Radi Shahrouri
Overview
Radi Shahrouri defended a terrorist and demonized Israel as an activist with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UOttawa. SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).As of April 2018, Shahrouri was a member of several SPHR UOttawa Facebook groups since 2014, including: “SPHR Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights uOttawa 2018-2019.”
Shahrouri has promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on UOttawa’s campus.
On March 22, 2017, Shahrouri wrote on Facebook that he was an “active member” of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UOttawa (UOMSA), and that he was running for the VP external position of UOMSA in 2017. He also wrote that he was entering his last year “of university in Public Administration.”
Shahrouri has been a member of the anti-Israel Facebook group “Palestine” since 2008. As of May 2018, the group “About” page said: “We support the resistance of the Palestinian people whether armed, diplomatic, cultural, or economic. The page also describes Israel as “a cancer implanted in the heart of the Middle East” and claims that “Palestine was raped in 1948 by Zionists.”
As of April 24, 2018, Shahrouri listed on Facebook that he was a receptionist with the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) since September 2016.
Defending Terrorists
On January 17, 2016, Shahrouri posted to Facebook: “Free Ahmad Manasrah! [sic] Free Palestinian child prisoners! Free all the prisoners! End the occupation! Free Palestine!”Shahrouri attached to his post a photo of Ahmed Manasra and the hashtag #FreeAhmedManasra.
Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015, during the Knife Intifada. The pair critically wounded a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. Manasra later admitted to investigators: “I went there to stab Jews,” and was convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Gazan Palestinians approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” to kick off the “March of Return” — funded by Hamas and organized as a six-week campaign of violent protests along the border until May 15, 2018.
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused Israeli security forces to respond with live fire.
Agitators reportedly shot firearms and threw molotov cocktails, firebombs and rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.
Demonizing Israel
On July 27, 2014, — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Shahrouri appeared in a photo on Facebook lying prone on the floor alongside other demonstrators. The photo was captioned: “Silent protest for the martyrs and children of Palestine #Freepalestine #ottawa.”On August 4, 2014, Shahrouri quoted in a Facebook post a speech given during an anti-Israel protest two days before, writing:”’What is barbaric, Mr. Obama? Barbaric is Zionism'. Great speech!”
.”On December 8, 2017, Shahrouri encouraged his Facebook followers to sign a petition titled: “Canadians Oppose Foreign Embassies in Jerusalem.” The petition described a promise by a Canadian politician to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital as “offensive, appalling, illegal, and wrong.”
On August 6, 2014, during OPE, Shahrouri posted to Facebook a petition, titled “Tell your MP to call for peace and condemn Israeli war crimes.” Shahrouri commented: “It takes less then a minute. Lets [sic] tell our government that they need to stand for justice and human rights.”
Anti-Israel Campus Activism
In January of 2017, the SFUO Campaigns Department co-hosted Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) with SPHR UOttawa.On January 16, 2017, Shahrouri indicated on Facebook that he “went” to the “Volunteer Meeting - Israeli Apartheid.”
On March 18, 2015, Shahrouri promoted on Facebook an SPHR co-hosted event in support of BDS. Shahrouri commented: “Support BDS! Come out tomorrow for the film screening of "Discordia" and discussion.”
On September 18, 2014, Shahrouri posted to Facebook: “If you're interested in joining the ‘Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights’ organization we are at the university center all day today!”
SPHR UOttawa
As of June 2007, Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at UOttawa (SPHR UOttowa)’s Mission Statement said the group was committed to the “struggle against the colonialist and imperialist policies of the Israeli government and the ideology upon which the state was formed.”In 2018, SPHR UOttowa worked closely with Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) and the Revolutionary Students Movement (RSM) at UOttawa to host anti-Israel campus events. These events included Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) and a divestment initiative.
On March 29, 2018, as part of IAW, SPHR UOttawa promoted on Facebook a film screening hosted by RSM that celebrated terrorist Leila Khaled.
SPHR UOttawa's Facebook post referred to Khaled as a “Palestinian revolutionary who became a household name after she became the first woman to hijack a plane.”
Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
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.Students were notified of the upcoming resolution vote only two days prior, on a Friday, hours before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath.
The resolution sought to amend the SFUO policy handbook to explicitly adopt and promote BDS. The initial BDS motion read, “The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa will support [the BDS] movement as well as take a Pro-Palestine stance.”
However, before the vote took place, Moumouni-Tchouassi proposed an amendment, changing the wording of the resolution to read “the SFUO will divest from industries and companies who actively support war and occupation including the apartheid regime of the State of Israel against the Palestinian population.”
The BOA rejected the amendment. Following pushback, Moumouni-Tchouassi amended [01:14:00] the resolution to remove all references to BDS. The amended resolution committed the SFUO to do “all in its power to peacefully resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
On March 13, 2018, SPHR, IJV and RSM at UOttawa jointly proposed a divestment initiative, during the SFUO General Assembly (SFOU GA)’s winter session.
The proposal called for the SFUO to divest from companies “complicit in violation of Palestinian human rights,” to boycott Israeli artists and to “work for the cancellation of all forms of cooperation with Israeli academic institutions.”
The divestment proposal failed to garner the required two-thirds majority to pass, with 241 votes for and 231 votes against.
After the vote, SPHR posted on Facebook ”... this moment remains a victory for all students who stand in solidarity with Palestinian human rights.”
On March 25, 2018, SPHR UOttawa attempted to push the failed BDS motion at another SFUO BOA meeting. Once more, it failed to reach the two-thirds majority necessary to pass the resolution.
The following day, UOttawa President and Vice-Chancellor, Jacques Frémont, released a statement strongly denouncing the SFUO BDS campaign:
“This issue is divisive and a detriment to an open and welcoming campus environment,” said Frémont. “The University of Ottawa will have no part of the BDS movement nor any movement that boycotts academic institutions.”
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.
MSA
The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
