Rama Naboulsi

Overview

Rama Naboulsi called for Israel’s destruction at an event held in support of terrorists, as an officer with the anti-Israel activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As of September 2022, Naboulsi served as the head of “External Outreach” for the SJP chapter at Ohio State University (SJP OSU) for the 2022-2023 academic year.

During the 2021-2022 academic year, Naboulsi was an activist with SJP OSU where she promoted hatred of Israel on campus.

In April 2022, Naboulsi introduced a resolution on behalf of SJP OSU in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. She introduced the resolution while serving in the General Assembly of the OSU Undergraduate Student Government (USG). She was elected to the USG in March 2021 for the 2021-2022 academic year.

In May 2023, Naboulsi graduated [p. 75] from OSU with a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering. OSU is located in Columbus, Ohio.

In September 2023, Naboulsi received a “Hero Award” from the Ohio chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), known as CAIR-Ohio.

As of February 2024, Naboulsi’s LinkedIn said she worked as a “Research Assistant” in a “joint position with Ohio State University’s College of Law and Department of Computer Science and Engineering,” since August 2023.

As of the same date, Naboulsi’s LinkedIn said she had worked as a legal intake counselor at the Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, Ohio, since December 2022.

As of May 2024, Naboulsi’s LinkedIn said she was located in Columbus, Ohio.

Calling for Israel’s Destruction at a Pro-Terror SJP Event

On August 12, 2022, while Naboulsi served as the external outreach of SJP OSU, she attended [slide 8] an SJP OSU event titled: “EMERGENCY RALLY & CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL / In Honor of our Martyrs.” One of the martyrs listed was Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi.

Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, a “commander” of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, was known as “the lion of Nablus.” On August 9, 2022, he was killed [p. 5] in a gun battle with Israeli forces. The Brigade is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.

At the event, Naboulsi held a megaphone and chanted: [slide 4, 00:00:01] “From the river to the sea!”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.

Also at the event, Tariq Qasem, then the SJP OSU fundraising chair, chanted [slide 9, 00:00:01]: “From Columbus to Gaza, globalize the intifada!”

The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.

At the same event, Daoud Al-Akrhas, then co-president of SJP OSU, reportedly called the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) the “Israeli Occupation Forces.” He also referred to Israelis as “settler colonialist aggressors.”

“Israeli Occupation Forces,” or “IOF,” is a derogatory name for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On May 1, 2022, Naboulsi was featured [slide 1, slide 5] in an SJP OSU post on Instagram. Naboulsi repeatedly chanted [slide 4; 00:00:07]: “Hey hey! Ho ho! The occupation’s got to go!”

At the same event, Naboulsi also chanted [slide 8; 00:00:17]: “...Palestine will be free!,” which is the second half of the chant, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”

On March 3, 2023, while Naboulsi served as the external outreach head of SJP OSU, the group hosted a series of events called: “Apartheid Week.”

SJP OSU posted on Facebook: “During Israeli Apartheid Week, we hope to raise awareness of Israel’s brutal system of apartheid, settler-colonialism, and ethnic cleansing.”

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is 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.

The IAW schedule included a session called “Israeli Apartheid 101” which planned to discuss “how Israel enforces an apartheid system on Palestinians and how the West has for decades green lit the occupation and the apartheid regime.”

Another session was described as: “...BDS: No Appetite for Aparthied, we will be discussing food and beverage companies that are directly and implicitly involved in violating Palestinian rights.”

SJP OSU also posted on Facebook: “Thursday- Stop by the Oval to see our display of a mock Israeli Apartheid Wall, a reflection of the existing Apartheid Wall in Palestine.”

The “mock apartheid wall” is a series of panels meant to represent Israel's security barrier, which was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks and in response to Palestinian sniper attacks. Panels feature misleading information and graphics intended to demonize Israel. The “mock apartheid wall” is often featured at Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) events organized annually by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters on many North American university campuses.

4/6/2022 - Sponsoring a BDS Resolution on behalf of SJP OSU

Naboulsi sponsored an anti-Israel divestment resolution in the USG on behalf of SJP OSU in April 2022. Her resolution was part of SJP OSU’s campus BDS campaign.

On March 23, 2022, SJP OSU released a statement on Instagram demanding [slide 3] that OSU “immediately cut ties with companies that are complicit in ongoing human rights violations in Palestine.”

On March 30, 2022, the USG held a General Assembly meeting where SJP OSU brought an “emergency resolution.” According to an April 7, 2022, article by the OSU student publication “The Lantern,” 50 students spoke during the public forum at the March 2022 meeting but the meeting was adjourned before voting on the resolution.

On April 5, 2022, SJP OSU released an update stating that they had drafted and submitted a General Assembly resolution. However, the USG General Assembly Steering Committee reportedly voted not to include the resolution on the 54th General Assembly agenda.

On April 6, 2022, SJP OSU posted the resolution on Instagram. Naboulsi sponsored the resolution.

The BDS resolution, also known as 54-R-39, called on OSU to divest from Caterpillar Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, claiming that these companies “aid in the continuous perpetuation of systems of apartheid and oppression within the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

On April 6, 2022, the resolution was reportedly voted on “by a secret ballot” and passed [slide 2] with “two abstentions, eight no’s and 14 yeses [sic].”

On April 13, 2022, SJP OSU posted that Resolution 54-R-39 “has been officially adopted into University Student Government (USG) legislation in accordance with the USG Constitution.”

However, according to an April 13, 2022 article published by The Lantern, the resolution was not “enacted since former President Jacob Chang did not sign it before his administration’s term ended…”

On April 22, 2022, SJP OSU held a rally titled: “Columbus Protest.” The event flier read: “OHIO STATE TO FURTHER SUPPORT RESOLUTION 54-R-39 & DIVEST FROM COMPANIES COMPLICIT IN HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN PALESTINE…”

One of the protesters held [slide 3] a sign that said: “We talk about the holocaust that happened 80 years ago. But not the one that’s happening TODAY.”

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

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.