Ralph Haddad

Haddad’s article was witten in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE), which Israel commenced in July of 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On February 12, 2015, at an SPHR workshop titled “the Face of State Violence and Police Brutality in Palestine,” Haddad spoke about “countering the Israeli public relations machine,” claiming “Israel is known to employ students and employees in giant operations, using Facebook and Twitter and social media to spread propaganda to gain sympathy for the IDF.”

The workshop, facilitated by SPHR members Maggie Gilligan and Zahra Habib, reportedly provided an overview and discussion on “the ways that state violence and police brutality are used by Israel against Palestinians as part of a larger apartheid project.”

The workshop also reportedly illustrated that “state violence manifests visually in the lives of Palestinians, illustrating how these effects originate from institutions, such as the Israeli government and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as well as ideologies like racism, Zionism, and settler-colonialism.”

On January 20, 2014, Haddad published an article about “the repression of anti-Zionist (and anti-Israeli) voices in the Jewish community” and wrote that he “want[s] to try to combat some of this censorship.”

In the article, Haddad quoted Scott Weinstein, a member of the Montreal Steering Committee at Independent Jewish Voices as saying: “Ideological Zionists control a lot of wealth and hold sway in the mainstream media.” Haddad also wrote that Weinstein “claimed that today’s Zionists are the principal agents fueling anti-Semitism.” 

Supporting BDS

On February 11, 2016, Haddad posted a graphic on Instagram promoting a BDS campaign at McGill. Haddad wrote in his post: “Against human rights abuses? Vote Yes. Don't like McGill's unethical investments in companies that profit off heinous human rights abuses? Vote yes. Are you my friend and are supportive of my life and also social justice and social accountability measures? Also vote yes. #McGillBDS #BDS #Palestine.”

On March 31, 2014, Haddad published an article under the alias Omar Riachi, titled “The value of academic boycott,” in which he promoted arguments by anti-Israel activists on the effectiveness of an academic boycott of Israel. 

Haddad quoted Paul Di Stefano, an organizer with Tadamon! Montreal as saying: “If we do not apply or support the boycott, we are advocating normalization… Normalization is all about accepting the humanity of Israelis, while denying the Palestinians their own.”

Haddad quoted BDS leader Judith Butler as warning that “academic freedom debates… deflect from the broader political problem of how to address the destruction of infrastructure, civil society, cultural and intellectual life under the conditions of the Occupation.” Haddad added: “academia is also dissent if utilized as such...”

McGill BDS  

On March 15, 2015, the McGill chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) presented the General Assembly of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) with a motion calling on McGill to boycott five companies doing business in Israel. The motion failed by 64 votes after an “intense” 45-minute debate. SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

On February 22, 2016, the McGill BDS Action Network presented a “motion to support BDS” to the General Assembly of the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU).
 
The motion called for the SSMU to “support campaigns associated with the BDS movement.” It also called for the SSMU president to recommend to McGill’s board of governors “no less than the complete divestment of holdings” in companies doing business in Israel. According to one source, the motion reportedlypassed 512 to 357.

On February 25, 2016, BDS supporters reportedly targeted Jewish students on social media with anti-Semitic remarks such as: “Little Zionist jewboys not happy that McGill students don’t support their genocide.”

The Montreal Gazette reported that after the vote, one student was “followed home and verbally harassed,” while another “was going to the police” to report an attempt to hack his Facebook page. A campaigner against the initiative said he knew of at least 10 students who sought counseling due to “intolerable situations” caused by their opposition to the motion.

On February 27, 2016, the BDS initiative lost the subsequent online ratification vote when 57 percent of the voters voted against it. Following the announcement of that vote, then-McGill principal and vice-chancellor Suzanne Fortier issued a statement confirming that the university’s administration “continues to steadfastly oppose” and “will have no part of” the BDS movement.

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.

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blacksmith42

Twitter: https://twitter.com/j7edded

https://twitter.com/rblaksmith [Deleted]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ralph-haddad-a232466b/

https://ca.linkedin.com/pub/ralph-haddad/6b/246/a23 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rblacksmith/