Praptee Chowdhury

Overview

Praptee Chowdhury has demonized Israel and was a 2016-2017 board member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In November of 2016, Chowdhury attended the 2016 SJP National Conference, held at George Mason University (GMU).

As of August 2018, Chowdhury’s LinkedIn page stated that she graduated from UCLA in 2017, with a bachelor’s degree in Physiological Psychology and Psychobiology.

Also as of 2018, Chowdhury’s LinkedIn said she was a Patient Care Coordinator at Dr. Christopher W. Chu, MD in the Greater Los Angeles Area.

Demonizing Israel

On June 3, 2018, duringthe Hamas-instigated riots dubbed the “March of Return,” Chowdhury tweeted: “special place in hell for cops + the IDF.”

In May 2018, violent riots, instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border, saw thousands of rioters attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with participants declaring their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”

On October 26, 2016, Chowdhury shared on Facebook an Al Jazeera article titled “Kashmir and Palestine,” which equated Israel’s relations to Palestinians with India’s Hindutva occupation of Kashmir.

The article called Zionism an “aggressive religious nationalism,” and accused Israel of carrying out illegal “killings” daily. The article also described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the "Butcher of Palestinians."

On September 16, 2016, Chowdhury shared on Facebook a Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) call to reinstate a controversial student-led Palestine course, titled “Palestine: a Settler Colonial Analysis.” The course was sponsored by SJP Founder Hatem Bazian and was facilitated by SJP UC Berkeley student activist, Paul Hadweh.

The course description said it would “explore the connection between Zionism and settler colonialism, and the ways in which it has manifested, and continues to manifest, in Palestine.” The course description also said it would “explore the possibilities of a decolonized Palestine.”

The course was suspended on September 13, 2016, after 43 Jewish, civil rights and education advocacy groups expressed worry over its content and presentation. The course was later reinstated.

Within the week, flyers appeared throughout the UC Berkeley campus, reading: “Jewish bullies smash free speech at CAL and are pledged $38 billion. Attention Non-Jews: PAY UP and SHUT UP!”.

On August 23, 2016, Chowdhury shared the SJP at UCLA endorsement of the Black Lives Matter platform on Facebook.

The August 3, 2016, Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) policy platform promoted the Boycott Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and accused Israel of “genocide” and “apartheid.”

After Reform Jewish leaders and organizations issued a statement affirming their commitment to racial justice but condemning the anti-Semitic planks in M4BL’s platform, the author of the M4BL platform doubled down on the genocide claim.

On August 20, 2016, Chowdhury shared on Facebook a defense of the Black Lives Matter policy platform by the anti-Israel news site Electronic Intifada (EI), titled “Black activists owe no apology for charging Israel with genocide.”

SJP Activism

On April 17, 2017, SJP at UCLA hosted a talk in honor of “Palestinian Prisoners Day” featuring professor Rabab Abdulhadi. Professor Rabab Abdulhadi has, since 2014, sought to cultivate alliances between SFSU and two Hamas-dominated Palestinian universities.

The event page said that Abdulhadi would be discussing: “Israel as a colonial carceral state, colonial violence and indigenous resistance.” On April 18, 2017, Chowdhury appeared in a Facebook photo of the event along with Abdulhadi and fellow SJP at UCLA board members.

On September 23, 2016, Chowdhury promoted that year's SJP “Fall Kick-Off Meeting!” on Facebook.

On October 6, 2016, Chowdhury shared on Facebookan SJP-hosted event on Facebook featuring the screening of the film “Roadmap to Apartheid,” a film that compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa.

On November 30, 2016, SJP at UCLA screened the anti-Israel film “The Occupation of the American Mind.” The event also featured the film’s anti-Israel executive producer, Professor Sut Jhally, and anti-Israel musician and BDS-supporter Roger Waters.

On December 1, 2016, Chowdhury posted on Facebook a photo of herself along with the other SJP at UCLA 2016-2017 board members, posing together with Jhally and Waters.

On February 15, 2017, Chowdhury featured on SJP at UCLA’s Instagram, holding a sign that read: “Palestine is my Valentine.”

SJP at UCLA - Support for Terrorists

On May 15, 2017, SJP at UCLA participated in a “Saltwater Challenge.”

The “Saltwater Challenge” was held in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prison inmates convicted of terrorism. The strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings that killed five Israelis during the second intifada. Aarab Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti, launched the "Saltwater Challenge."

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

On October 29, 2015, SJP at UCLA shared on their website an October 23, 2015 submission published six days prior in the Daily Bruin, titled “Palestinians are dying too.”

The submission, written by Shawndeez Davari Jadalizadeh, accused another article in the Daily Bruin of taking part in an attempt “to erase Palestinian life” by failing to mention the names of Palestinians killed during the Knife Intifada.

The submission then listed a number of “Palestinians killed by Israelis... since Oct. 1, the beginning of the third intifada,” such as: Mohannad Halabi, Fadi Alloun, Amjad Hatem al-Jundi, Bassem Bassam Sidr, Hassan Khalid Manasra, Fadel al-Qawasmi and Mohamed Nathmie Shamassnah.

In October 2015, Halabi murdered two Israelis and injured two others, including a 2-year-old, during a stabbing spree. One day earlier, Halabi posted on his Facebook page that "the [t]he third Intifada is here" and wrote "[w]ake up from your slumber and save al-Aqsa. Let the revolution erupt."

Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.

Amjad Al-Jundi stabbed an Israeli soldier on October 7, 2015. He then took the soldier’s rifle and ran to a nearby apartment building where he tried to shoot and stab a local woman in her home. Police responded and killed Al-Jundi during a shootout that transpired.

Basel Bessam Sidr was shot while attempting to stab Israeli police officers in Jerusalem. Fadil Qawasmi was shot after attempting to staban Israeli policeman and a civilian in Hebron.

Hassan Manasra was shot on October 12, 2015, while he and his 13-year-old cousin Ahmed were engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem, critically wounding a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounding a 25-year-old man.

On October 17, 2015, during the “Knife Intifada,” Fadil Qawasmi was shot after attempting to staban Israeli policeman and a civilian in Hebron.

Mohammad Nathmie Shamasna was shot after he stabbed a 19-year-old Israeli soldier and unsuccessfully tried to grab his gun.

During an interview with the Lebanese Al-Quds TV channel following the attack,

Shamasna’s mother said the family was proud of her son, who was “martyred for the sake of Al-Aqsa,” and then pulled out a knife concealed beneath her clothes and said, while making stabbing motions: “Watch out, Israel! Watch out!”

SJP at UCLA - Anti-Semitism

In February 2015, four SJP at UCLA activists and council senators with the Undergraduate Students Association (USA) were involved in a widely publicized anti-Semitic incident.

Sofia Moreno Haq, Negeen Sadeghi-Movahed, Manjot Singh and Fabienne Roth were responsible for preventing Rachel Beyda from joining the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) judicial board, because she belonged to Jewish organizations.

Beyda’s position on the Judicial Board was later confirmed at a re-vote and the four objecting counselors submitted a formal apology to Beyda and the Jewish community.

SJP at UCLA - Intimidation

In 2016, SJP at UCLA reportedly harassed and intimidated Milan Chaterjee, the former president of UCLA’s Graduate Student Association (GSA), to such an extent that he stepped down from his student government position and left UCLA.

In November 2015, Chaterjee attempted to block an effort by SJP at UCLA to use school funds to promote the BDS movement during a diversity caucus Town hall event, in accordance with a policy requiring viewpoint neutrality.

Chaterjee said that, as a result, he was "relentlessly attacked, bullied, and harassed by BDS-affiliated organizations and students" for months.

In April 2014, SJP at UCLA members submitted a petition to USAC’s judicial board against two former undergraduate student government council members who participated in trips to Israel that were sponsored by pro-Israel Jewish organizations.

SJP at UCLA alleged that the council members committed “conflict of interest violations” by participating in the sponsored trips and should have abstained from voting on a February 2014 BDS resolution. SJP at UCLA also argued the council members’ votes on the divestment resolution should have been disqualified.

Although the ballot on the divestment resolution was secret, it was assumed that the two voted against the resolution because they both spoke against the resolution during discussions prior to the vote.

The student judicial board later ruled that the trips taken by the council members did not constitute a conflict of interest.

SJP at UCLA - BDS Activism

In December 2013, SJP at UCLA launched its first divestment campaign, drafting a resolution calling on the UC Regents to pull funding from five companies doing business with Israel, including Caterpillar, Cemex, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), General Electric (GE), and Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The February 2014 debate lasted over ten hours and went until six in the morning the following day. The resolution was ultimately voted down.

In November 2014, SJP at UCLA again pushed a divestment resolution “calling on the Regents to divest from companies that enable and profit from violations of Palestinian rights.”

The resolution claimed that the same five companies “provided weapons used” by Israel “in attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip,” and that investment in these companies “shows implicit support” for “the killings of civilians.”

On November 18, 2014, the undergraduate student government adopted the divestment resolution with a vote of 8-2-2.

In February 2015, SJP at UCLA pushed BDS beyond the UCLA campus by promoting a divestment resolution to the UC Student Association (UCSA). The resolution also called on the UC Regents to divest from American-based corporations that “violate Palestinian human rights.”.

The UCSA Board of Directors passed the resolution by a 9-1-5 vote.

SJP at UCLA also used their 2014 Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) to promote divestment, erecting a “mock apartheid wall” and hosting a screening and discussion of the film “Roadmap to Apartheid,” a film that compared Israel to apartheid in South Africa.

Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding for American audiences of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), originally 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.

SJP at UCLA - Glorifying Rasmea Odeh

On February 14, 2017, SJP at UCLA glorified Rasmea Odeh on their Facebook page in honor of Palestine Awareness Week (PAW), calling her an “icon of the Palestine liberation movement,” and “an example for the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights.”

The post concluded: “#Justice4Rasmea #FreePalestine #PAW2017.”

Odeh was a military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an internationally designated terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a bombing that killed two university students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated her as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States. In 2017, Odeh was deported to Jordan and stripped of U.S. citizenship, after admitting to immigration fraud.

SJP at UCLA - Hosting Israel Haters

On November 15, 2017, SJP at UCLA hosted anti-Israel journalist David Sheen. The event description said Sheen would “speak about racism and ethnic cleansing within the Israeli community.” Sheen is an anti-Israel propagandist.

In his films, Jhally claims that the “Israel lobby” has waged “the most successful PR campaign ever,” the result of which is a strong pro-Israel bias in American public media.
On January 27, 2016, SJP at UCLA hosted anti-Israel activists Max Blumenthal and Miko Peled.

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.”

Blumenthal’s book “Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel” has been dubbed “The Israel Hater’s Handbook” by Eric Alterman of progressive magazine The Nation.

On January 28, 2016, SJP at UCLA hosted anti-Israel Professors Ahlam Muthaseb and Sa'ed Atshan.

Muhtaseb regularly uses her Facebook and Twitter to demonize Israel, whitewash Palestinian terrorism and collaborate with fellow anti-Israel activists. Atshan has praised inciters of violence as well as Sheikh Omar Suleiman who, in 2014, called on Twitter for a “Third Intifada” to destroy 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.