Nicholas Alexander

Overview

Nicholas Alexander has shown support for a terrorist and spread hatred of Israel. In March 2016, Alexander was listed on the UMN website as an officer of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Minnesota (UMN).

As of January 2020, Alexander’s Facebook page said he “Studied History” at UMN from 2012 - 2016. From March 2014 through at least July 2020, Alexander went by the name “Nick Alexander” on Facebook.

Support for a Terrorist

On April 29, 2014, Alexander changed his Facebook profile picture to an image of terrorist Leila Khaled.

Khaled is a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau.

Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On July 21, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Alexander wrote on Facebook that Israel was practicing “apartheid and genocide.”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Alexander commented on the post, writing: “The IDF is launching discriminatory shellings and bombings of civilian areas... They are trying to completely occupy Gaza for their own expansion. It's awful, horrific and disgusting display of genocide.”

SJP UMN Activism

On March 5, 2015, Alexander featured in group photos shared on Facebook by SJP UMN taken at an SJP UMN hosted an event with Dan Cohen, a journalist with the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss.

On March 4, 2015, Alexander also featured in an SJP UMN Facebook photo, of a select group that met with Cohen prior to the event.

On March 4, 2015, SJP UMN hosted an event with Dan Cohen, speaking about his experiences reporting from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). OPE was launched by Israel to stop Hamas rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to 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.” Despite Hamas’s efforts to specifically frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza, Cohen also claimed “Israeli soldiers were allowed to take revenge” and intentionally shot civilians.

On February 5, 2015, Alexander featured in a photo shared on Instagram by SJP UMN, taken at an SJP-UMN-organized “teach in.”

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 Aloon and [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 Halabi murdered 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.”

Nashawaty continued [00:02:43] “our people are dying in streets now in Palestine, but they are not helpless - they are resisting.”

On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN posted to Facebook photos from a rally in support of Rasmea Odeh and wrote: “Thank you to our friends for keeping us updated with some pictures from Rasmea's appeal today.” Participants in the rally held signs that read:“I support RASMEA” and “Minnesota stands with Rasmea Odeh.”

Odeh was a key military operative 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.

One of the photos of Odeh that SJP UMN shared on Facebook was captioned: “This is what you call a #Warrior.”

On October 12, 2015, SJP UMN shared on their Facebook page a video that claimed Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara), purportedly “bled to death” and suffered abuse by Israeli soldiers.

Mansara was wounded while he engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem, critically wounding a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounding a 25-year-old man.

Manasra was successfully treated at the same Israeli hospital as his victims and later convicted of attempted murder.

SJP UMN wrote in their Facebook post: “We cannot ignore these constant, heinous crimes, acts of racism, hatred, and inhumanity Palestinians are subjected to by Israeli settlers.”

SJP UMN Spreading Incitement: 2015

On November 1, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “Israel is a colonial bully, trying to take Al Aqsa under the guise of ‘sharing.’”

The allegation that Jews will destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, has been applied to Jews as a pretext for attacks by Arabs, even before the existence of Israel.

Such propaganda was the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence in the fall of 2015, with Palestinian leaders fueling violence by promoting the libel that Israel intends to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Hamas called on Palestinians to “take up arms” to defend Al Aqsa and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised those willing to martyr themselves. He also declared Jews would not be allowed to “desecrate” Al Aqsa with their “filthy feet.”

In October 2015, SJP UMN posted a photo on Instagram of their section on the Washington Avenue Bridge. One of their panels featured a map that erased Israel, portraying the whole country with no internal borders and entirely covered by a keffiyeh.

SJP UMN Campaigning Against a Jewish Heritage Trip: 2015

In February 2015, SJP UMN launched a campaign against the Jewish heritage trip to Israel, Birthright. Campaign flyers said: “FREE TRIP TO ISRAEL BUT WHO PAYS THE PRICE?”

The campaign condemned Birthright for presenting “a depoliticized image of Israel” and programming a trip that is “overall tailored to be pleasant experience devoid of conflict.” The campaign claimed that the program “would not discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and that “topics such as illegal settlements in the West Bank and restrictions on Gaza will not be covered.”.

SJP UMN encouraged Birthright participants to extend their trip and join tours with political groups such as Breaking the Silence (BTS) and The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), whose director Jeff Halper has called for the end of Israel.

Breaking the Silence was discredited by Israeli investigative TV show, HaMakor, in July 2016, in a report revealing that a substantial number of BTS testimonies are untrue or distorted.

SJP UMN Disrupting an Israeli Speaker: 2015

On November 3, 2015, SJP UMN endorsed the disruption of an event where three activists were reportedly arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

The event was a talk on ethics and the law of war by Israeli law professor, Moshe Halbertal. The disruption was organized by the Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose campaigns mainly to end US aid to Israel.

Protesters reportedly sat in the audience and then stood and shouted chants, preventing Halbertal from speaking and accusing him of being a “war crimes apologist.” FightBack News said: “The lecture was scheduled for one hour, but most of that time was taken up by interruptions.”

The article also said that after protesters were removed from the hall by university police, they continued disrupting the event by shouting [00:00:01] chants including “free, free Palestine” and [00:01:55] “Israel is an apartheid state” in the hallway, which were audible from inside the lecture hall. Anti-Israel propagandist Sabry Wazwaz, who has called for the destruction of Israel and the U.S., spread anti-Semitism, compared Zionists to Nazis and expressed support for a terrorist, led the chants.

SJP UMN Demonizing Israel: 2015-2016

In April 2016, SJP UMN built a “mock apartheid wall” for its “Divest Week 2016,” which the group called a “divestment special edition of our annual Israeli Apartheid Week,” promoting the 2016 UMN Divest BDS campaign.

IAW is a series of events on university campuses that promote Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and claim to “raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system.”

On April 22 2015, SJP UMN wrote on Facebook that “Israel’s ‘birthday’ is established on the occupation and exile of an entire people,” in a post which also denied SJP involvement in the vandalism of a pro-Israel group’s display celebrating Israeli independence.

The next day, Rula Rashid, SJP UMN treasurer, reportedly approached a table set up by a pro-Israel campus group to educate students about Israel’s independence and said “you stole our land.”

On April 9, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “‘If it's centered around Judaism, why are only white Jews allowed to live in Israel? It's not a case about religion and Judaism.’ @MnarMuh.”

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.

SJP UMN Opposing Normalization: 2015

On April 23, 2015, SJP UMN posted on Facebook a “definition of normalization.” The definition said that normalization was “gathering (either directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis, whether individuals or institutions; that does not explicitly aim to expose and resist the occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.”

The policy of “anti-normalization” aims to ensure that all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians align only their agenda, including ending the occupation and a full right of return for Palestinians, which is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. The policies are shared with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

SJP UMN Hosting Anti-Israel Propagandists: 2015

On October 15, 2015, during the “Knife Intifada,” SJP UMN hosted anti-Israel propagandist Sabry Wazwaz at a vigil for “the Palestinian lives lost in the recent attacks.” The “Knife Intifada,” was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders.

Wazwaz has spread religious incitement, promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and called for intifada.

On April 20, 2015, SJP UMN co-sponsored an event featuring disgraced anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita on “how critique of American and Israeli colonization might be productively undertaken.” In 2014, Salaita had an offer employment retracted by the University of Illinois, after a series of anti-Semitic tweets he had posted were uncovered.

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.

On March 8, 2016, the MSA voted [00:26:24] to strike down the divestment resolution from the MSA agenda.

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.