Rachel Kuria

Overview

Rachel Kuria demonstrated in solidarity with terrorists and whitewashed violent riots in Gaza. She also demonized Israel as the 2016-2017 Outreach and Programming Director and board member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

In November 2016, Kuria was tagged as having attended the 2016 SJP National Conference (NSJP), held at George Mason University (GMU).

As of November 2018, Kuria’s LinkedIn page said she was a Portfolio Manager at DLL. She graduated from UCLA in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government.

Demonstrating in Solidarity with Terrorists

On May 15, 2017, Kuria participated in the “Saltwater Challenge,” on campus, along with other SJP at UCLA activists, in support of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The student leading the Saltwater Challenge alleged [00:00:04] that many of the prisoners were “falsely imprisoned and subjected to inhumane treatment.”

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."

Defending Violent Riots in Gaza

Kuria retweeted a May 15, 2018 tweet featuring a video by anti-Israel activist Noura Erakat portraying violent riots instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border as the “largest civil protest” in the world. She also accused [00:01:17] Israel of executing “children who are protesting.”

Kuria retweeted a tweet from May 14, 2018, that said: “52 Palestinians murdered today and I don't know a single one of their names after watching cable news. I don't know that they are marching for their right to return to their homes and land. I don't know that Gaza is an open-air prison and still under Israeli occupation.”

On May 14, 2018, Kuria tweeted: “#FreePalestine” and attached to her tweet an MSNBC interview of Princeton professor Eddie Glaude Jr. denouncing “Israel's killing of Palestinian children.”

The border riots, called “The Great March of Return” 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.”

Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border [with Israel] and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”

On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14th protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.

Demonizing Israel

Kuria retweeted an August 18, 2015 tweet that linked to the “Black Solidarity Statement for Palestine.”

The statement accused Israel of massacring Palestinians, and targeting “homes, schools, UN shelters, mosques, ambulances, and hospitals,” during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), in 2014.

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

During OPE, Hamas forced journalists to conceal its war crimes when reporting from Gaza. However, multiple news sources exposed Hamas's exploitation of civilian infrastructure to attack Israel, as well as Hamas's use of human shields to frustrate Israel’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.

The 2015 Black Solidarity statement also described Israel an “apartheid” regime and charged Israel with the “ethnic cleansing” of Palestinians since 1948. The statement also equated Zionism with white supremacy and racism.

Kuria retweeted a July 21, 2017 tweet by Anti-Israel poet Remi Kanazi that said: “Palestinians have the right to resist, they have the right to return, they have the right to live free of occupation, apartheid & siege.”

Kuria retweeted a January 1, 2018 tweet defending anti-Israel provocateur Ahed Tamimi that declared: “You can lock Ahed away, Israel, but you can’t lock away your disgrace.”

Ahed Tamimi has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.

SJP Activism

Kuria retweeted a February 12, 2018 tweet promoting Palestine Awareness Week 2018, hosted by SJP at UCLA.

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.

On April 17, 2017, Kuria broadcast a “Palestinian Prisoners Day” panel on Facebook, hosted by SJP at UCLA and featuring anti-Israel professor Rabab Abdulhadi. The event page claimed that Abdulhadi would be discussing “Israel as a colonial carceral state, colonial violence and indigenous resistance.”

Kuria retweeted two February 13, 2017 tweets promoting Palestine Awareness Week 2017 hosted by SJP at UCLA.

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, Kuria appeared in a photo, along with the rest of SJP at UCLA’s 2016-2017 board members on Facebook, posing together with Jhally and Waters.

SJP at UCLA - Support for Terrorists

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

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.