Rayid Sakib
Overview
Rayid Sakib has led disruptions on campus as the president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Florida International University (FIU), whitewashed terrorists and spread incitement. He also demonized Israel and condemned interfaith dialogue.SJP at FIU supported the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement when Sakib was President between 2014 and 2017.
Sakib served as CSO (Congress of Student Organizations) Representative on the 2012-2013 executive board of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at FIU.
As of March 2019, Sakib’s LinkedIn page said he was a Quality Engineer, Post Market Complaints & Investigations at Cook Medical in Bloomington, Indiana.
His LinkedIn page also said that he graduated from FIU in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical/Medical Engineering
Leading Disruptions on Campus
On February 26, 2016, Sakib organized an SJP walkout to disrupt a lecture at FIU by Danny Danon, the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations. Danon spoke about Israel, the U.N. and relations with Palestinians.SJP at FIU described [00:00:03] the walkout as “epic” and claimed on its Youtube video description of the event: “[a]s a result of our action - the event was cut short half an hour and on his way out Danny decided to take a different route out of the building. He also canceled his scheduled interview with the school newspaper.”
Sakib and others walked [00:02:56] out when Danon said: “We allow trucks to go inside Gaza every day, more than 1000 trucks a day. We allow cement and wood to go inside Gaza.” Sakib later claimed: “that’s not true. They don’t allow anything.”
Sakib reportedly said that he had timed the walkout for when Danon said “something about Gaza.”
On November 20, 2014, Sakib posed for a photo posted on Facebook by SJP at FIU, following a walkout from an event at FIU hosted by pro-Israel group, Shalom FIU, featuring David Olesker. In the picture, Sakib held a sign that said: “We Refuse to Advocate for Massacre of Innocent Civilians and Children.”
SJP at FIU’s Facebook post bearing the picture said: “We don’t tolerate ‘hasbara’ on our campus while undermining Palestinian struggles. The crew after walking out on Propaganda Specialist David Oleskar - thanks for the support. P.S. Ignore the typo on the flyer.”
On March 25, 2014, Sakib led SJP in disrupting a workshop organized by two pro-Israel groups at FIU, Hillel YAD and Shalom FIU, during Israel Peace Week on campus.
Sakib led [00:00:02] SJP members in chanting [00:00:38] “Viva Palestina” across the campus grounds. During the protest, the Israeli fellow of Hillel YAD attempted to speak with the demonstrators. However, Sakib reportedly refused dialogue, saying:“We are not going to talk with someone who doesn’t think Palestine is an apartheid.”
On February 24, 2014, Sakib and fellow SJP FIU members disrupted [00:01:33]an on-campus presentation by Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) lieutenant, Hen Mazzig. The description on SJP’s video of the walkout stated: “We refuse to tolerate IDF soldier Hen Mazzig selling blunt lies at our school…” and accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing.”
The protesters ignored [00:01:22] Mazzig’s requests for them to stay and engage in conversation. At the end of its video, SJP posted [00:02:11] a picture of demonstrators wearing tape across their mouths and holding signs that said “silenced.”
Whitewashing Terrorists
On July 25, 2014, Sakib tweeted: “It turns out that Hamas didn’t kidnap and kill the 3 Israeli teens after all, of course.”In August 2014, Hamas admitted responsibility for the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers at a bus stop on June 12th of that year. The bodies of the abducted boys were found buried in Palestinian-controlled territory on June 30, 2014.
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.
Khattab was detained on December 13, 2014, and sentenced to six months jail time on February 16, 2015 for throwing rocks, while celebrating the 47th anniversary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)’s founding.
Spreading Incitement
On November 17, 2014, Sakib held a Palestinian flag in an SJP FIU protest called: “#HandsOffAlAqsa.”The description on the Facebook photo album for the event said: “Israel, after forbidding entrance to the Palestinians to pray, have now banned all visitors from entering Masjid al-Aqsa...Since the Israeli occupation of 1967 for the first time police have entered the Masjid al-Aqsa.”
In the fall of 2014, Palestinian leaders and media incited a wave of violence against Israelis with the lie that Israel intended to desecrate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. This resulted in the November 18, 2014 Har Nof massacre, in which terrorists murdered six people in a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers.
Demonizing Israel
On August 6, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Sakib tweeted a graphic of the Palestinian flag with text that said: “HINT FOR ISRAHELL.” Sakib commented: “Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Sakib retweeted a July 21, 2014 tweet featuring photos from funerals of Israeli soldiers that said: “Hope more soldiers die because they are sick and only kill innocent children...#PalestineResists.”
On July 20, 2014, Sakib tweeted: “So now they’re targeting journalists to scare them away from covering the ongoing genocide in Gaxa no one is safe #GazaUnder attack.”
On July 19, 2014, Sakib tweeted a photo with text reading: “Intifada. Truth is in my heart, this rock is all I have.” Sakib commented: “#GazaUnderAttack.”
In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.
In February of 2014, in an interview for FIU student newspaper, Sakib claimed: “If you’re a citizen of Israel but not a Jew, you are treated poorly.”
Condemning Muslim-Jewish Dialogue
MLI "invites North American Muslim leaders to explore how Jews understand Judaism, Israel and North American Jewish identity through a Zionist lens," and to expand their understanding of Jewish “ethics, faith, and practice.” According to MLI founder Imam Abdullah Antepli, “MLI aims to put mainstream North American Jewry in conversation with their Muslim counterparts.”
The letter Sakib signed shunned the engagement of Muslim Americans with Israel or other institutions unless they “promote Palestinian liberation and comply with Palestinian demands.”
The letter further pledged: “to not give a platform to any MLI participant to speak about their experiences at our community centers, places of worship, and campuses and call on a complete boycott of MLI.”
SJP Activism
Sakib was involved with SJP at FIU since 2013. He served as the group’s president between 2014 and 2017.Sakib retweeted an October 14, 2014 tweet promoting an SJP event featuring David Sheen.
David Sheen is an anti-Israel activist and filmmaker who works to portray Israel as an extremist racist state. To this end, Sheen has been accused of purposefully mistranslating Hebrew articles and other media to make Israelis appear racist.
On October 3, 2014, Sakib retweeted a SJP FIU tweet promoting their divestment campaign.
Sakib retweeted an October 1, 2014 tweet linking to a fundraising page to help SJP at FIU raise funds to travel to the 2014 National SJP Conference at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.
Sakib retweeted a September 16, 2014 tweet promoting the 2014 National SJP Conference 2014.
On August 24, 2014, Sakib tabled at an event for SJP at FIU.
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.
MSA
The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
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
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
