Qudsiyyah Aamina

Promoting BDS

On March 28, 2016, a coalition of organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Chicago (JVP UChicago) and SJP U of C, launched the ‪‎UofC Divest‬ campaign. The campaign called on U of C’s College Council to pass a resolution urging the university’s divestment from targeted companies doing business with Israel. 

On March 30, 2016, Aamina changed her Facebook profile picture to a UofC Divest campaign poster and commented: “Because silence is complicity. #UofCDivest.”

On April 14, 2016, two-weeks after the UofC Divest campaign’s launch, the College Council passed the resolution in an 8-4-3 vote. 

On April 12, 2017, Aamina again changed her Facebook profile photo to the UofC Divest campaign poster and wrote: “#TellTheTrustees to divest from apartheid and to create a socially responsible investment committee. Sign the petition and feel free to add your own message: bit.ly/TellTheTrustees.”

On the same day, Aamina shared an image on Facebook with a caption that accused Israel of “regular Israeli bombing and ground invasions” of Gaza and called for BDS. Aamina also wrote: “Sign on to our letter to the Board of Trustees Investment Committee, and leave your own message: #UofCDivest #TellTheTrustees.”

On April 18, 2017, Aamina tabled on campus for UofC Divest urging students to sign a petition titled: “Petition to UofC Trustees: Divest & End Our Complicity in Apartheid.”

The petition alleged “the University is likely invested in companies that support Israeli crimes” and claimed: “To date, student petitions to divest from companies perpetrating abhorrent crimes against humanity have been rejected or ignored.”

Anti-Israel Activism

On November 7, 2017, Aamina indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an SJP at U of C-organized event, titled: “Pinkwashing: The Fight For Queer, Palestinian Liberation.”
“Pinkwashing” is a claim that Israel advocates manipulate the LGBTQ community in order to garner support for Israel.   

The Facebook event page said: “Through the spread of propaganda, Israel brands itself as 'the only country safe for LGBT+ people in the Middle East', calling on western Islamophobia in order to erase their occupation of Palestine.”

The event was one of a series of events during SJP at U of C’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW).


On March 17, 2017, Aamina indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an SJP at U of C-organized event, titled: “Nakba Week 2017: The Palestinian Catastrophe.”

The Facebook event page said “Understanding the Nakba as an ongoing process inherent to settler colonialism is crucial in understanding everything from the illegal occupation to the refugee crisis to the fight for equal rights within modern-day Israel.”

The following day, on May 18, 2017, Aamina indicated on Facebook that she “went” to another Nakba Week 2017 event, titled “Cultural Night.”  

The Cultural Night’s event page referred to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war as “a process that has been termed ‘ethnic cleansing.’”

Attendees were invited by the organizers to “come learn about and enjoy the existence of Palestinian cultural [sic.] as resistance to settler colonization.”

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.

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