Omar Shanti

On April 2, 2015, Shanti wrote a letter to the editor of the Daily Northwestern titled: “Israel’s damn security facade.”

Shanti’s letter was in response to an opinion piece published by a Daily Northwestern columnist titled: “Pinto: Israeli people want peace — but not yet.”

Shanti wrote: “Conflating security issues with demographic ambitions grants the Israeli government full support in pursuing its racist ideologies.”

On April 23, 2015, Shanti co-authored a letter to the editor of the Daily Northwestern, condemning an event hosted by J Street U Northwestern, the student organizing arm of J Street at NU. The event was titled: “Side by Side: Telling Two Narratives.”

In the letter, Shanti and his co-authors criticized the event, saying: “Without citing evidence of the Nakba, the event showcased handpicked Palestinian narratives, reducing the Nakba from the ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population to a few video clips of stories.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”

The letter also accused Israel of “colonialism” and concluded: “We are not saying that J Street U should not seek out different narratives and discuss this topic. Rather, we are suggesting that when people are oppressed systematically by an apartheid system, it is on the rest of the world to heed their calls for solidarity.”

In January 2015, SJP Northwestern launched a divestment campaign at NU called Northwestern Divest (NU Divest), which was described as “a student-led campaign calling on Northwestern University to divest from corporations that are profiting off of the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands.”

On February 14, 2015, NU Divest tweeted a photo of Shanti posing with BDS movement leader Hatem Bazian and other NU Divest activists following an event and wrote: “The #NUDivest crew with Dr. @HatemBazian last night!...” The Facebook event’s page description said the event was “part of the #NUdivest series of events.”

Hatem Bazian is the founder of the anti-Israel organizations Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Bazian has a decades-long history of incitement and of using classic anti-Semitic tropes to demonize Israel.

On February 18, 2015 Shanti spoke [03:39:50] at a hearing in the Northwestern Associated Student Government (ASG) that was held to debate NU Divest’s resolution.

Shanti referred [03:50:04] to Israel as an “illegal occupation” and stated [03:50:07]: “we have remained… in the West Bank now surrounded on over 300 degrees by the illegal Israeli apartheid wall.”

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

On February 19, 2015, five hours after the debate began, NU’s ASG Senate passed NU Divest’s resolution with a vote of 24 in favor, 22 against and three abstentions.

On the same date, Shanti appeared in a photo on NU Divest’s Facebook page wearing a T-shirt featuring the NU Divest logo.

On the same date, Shanti featured in a photo on the cover of the Daily Northwestern celebrating the passage of the resolution.

On February 23, 2015, Shanti co-authored a letter celebrating the passage of NU Divest’s resolution.

On May 1, 2015 , Shanti spoke at an NU Divest event titled: “THE 'B.S'. about B.D.S.” Shanti reportedly gave “a PowerPoint presentation that explained what the BDS movement is and what it stands for.”

On May 12, 2015, Shanti was pictured in a photo posted on SJP Northwestern’s Facebook page, holding a Palestinian flag with other students. Text on the whiteboard behind them read: “#APARTHEIDWEEKNU.”

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

On May 13, 2015, Shanti was pictured in a photo posted on SJP Northwestern’s Facebook page. The photo was from an event held on May 12, 2015, titled: “A Night of Cultural Resistance.” The event was part of a larger series of events titled: “Israeli Apartheid Week at Northwestern 5/11-5/15.”

On May 15, 2015, during SJP Northwestern’s IAW, Shanti spoke at an event commemorating the Nakba. The Daily Northwestern wrote in an article about the event: “McCormick sophomore Omar Shanti, SJP’s media chair, said in commemoration of Nakba day, it is important to discuss the institutions of colonial Zionism that remain today.”

On May 19, 2015 Shanti was featured in a SJP Northwestern’s Facebook photo, posing next to SJP Northwestern’s IAW banner.

On November 6, 2015, Shanti participated in an NU Divest “action” at NU’s Norris University Center (Norris) in protest of NU’s lack of action after the ASG Senate passed NU Divest’s resolution in February 2015.

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 Student 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.

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.

Demonizing Israel

Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, BDS)

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)

Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS)

Social Media and Weblinks