Norman Danik

SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As of November 2017, Danik was reportedly a second-year education student at UOttawa.

Pushing BDS on Campus

In March 2018, Danik promoted on Facebook an anti-Israel divestment resolution on the Uottawa campus. 

The divestment initiative was jointly proposed by RSM, SPHR and Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) at UOttawa, during the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) General Assembly (GA)’s winter session on March 13, 2018.

This divestment proposal called on the SFUO to revise its policy manual and mandate that the SFUO “support this [BDS] movement as well as take a Pro-Palestine stance.”

On March 12, 2018, one day before the SFUO GA, Danik shared RSM UOttawa’s post promoting the divestment resolution to the “Ottawa for Palestine” Facebook group. 

RSM UOttawa’s post encouraged students to attend the SFUO GA to “vote in support of the boycott, divestment and sanction of Israel and its policies of colonialism and occupation!”

The post added: “Let’s bring BDS to UOttawa and show our solidarity with the struggle for national liberation of the Palestinian people!” From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.

On March 13, 2018, Danik shared the same RSM UOttawa post to the SFUO GA 2018 winter session’s Facebook event page.

On that day, during the SFUO GA, the divestment proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds majority to pass, with 241 votes for and 231 votes against.

Anti-Israel Activism

Danik is also a member of the “Ottawa for Palestine” Facebook group since March 12, 2018. The group aims to bring together “associations and individuals across the city” who are “working in solidarity with Palestinian human rights and self-determination.” 

The group description said it would “like to bring together” groups like Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) and SPHR. SAIA and SPHR are alternative names for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

IJV has promoted Holocaust denial and has been accused of peddling “antisemitism under the guise of radical anti-Zionism.” The group has also promoted BDS.

RSM UOttawa  

In 2018, the Revolutionary Students’ Movement (RSM) at the University of Ottawa (UOttawa) worked closely with Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) at Carleton University (Carleton) and UOttawa and Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UOttawa to co-host anti-Israel events, including Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and a BDS initiative.

Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been re-named Palestine Awareness Week.

SPHR/IJV/RSM UOttawa - Pushing BDS  

On November 5, 2017, Moumouni-Tchouassi — a member of SPHR UOttawa’s Facebook group and SFUO Vice-President of Equity — proposed [00:02:45] a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution during a SFUO Board of Administration (SFUO BOA) meeting. 

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/100001618484255