Rami Yahia

Overview

Rami Yahia has expressed support for terrorists, spread hatred of Israel and led a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement campaign at Concordia University (Concordia) in 2014.

Yahia was a member of the Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at Concordia (SPHR Concordia) from 2014 and 2016. SPHR is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Yahia was SPHR Concordia’s general coordinator in 2015.

Yahia was also a member of the board of directors of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) from 2014 to 2016. He was a CSU Internal Coordinator in 2016.

As of September 2023, Yahia’s LinkedIn profile said he has been a product manager at Boopos, a financial services company headquartered in Miami, Florida, since March 2023.

Yahia’s LinkedIn also said he was the co-founder and “Head of Product” at CustomHeats in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, from August 2017 to February 2021.

In 2019, Yahia’s LinkedIn profile said he graduated from Concordia with a bachelor’s degree in engineering and computer software engineering in 2017.

Yahia was a 2015-2016 board member of Concordia Council for Student Life (CCSL). Yahia wrote on LinkedIn that he was responsible for allocating funding to campus groups.

As of September 2023, Yahia used the handle “@roamingrami” on Instagram and the handle “@ramicastro” on Clubhouse, where his bio read “Hot sauce connoisseur. I have an appearance on Netflix. Commie.”

As of the same date, Yahia’s LinkedIn profile said he was located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Support for Terrorists

On May 15, 2017, Yahia participated in a demonstration held to show support for Palestinian prisoners participating in a hunger strike in Israel.

The “Dignity Strike” was a hunger strike initiated on April 16, 2017, by Marwan Barghouti, the terrorist who financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike, most of whom were also incarcerated for acts of terrorism.

On May 15, 2016, Yahia posted to Facebook: “Today marks the 68th year of the ongoing Nakba.” He added: “For more than 68 years Palestinians have been resisting one of the most brutal occupation out there. No compromise with the occupier. Palestine will win. Long live all martyrs, all prisoners and all hunger strikers.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.

On August 14, 2015, Yahia updated his Facebook cover photo to a photo of Irish demonstrators supporting the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike. Yahia added: “Bobby Sands 1981 Irish Hunger Strike - Samer Issawi 2012 Jerusalem - Muhammad Allan 2015.”

Samer Issawi is a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) who received a 26-year prison sentence in 2002. During the second intifada, Issawi manufactured and distributed pipe bombs and, in several incidents, fired indiscriminately on Israeli civilian vehicles.

Allan is a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terror group “whose objective is the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a sovereign, Islamic Palestinian state.” Allan was first jailed by Israel in 2006 for trying to recruit a suicide bomber to carry out an attack in Israel. He was detained in 2014 for similar reasons. PIJ is backed by Iran and has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On March 7, 2016, Yahia wrote an article for The Link student newspaper, originally published [p. 9] under the pseudonym “Marwan Habash Khaled,” titled: “Calling for the Implementation of BDS.”

In the article, Yahia accused Israel of “committing large scale atrocities” and claimed “Israel wants to keep on benefiting from cheaper Palestinian wages” and to “push Palestinians out of Palestine.”

Yahia criticized the Canadian Government's decision to condemn the BDS movement, writing: “Before condemning the BDS movement, the Canadian government should condemn the brutal massacre of Gaza that occurred in the summer of 2014.”

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

On January 29, 2017, Yahia shared a photo on Facebook showing a Palestinian flag flying at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. Yahia commented: “Israeli apartheid flag replaced with the Palestinian flag at Chicago airport!”

On October 6, 2017, the student newspaper The Concordian reported that Yahia helped organize an October 3, 2017 event in support of Catalan independence from Spain, claiming “parallels to be drawn between Palestine and Catalonia, which is looking to separate from Spain.”

Anti-Israel Activism (BDS, SPHR)

In 2014, Yahia reportedly led a campaign for the Concordia Student Union (CSU) to pass a referendum in support of the BDS movement, which included an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. The campaign was titled “YES TO BDS”and was supported by the BDS Concordia: Action Network.

On October 17, 2014, the CSU held a meeting at which Yahia reportedly requested to distribute a petition to hold a BDS referendum on the question: “Do you approve of the Concordia Student Union (CSU) endorsing the BDS movement against Israel?”

The referendum was approved on December 5, 2014.

On October 26, 2015, Yahia promoted “BDS Week,” an informational event co-hosted by SPHR Concordia to “raise awareness” on campus about the BDS movement.

The event featured speakers such as anti-Israel propagandist Abby Martin, who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany and Dan Cohen, a Mondoweiss reporter known for demonizing Israel.

In June 2015, Yahia signed a statement opposing Concordia’s art history department’s participation in the “Sustainable Israel” conference at Concordia from May 31, 2015, through June 3, 2015.

The statement also opposed the art department’s involvement in both the sustainable architecture exhibit showcasing the work of Israeli architecture students, and the panel titled: “The Ethics of Sustainability in Israeli Art and Architecture.” Both events were part of the conference.

The statement accused Israel of “apartheid” and claimed that “architecture is a key weapon of Israeli settler-colonialism.” The statement also encouraged scholars, planners, architects and artists to “join the BDS movement.”

On February 13, 2016, Yahia promoted on Facebook the 2016 divestment campaign at McGill University (McGill) launched by the McGill BDS Action Network, (McGill BDS), calling on the Student’s Society of McGill University (SSMU) “to support BDS campaigns on campus, and to lobby the McGill Board of Governors to divest from corporations deemed complicit in the occupation of the Palestinian territories.”

On March 19, 2018, Yahia was a panelist for IAW-Montreal 2018, event titled: “Ce soir :Droit de résistance aux oppressions: le cas palestinien [Panel on the Right to Resist: The Case of Palestine].” The event was hosted by SPHR at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

On March 27, 2019, Yahia was featured as a speaker following a film screening of “Discordia” as part of IAW 2019.

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.