Rawan Atari

As of November 2019, Atari’s LinkedIn page said she was a “Counselling Psychology Doctoral Student” at Ball State University (BSU). Atari graduated in 2017 from Illinois State University (ISU), with a master’s degree in Clinical Counseling Psychology and she graduated from Marquette in 2015, with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology.

As of February 6, 2019, Atari used the name “Rawan Hael” on Facebook.

Disrupting a Pro-Israel Event

On January 30, 2014, Atari participated in a walkout of an event at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM), that featured Ron Leshem, creator of the TV series Homeland and titled: “Ron Leshem, TV: An Israeli Success Story.”

A student activist reportedly “loudly” disrupted Leshem’s presentiation: “Occupation is not cosmopolitan, it’s genocide! If you want to understand the other side, listen to the 2002 Palestinian call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Stop filming on occupied territory, stop touring with the IDF, stop advocating for Israel. Occupation is not entertainment!”

While this was happening, 50 activists reportedly stood and removed their jackets to expose signs taped to their shirts that read: “Occupation is not Education” and “Boycott Israel.”

The group, which reportedly consisted of SJP chapters from UWM and Marquette, then left the event. 

Expressing Support for a Terrorist

Atari was quoted in a November 17, 2014 article about an “Emergency Rally” in support of Rasmea Odeh.

Atari reportedly said: “I believe that every generation has an obligation to Rasmea’s liberation. We need to make it clear that we will not be silenced in the face of injustice. We will only grow stronger and louder because if one of us is oppressed, we are all oppressed.” 

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college 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 [00:10:53] Odeh 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.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison. 

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

The “Emergency Rally: Free Rasmea Odeh!” event that Atari spoke about, was co-sponsored by anti-Israel groups including “SJP Milwaukee (Marquette, UWM, Alverno, Cardinal Stritch)” and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Milwaukee.

The Rally’s Facebook description said: “Rasmea Odeh was unjustly found guilty for allegedly lying on her immigration form because she didn't mention her time in prison in Israel...We cannot sit silently as our friend, family member, and cornerstone of our community, Rasmea Odeh, once again is imprisoned unfairly. Let's protest and stand in solidarity with Rasmea.”

On November 13, 2014, Atari posted a graphic of Rasmea Odeh on Facebook, with text that read: “Free our Beloved Rasmea Now.”

Atari also indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an event in support of Odeh that was hosted by SJP Marquette, on November 5, 2014.

SJP Activism

On February 28, 2015, Atari promoted SJP Marquette’s Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2015 on Facebook. 

Atari indicated on Facebook that she “went” to SJP Marquette’s February 18, 2015, event titled: “SJP General Body Meeting.”

On March 6, 2014, Atari promoted SJP Marquette’s 2014 IAW on Facebook 

Atari indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a November 19, 2014 SJP Marquette event titled: “Josh Reubner on US Tax Dollars for Military Aid to Israel.”
 
Ruebner, a supporter of BDS, is the Policy Director for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (ETO). Ruebner is also the co-founder and former Executive Director of Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI), an organization, which merged into the anti-Israel JVP.

Atari indicated on Facebook that she “went” to an October 9, 2014 SJP Marquette event titled: “Spoken Word with Remi Kanazi.”

Poet Remi Kanazi is known for his aggressively anti-Israel spoken-word performances. He has supported terrorism and has compared Israel to both ISIS and the Ku Klux Klan.

On October 1, 2014, Atari promoted an SJP Marquette event on Facebook.

Pushing BDS

On March 23, 2015, SJP Marquette launched its 2015 MU Divest campaign. On the same day, Atari was featured [00:01:57] in an MU Divest video where she promoted [00:00:32] divestment.

On March 24, 2014, Atari promoted MU Divest on Facebook.

On April 27, 2015, the divestment resolution was presented to the Marquette University Student Government (MUSG). The resolution called on Marquette to divest from companies including United Technologies, Caterpillar, G4S and Hewlett-Packard, for profiting off human rights violations.  

SJP Marquette reportedly had “over a dozen” co-sponsoring student organizations, along with a petition that “garnered over 700 signatures” from students in support of the resolution.

MUSG held an executive session to debate and vote on the resolution behind closed doors after the student government president revealed a document that had been circulating on the Marquette campus containing personal information about the student government senators, including their religion and political beliefs. 

The document also contained assignments and plans of action to solicit their support for specific issues. SJP members and other non-student government campaigners had to wait outside the room during the senate’s debate and discussion.

The resolution passed with a 25-3-0 vote. However, all references to Israel and the companies targeted for divestment were removed from the bill, as well as the word “divestment.” The edited resolution became a generic recommendation for the university to implement socially responsible investing, negating the efforts of MU Divest.

In response, Atari wrote an article for the anti-Israel website Mondoweiss titled: “Divestment activists face attempts to silence Palestinian students at Marquette University,” where she criticized “attempts by student senators to remove the Palestinian voice entirely”. She also gave an audio interview with Electronic Intifada. 

On the same day the divestment vote took place, four students, two of whom wearing MU Divest clothing were arrested for blocking an intersection after during a march which was reportedly to address “ongoing concern about Marquette’s handling of...divestment.” 

A week after the vote, Atari participated in an SJP organized sit in, where members of the MU Divest coalition walked into the MUSG offices with black tape over their mouths and holding signs that read: “You’ve chosen to silence us” and “#MUDIVEST.”

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/553176703

Twitter: https://twitter.com/RawanAtari [Deleted]

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rawan-hael-0a1164112

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Rawan.Atari/ [Private]