Sabiya Ahamed

Overview

Sabiyah Ahamed is a member of the Students for Justice in Palestine at Brown University (Brown) and an executive board member of the The Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Brown.

Ahamed is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. In August 2014, Ahamed encouraged her Facebook followers to boycott Hewlett-Packard (HP), because the company partners with Israel to produce technology.

On November 4, 2014, Ahamed read poetry at an SJP gathering in support of convicted terrorist-murderer Rasmea Odeh.

In a November 2015 blog post, Ahamed blamed Israel exclusively for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, chastising those who choose to remain neutral as "inherently supporting the oppressor."

Ahamed is a junior at Brown.

Spreading Hateful Libels

In July 2014, Ahamed tweeted that Israel "controls lots of Muslim countries."

In October 2014, Ahamed insinuated on Facebook that an Israeli motorist — whom Ahamed branded an "illegal settler" — intentionally ran over Einas Khalil, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl walking on Highway 60, the highway between Jerusalem and Shechem.

The accident took place near the central West Bank town of Sinjil, located northeast of Ramallah. The driver turned himself in at a nearest Jewish settlement, Ofra and called the police to report the accident. The driver told police he did not stop after striking the girls because he feared for his life due to the crowd that had gathered at the scene of the accident. The police investigated and determined the event was a tragic accident.

Accusing the U.S. of Mass Murder

On November 4, 2015, on her personal blog Ahamed likened the treatment of blacks in the United States to the wholesale slaughter of communities in Syria. Reporting on a trip she made to Jordan, Ahamed wrote the following: "We also drove up near the Jordanian-Syrian border and visited refugees there. It’s kind of surreal to know that you’re right by the border of a country whose dictator leader is committing mass atrocities and murders against his people and whose actions have led to millions of refugees fleeing Syria. Not that mass atrocities aren’t committed against people of color (particularly black people) right back home in the States, but yeah. We were literally about 3-5 miles from the border at one point."

SJP Brown

Since its founding in 2009, SJP Brown has promoted the boycott of Israel at Brown and also pressured Brown to divest from Israel.

In 2010, SJP Brown began bringing Israeli Apartheid Week to Brown’s campus, to smear Israel with accusations of "apartheid policies" and “to build support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”

In March 2010, SJP Brown set up a 75-foot long banner on Brown’s Main Green, asking students the misleading, rhetorical question, "Do you want your University profiting from apartheid?"

Siding with Terrorist Violence

On November 8, 2015, SJP Brown’s Facebook page approvingly featured an article originally posted on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) website. PFLP’s website calls for "resistance until victory," “revolutionary violence” and is replete with pictures of armed militants and other violent images, such as burning molotov cocktails.

The article urged the "liberation" of “occupied Palestine 48” — a call to eradicate the state of Israel and delegitimize the Jews’ claim to sovereignty in their ancestral national homeland. The article further proclaimed that “occupied land cannot be recovered except through resistance and confrontation of the occupation.”

The PFLP is designated a terrorist organization by the European Union, Canada, The United States and Israel. and promotes the violent destruction of Israel. The PFLP has claimed "credit" for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'ev i, the 2011 butchering of the Fogel Family (including two boys, aged 4 and 11 — and a three month old girl.)

On November 19, 2014 — one day after PFLP terrorists murdered six more people, with a gun, axes and and a butcher knife during morning prayers in a West Jerusalem synagogue — SJP Brown posted on Facebook an article complaining that the killings received undue condemnation as "pure terror" from United States officials. Hani Thawbta, a PFLP leader in Gaza praised the massacre, as “heroic.”

Defending PFLP Terrorists

On November 4, 2014, SJP Brown held a gathering in support of terrorist-murderer Rasmea Odeh — who was a key military operative for the PFLP.

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.

Covering for Terrorists

On December 7, 2015, SJP Brown also posted on Facebook that an Israeli military court sentenced Palestinian lawmaker Khalida Jarrar to 15 months in jail — omitting that Jarrar was charged with inciting violence and being a member of PFLP.

Shutting Down Free Speech

On April 2, 2014, Brown Hillel, an independent, apolitical Jewish organization, hosted a talk with former IDF soldier Benjamin Anthony. Hillel invited student leaders from a wide variety of campus groups — including the libertarians, socialists, the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International and others — to participate in the discussion. Anthony answered audience questions for over an hour immediately following the talk.

SJP Brown demanded that that Hillel cancel the event; the group circulated a petition and held a protest before the lecture and marched outside Hillel — chanting, waving signs and Palestinian flags.

SJP Brown’s co-leader and protest organizer Josette Souza alleged that Hillel’s invitation of "student leaders" to the event was not meant to stimulate dialogue, but rather to influence those who will go on to make domestic and international policy.”

Spreading Hate and Disinformation

In November of 2014, SJP Brown slammed Israel for banning anti-Israel propagandist Dr. Mads Gilbert from entering Gaza through Israel.

Gilbert has been banned indefinitely from entering Gaza through Israel because of his connections to the Hamas leadership.

In 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014 Gilbert was stationed at a hospital that served as a Hamas command center and rocket launching site. During that time he acted as a propagandist for the Hamas government in Gaza.

In 2001, following al Qaeda's September 11 terrorist attacks, Gilbert expressed support for the terror acts as a “legitimate response.” In December of 2009, Gilbert was accused of faking resuscitation on a dead child in Gaza for dramatic effect for a CNN video.

In October 2015, SJP Brown shared on Facebook an article falsely blaming Israel for the death 54-year-old Palestinian agitator Hashem Azzeh.

In October 2015, Al Azzeh died of a chronic cardiac condition. On October 21, 2015, Al Azzeh suffered chest pains and was taken to a nearby hospital, which claimed his death was due to heart failure. Palestinian news sources later claimed his death was caused by the IDF’s use of tear gas nearby.

Promoting Disruption over Dialogue

SJP Brown demanded that Hillel cancel the event; the group, circulated a petition and held a protest before the lecture and marched outside Hillel — chanting, waving signs and Palestinian flags.

On January 28, 2016, Brown Hillel hosted former Soviet "refusenik" Natan Sharansky and actor Michael Douglas, who came to discuss their Jewish identities. Sharansky, who heads the Jewish Agency for Israel Israel’s immigration agency and Douglas have both expressed pro-Israel views. SJP Brown released a statement announcing that it would hold a rally and picket the event, inviting students to “... protest this egregious display of Settler Colonial apologism.” SJP released a statement describing the lecture as an “affront to academic freedom” of Brown students.

SJP disrupted the Sharansky-Douglas event with loud chants of "free, free, Palestine" from the lobby of the lecture hall, harassing, bullying and shouting at attendees.

Security guards prevented SJP’s from hanging Palestinian flags and posters while the group’s members shouted "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" — a call for Israel’s destruction. However, SJP Brown members did manage to distribute inside the lecture hall, a handout falsely accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and libeling Mr. Sharansky as “an infamous anti-African racist.” SJP Brown fraudulently represented its flier as a “program addition.”

Disguising Anti-Semitism as Anti-Zionism

On March 16, 2016, SJP Brown forced Brown Hillel to cancel an event featuring American transgender activist Janet Mock, who was scheduled to talk about her experiences as a transgender person of color. Mock withdrew from the event after SJP Brown circulated a petition demanding that the event either exclude Hillel sponsorship or be canceled. On March 20, 2016, Brown’s President issued a statement in response to the event’s cancellation, writing that "it is counter to Brown’s norms and values for expressions of dissent to be targeted at a student group because of its religious affiliation."

On March 18, 2016, anti-Semitic and homophobic messages were discovered written on the walls of Marcy House, a Brown student dormitory. Marcy House is home to the campus’ Jewish fraternity and houses many LGBT students. The graffiti read "Gay will die" and “Holocaust 2.0,” and was written directly across from a Jewish student’s room that had a mezuzah and Hebrew writing on its door.

Demonizing Israel

In February 2014, SJP Brown published an op-ed in the Brown Daily Herald, calling on the university to adopt the American Studies Association’s boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and criticizing Brown President Christina Paxton for denouncing the boycott. SJP Brown claimed that the aim of the academic boycott is to "put pressure on Israeli universities that play a central role in the maintenance of a settler-colonial project in Palestine based on ethno-racial supremacy."

In November 2015, SJP Brown launched a petition to boycott the sale of Sabra, a hummus brand partially owned by the Israeli Strauss Group, in Brown’s dining hall.SJP Brown posted on Facebook "who pays $4.00 for hummus that tastes like apartheid?" In response, Brown’s Dining Services began offering another hummus option.

Brown Hillel Hosts anti-Israel "Nakba Day" Event

On May 11, 2016, on the eve of Israel Independence Day, Brown Hillel hosted an event called "Jews Facing the Nakba." The event featured a film by Zochrot — an NGO that seeks to “de-colonize” Israel, blames its “Jewish target audience” exclusively for Palestinian “refugeehood” — and dubs Israel’s founding “the Palestinian catastrophe of 1948.” Zochrot promotes the right of all Palestinian refugees to return, and dissolving Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people.

Although initially cancelled, the event was secretly held, in violation of Hillel International’s Israel Guidelines.

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.