Ruwayda Widdi

On March 20, 2016, Widdi and her two sisters, Gigi and Souphie, participated in a violent protest outside AIPAC’s annual policy conference in Washington. AIPAC conference attendees were reportedly told to wait inside the venue for their own safety, due to the pro-Palestinian protesters outside. 

A video from the protest showed security intervening and having to escort conference attendees into the building, as they were surrounded by pro-Palestinian protesters shouting [00:00:24] “burn in hell, Zionist scum,” as well as [00:00:53] “You’re a f**king Zionist pig” and [00:01:42] “Zionist piece of s**t” and [00:01:48] “run inside!”

Widdi was photographed holding a sign at the protest that read: “Israel = Racism & Genocide. Al-Awda NY the Palestine Right to Return Coalition.” Other signs held by protesters read [00:01:02]: “Israel = Ku Klux Klan” and “From the River to the Sea.”

Abbas Hamideh, founder of Al-Awda, has confirmed [00:02:52] that the chant “From the River to the Sea” is a call to eliminate Israel. 

Demonizing Israel

In May 2019, Widdi was scheduled to speak at the second “Annual Palestine Lives” conference in New York, co-hosted by Within Our Lifetime, formerly known as New York City SJP and Existence Is Resistance.

Events at the conference accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, genocide, apartheid, of working to “destabilize the Middle East” and of “the targeted assassinations and imprisonment of scientists, students, and technicians.” Another event’s description referred to the Palestinian Great March of Return and said: “Let us uplift the martyrs and those that continue to resist.”


An April 2016 Mint Press News article said that for Widdi, her university’s Hillel (Jewish campus organization) celebrating Israel’s independence day “marked a turning point.” Widdi was quoted as saying: “That’s when I decided to go hard and become extremely active.”

On March 5, 2016, Widdi was credited with sharing an NYC SJP event and blog post that said: “Israel is a state that was built on the murder and rape of Palestinian women.”

The blog post also praised Leila Khaled, Khalida Jarrar and Rasmea Odeh.

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.  

Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.

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 September 19, 2014, Widdi participated in a CSI SJP event titled: “Vigil for Gaza and for victims of police brutality in the US.”

On March 6, 2014, Widdi was featured in a photo standing in front of CSI SJP’s “apartheid wall” representing Israel’s security barrier, holding a sign that said: “The Right to End Apartheid.”

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.

In November 2013, Widdi participated in CSI SJP’s “Right to Education week,” an initiative started by Birzeit University.



On May 12, 2013, Widdi was featured in a photo in SJP’s “Nakba week” campaign, holding signs that said: “#WeWillNotForget” and “#WeWillReturn.” She was also featured [00:01:42] in a May 16, 2013 video, pledging “to return.” 

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

Opposing Interfaith Dialogue

Widdi signed a January 14, 2015 letter that called for a boycott of the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI). The letter stated: “We reject the notion that this program is an interfaith one and that there is the need for Muslim Americans to engage with the state of Israel.” 

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 Widdi signed also pledged to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement: “to be in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and to do so by honoring the BDS call.” 

The letter also said it would: “support delegations to Palestine that are meant to highlight the reality on the ground of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.” 

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: https://www.facebook.com/100005836480800 [Deleted]

https://www.facebook.com/royada.widdi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/royada-widdi/48/b99/a04 

Website:http://rwiddi.blogspot.com