Rosie Awad

On October 14, 2015, Awad featured on Facebook participating in an SJP UMN die-in event that celebrated an International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

During the event, SJP UMN activist Motaz Nashawaty spoke, accusing [00:00:05] Israel of an escalation in “state violence” and [00:00:32] of “extrajudicial murders.” 

Nashawaty continued [00:00:41]: “We will pay respects to the Palestinian martyrs executed by Israeli forces” and recited [00:01:57] the names of Palestinian terrorists, such as Fadi Aloonand [00:02:03] Muhannad Halabi.

Aloon stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy after posting “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page and Halabimurdered two Israelis and injured two others, including a 2-year-old, during a stabbing spree. Halabi posted on his Facebook page “[t]he third Intifada is here…Let the revolution erupt.” 

Nashawaty continued [00:02:43] “our people are dying in streets now in Palestine, but they are not helpless - they are resisting.”

SJP Activism

On May 8 and 9, 2015, Awad featured in photos posted on Facebook by SJP UMN at the SJP 2015 Banquet. 

On November 15, 2014, Awad featured in a photo shared on Facebook by SJP UMN taken at a “Letters and Pictures for Palestine Event!” 

SJP UMN Honoring Terrorists: 2012 - 2014  

On November 10, 2014, SJP UMP posted on Facebook regarding Rasmea Odeh: “Our hearts go out to her” and said: “They find Palestinian activists as a threat and immediately label them as ‘terrorists.’”

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

On February 20, 2012, SJP UMN tweeted in support of Khader Adnan, a senior member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) who was on a hunger strike. 

A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?”

SJP UMN Spreading Incitement: 2015  

On November 1, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “Israel is a colonial bully, trying to take Al Aqsa under the guise of ‘sharing.’” 

The allegation that Jews will destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, has been applied to Jews as a pretext for attacks by Arabs, even before the existence of Israel.

Such propaganda was the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence in the fall of 2015, with Palestinian leaders fueling violence by promoting the libel that Israel intends to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque. 

Hamas called on Palestinians to “take up arms” to defend Al Aqsa and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised those willing to martyr themselves. He also declared Jews would not be allowed to “desecrate” Al Aqsa with their “filthy feet.”

SJP UMN Campaigning Against a Jewish Heritage Trip: 2015  

In February 2015, SJP UMN launched a campaign against the Jewish heritage trip to Israel, Birthright. Campaign flyers said: “FREE TRIP TO ISRAEL BUT WHO PAYS THE PRICE?”

The campaign condemned Birthright for presenting “a depoliticized image of Israel” and programming a trip that is “overall tailored to be pleasant experience devoid of conflict.” The campaign claimed that the program “would not discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and that “topics such as illegal settlements in the West Bank and restrictions on Gaza will not be covered.”.

SJP UMN encouraged Birthright participants to extend their trip and join tours with political groups such as Breaking the Silence (BTS) and The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), whose director Jeff Halper has called for the end of Israel.

SJP UMN Disrupting an Israeli Speaker: 2015  

On November 3, 2015, SJP UMN endorsed the disruption of an event where three activists were reportedly arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.

The event was a talk on ethics and the law of war by Israeli law professor, Moshe Halbertal. The disruption was organized by the Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose campaigns mainly to end US aid to Israel.

Protesters reportedly sat in the audience and then stood and shouted chants, preventing Halbertal from speaking and accusing him of being a “war crimes apologist.” FightBack News said: “The lecture was scheduled for one hour, but most of that time was taken up by interruptions.”

SJP UMN Demonizing Israel: 2015-2016  

In April 2016, SJP UMN built a “mock apartheid wall” for its “Divest Week 2016,” which the group called a “divestment special edition of our annual Israeli Apartheid Week,” promoting the 2016 UMN Divest BDS campaign.

IAW is a series of events on university campuses that promote Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and claim to “raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system.” 

On April 22 2015, SJP UMN wrote on Facebook that “Israel’s ‘birthday’ is established on the occupation and exile of an entire people,” in a post which also denied SJP involvement in the vandalism of a pro-Israel group’s display celebrating Israeli independence. 

The next day, Rula Rashid, SJP UMN treasurer, reportedly approached a table set up by a pro-Israel campus group to educate students about Israel’s independence and said “you stole our land.” 

On April 9, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “‘If it's centered around Judaism, why are only white Jews allowed to live in Israel? It's not a case about religion and Judaism.’ @MnarMuh.”

On March 4, 2015, SJP UMN hosted an event with Dan Cohen, a journalist with the anti-Israel Mondoweiss, speaking about his experiences reporting from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). OPE was launched by Israel to stop Hamas rocket attacks and destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

SJP UMN Demonizing Israel: 2012-2014  

In April 2014, SJP UMN featured a “mock apartheid wall,” meant to mock Israel’s security barrier and held a “die-in,” as part of that year’s Israel Apartheid Week (IAW). Israel’s security barrier was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. 

SJP UMN launched its annual Palestine Awareness Week in April 2011, a re-branding  of IAW, with events demonizing Israel such as a “die-in.”

On November 28, 2012, SJP UMN held a “Die-in for Gaza,” to protest Israel’s Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD), against Hamas to stop rocket attacks launched from Gaza on Israeli civilians. 

The Facebook event description instructed participants where to “pick up signs and/or get the name of the martyr that you will be wearing” and said participants would hold the signs and “fall to the ground to portray the deaths of those in Gaza.”

SJP UMN Opposing Normalization: 2015  

On April 23, 2015, SJP UMN posted on Facebook a “definition of normalization.” The definition said that normalization was “gathering (either directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis, whether individuals or institutions; that does not explicitly aim to expose and resist the occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.”

SJP UMN Hosting Anti-Israel Propagandists: 2015  

On October 15, 2015, during the “Knife Intifada,” SJP UMN hosted anti-Israel propagandist Sabry Wazwaz at a vigil for “the Palestinian lives lost in the recent attacks.” The “Knife Intifada,” was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders.

Wazwaz has spread religious incitement, promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and called for intifada.

SJP UMN Promoting BDS: 2016  

On February 15, 2016, SJP UMN launched a divestment campaign, calling for the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) and UMN to support divestment from companies that SJP UMN claimed “profit from human rights violations in Palestine/Israel.” 

SJP UMN’s statement announcing the campaign said UMN’s investment in the companies targeted by the campaign showed “implicit support for…the killing of civilians, and violations of their basic human rights.”

UMN’s Chief Investment Officer reportedly told The Minnesota Republic, a student-run newspaper at UMN, that the university had “no direct exposure” to the four companies targeted by the campaign.

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/1145754052 

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosieawad/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosieawad/