Robert Tiburzi
Overview
Robert Tiburzi [Robert V. Tiburzi] was a student activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Columbia University (Columbia) and was one of the organization’s photographers, in 2015.As of March 2021, Tiburzi wrote on Facebook that he has worked for Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA) since September 2017.
As of March 2021, Tiburzi wrote in his Twitter bio that he was a “Researcher in Organizing Department of @Local79NYC.” As of the same date, the Construction and General Building Laborers’ Local 79 listed LIUNA as an affiliate.
In August 2016, Tiburzi participated the New York Union Semester program at The School of Labor and Urban Studies (SLU) at the City University of New York (CUNY).
SLU’s site said that Tiburzi had “recently graduated from Columbia University with a double major in American and Middle Eastern Studies. For his studies, he spent a summer each in Amman and Ramallah studying Arabic.”
SJP Activism
In 2015, Tiburzi was credited on multiple Columbia SJP Facebook photos, many of which were taken during Israeli Apartheid Week 2015, held on campus from March 23 - 27, 2015.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.
On October 2, 2015, Tiburzi was tagged in a Columbia SJP Facebook photo posing with fellow SJP activists at a campus event titled “Returning to Iqrit: Reclaiming the Right of Return,” hosted that day by Columbia SJP.
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
The event’s Facebook description read: “Iqrit, a small village of 450 Palestinians, is located in the Galilee in Northern Israel… The Iqrit Community Association leads the struggle of the people of Iqrit, strongly advocating for their right to return.”
Anti-Semitism at Columbia 2016-2017
A 2017 report by AMCHA Initiative found that Columbia, which includes Barnard College (Barnard), had the highest overall anti-semitic activity (35 incidents) in 2016, the highest rate of incidents of anti-Semitic expression (23 incidents) and the highest rate of BDS activity on campus (22 incidents).The AMCHA Initiative documents anti-Semitism at U.S. colleges, using “the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the U.S. State Department definitions to identify” anti-Semitic incidents.
Also in 2017, Columbia was listed as third in the Algemeiner newspaper’s “Annual List of the Most Challenging North American Campuses for Jewish Students.” In 2016, the Algemeiner listed Columbia as the worst campus.
CSJP Demonizing Israel 2015
In December 2015, CSJP promoted a video, originally produced by Al-Jazeera, that referred to Israel’s security fence as “The Apartheid Wall.” The video also suggested that a non-binding, advisory opinion on the security fence issued by the International Court of Justice is binding international law.Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
On November 17, 2015, CSJP protested opposite an event hosted by Aryeh: Columbia Students Association for Israel, titled: “Israel Week.” CSJP members held signs accusing Israel of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
In March 2015, CSJP’s yearly Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) featured the building of a mock “Apartheid” wall on campus, meant to demonize Israel’s security barrier.
CSJP BDS Campaign 2016
On February 1, 2016, Columbia SJP and Columbia/Barnard JVP launched a joint divestment campaign on Facebook, titled: “Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD).”The campaign was launched with a petition and inaugural event titled: “BDS 101,” scheduled for February 4, 2016.
CUAD’s Facebook post stated that the campaign was “embedded in the larger BDS movement.”
CUAD also described the campaign in its Facebook post as a “call for the University to divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from the State of Israel's ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law.”
CUAD said in its Facebook post that the campaign targeted companies including Caterpillar, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Hapoalim, Boeing and Lockheed Martin. CUAD said that by failing to divest from these companies, Columbia was supporting: “continued occupation of and assaults against the Palestinian people,” by Israel.
CSJP’s Banner Controversy at Barnard 2014
In March 2014, Columbia SJP organizer Jannine-Masoud Salman made a large banner that was hung at the entrance of Barnard college. The banner read: “Stand for Justice, Stand for Palestine” and featured a map of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, with no internal borders, colored uniformly green.The banner was reportedly removed after “students, their parents and alumni” said it made them “feel uncomfortable and unsafe in the space” and that it gave the impression Barnard was “endorsing SJP's message that Israel as a Jewish state does not have the right to exist.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/702304211Twitter: https://twitter.com/RobTiburzi3
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/robert_tiburzi/
Blog:https://rtiburzi3.wordpress.com/
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- Columbia
- Organizations:
- SJP
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
Photos & Screenshots
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