Rawan Saleh

Overview

Rawan Saleh spread hatred of Jews while she was a student at University of Houston (UH). Saleh is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Saleh is a member of the closed Facebook group “Houston Palestinian Underground Resistance” and a member of the Palestinian Houston Texas Facebook group.

Saleh graduated from UH in 2016.

Hatred of Jews

On February 18, 2013, Saleh tweeted: “Thats so messed up Khara 3la il yahood [s**t on the Jews].”

On March 20, 2013, Saleh tweeted: “Palestine will be the 2nd place of the Holocaust for the Yahood [Jews].”

On April 23, 2013, Saleh tweeted: “Falasteen ibladna wil Yahood iklabna [Palestine is our country and the Jews are our dog].”

On May 4, 2013, Saleh tweeted: “Sooner of later the Yahood [Jews] wont exist.”

On March 22, 2014, Saleh tweeted: “yal3n al yahood. [May Allah curse the Jews]”

On June 23, 2014, Saleh tweeted: “Yahoodis [Jews] are just so disgusting.”

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.