Islamic state? Is that wrong? What if, as Muslims, we wanted to use violent means to resist occupation? Is that wrong?”

SJP UMN Honoring Terrorists: 2015 - 2016  

On January 27, 2016, SJP UMN posted on Facebook support for Muhammad Al-Qiq. Al-Qiq was detained by Israel for his involvement in Hamas terror activity.

On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN held a “die-in” in support of Palestinians who were conducting a wave of stabbing attacks on Israelis, known as the “Knife Intifada.”

During the die-in, SJP UMN activists lay on the ground, while SJP UMN activist Motaz Nashawaty, spoke accusing [00:00:05] Israel of an escalation in “state violence” and [00:00:32] of “extrajudicial murders.” 

Nashawaty continued: [00:00:41] “We will pay respects to the Palestinian martyrs executed by Israeli forces” and recited [00:01:57] the names of Palestinian terrorists, such as Fadi Aloonand [00:02:03] Muhannad Halabi, who he described [00:02:07] as “young Palestinians whose lives were unjustly taken away from them by Israeli security forces.” 

Aloon stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy after posting “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page, and Halabimurdered two Israelis and injured two others, including a 2-year-old, during a stabbing spree. Halabi posted on his Facebook page “[t]he third Intifada is here…Let the revolution erupt.”

SJP UMN Honoring Terrorists: 2012 - 2014  

On November 10, 2014, SJP UMP posted on Facebook regarding Rasmea Odeh: “Our hearts go out to her” and said: “They find Palestinian activists as a threat and immediately label them as ‘terrorists.’”

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

On February 20, 2012, SJP UMN tweeted in support of Khader Adnan, a senior member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who was on a hunger strike. 

A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?”

SJP UMN Promoting Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories: 2011-2012  

On September 24, 2011, SJP UMN promoted a post on Facebook alleging that Israel controls America and influences American mainstream media, so that one “will always find the news tailored” in Israel’s favor. 

SJP UMN urged their followers to “READ IT & SHARE IT.”

On March 9, 2012, SJP UMN was scheduled to host an event for Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), titled “United States of Israel.” IAW is a series of events on university campuses promoting BDS.

One event included a screening of a documentary, titled: “AIPAC: The Israeli Lobby,” which claims AIPAC, Congress, the White House and Israel “seem to have ended up in a suffocating embrace.”

SJP UMN Demonizing Israel: 2012-2014  

In April 2014, SJP UMN featured a “mock apartheid wall,” meant to mock Israel’s security barrier and held a “die-in,” as part of that year’s Israel Apartheid Week (IAW). Israel’s security barrier was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. 

SJP UMN launched its annual Palestine Awareness Week in April 2011, a re-branding  of IAW, with events demonizing Israel such as a “die-in.”

On November 28, 2012, SJP UMN held a “Die-in for Gaza,” to protest Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD), against Hamas to stop rocket attacks launched from Gaza on Israeli civilians. 

The Facebook event description instructed participants where to “pick up signs and/or get the name of the martyr that you will be wearing” and said participants would hold the signs and “fall to the ground to portray the deaths of those in Gaza.”

SJP UMN Promoting BDS: 2016  

On February 15, 2016, SJP UMN launched a divestment campaign, calling for the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) and UMN to support divestment from companies that SJP UMN claimed “profit from human rights violations in Palestine/Israel.” 

SJP UMN’s statement announcing the campaign said UMN’s investment in the companies targeted by the campaign showed “implicit support for…the killing of civilians, and violations of their basic human rights.”

UMN’s Chief Investment Officer reportedly told The Minnesota Republic, a student-run newspaper at UMN, that the university had “no direct exposure” to the four companies targeted by the campaign.

SJP UMN Promoting BDS: 2011-2012  

On October 14, 2012, SJP UMN promoted a petition on Facebook calling on Minnesota’s NBA team, the Timberwolves, to boycott Israel and cancel a scheduled game against the Israeli team, Maccabi Haifa. 

The petition was part of a campaign organized by Minnesota Break the Bonds (MN BBC), which sent a letter to each Timberwolves player. The letter said: “Don’t normalize apartheid!” and urged them to boycott the game. It also said they were being used by Israel’s “propaganda machine.” 

MN BBC was reportedly formed in 2006 to pressure the State of Minnesota to break economic ties with Israel.

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/100002677228569 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/motaznashawaty 

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/motaznashawaty/ [Private] 

Muck Rack:https://muckrack.com/motaz-nashawaty