Salma Ahmed
Overview
Salma Ahmed has promoted anti-Israel incitement and supported anti-Israel agitators. She also promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in 2018.In 2016 and 2018, Ahmed was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UMN.
In December 2019, Ahmed’s Instagram bio said she was the President of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at UMN.
In December 2019, Ahmed’s Facebook page said she studied at UMN, “from 2015 to 2019.” As of the same date, Ahmed’s Twitter and Instagram bios indicated she was slated to graduate from UMN in 2020.
Promoting Incitement
On July 21, 2017, Ahmed wrote on Facebook: “For the first time in history, Al Aqsa mosque is being closed for Friday prayer by the Israeli government.. Israeli soldiers are brutalizing the Palestinians they occupy. And once again the entire world turns a blind eye to the injustice…”She continued: “Our Palestinian brothers and sisters have been suffering for decades and we as a collective humanity have failed them.May God grant victory and justice to the oppressed in Palestine and around the globe. Ameen.#handsoffAlAqsa.”
On July 14, 2017, terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers outside the entrance to the Al-Aqsa compound, reportedly following claims that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger. In response to the terror attack, Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras at the entrance to the holy site, which the authorities later removed, after further rioting and escalation in violence.
Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators
On November 29, 2018, Ahmed wrote on Facebook: “‘CNN fired Marc Lamont Hill for speaking up about Palestine at the UN. Support Marc by demanding he be reinstated’:Phone: +1 (404)-827-1500 Email: cnn.com/feedback Twitter: https://twitter.com/CNN #WeStandWithMLH #FreeSpeech #FreePalestine.”In November 2018, Marc Lamont Hill was fired from his position as a contributor to CNN (Cable News Network) following controversial comments he made during a meeting held at the United Nations for an “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”
During the meeting, Hill reportedly whitewashed Palestinian violence and accused Israel of “state violence and ethnic cleansing.” He also called for a “free Palestine from the river to the sea.”
In September 2018, during a U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) conference, Hill insinuated [00:31:01] that Israel poisons Palestinian water and seemingly approved [00:30:34] of violence against Israelis.
On February 17, 2019, Ahmed shared a video on Facebook posted by Al Jazeera English that featured United States Congresswoman Ihan Omar.
Ahmed wrote: “Wow. May God protect her. The positions she’s been taking lately are inspiring and challenging the status quo. We could all learn a lot from Auntie Ilhan. I am so proud.”
Ahmed wrote: “Wow. May God protect her. The positions she’s been taking lately are inspiring and challenging the status quo. We could all learn a lot from Auntie Ilhan. I am so proud.”
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.
On February 22, 2019, Ahmed shared to Facebook a video posted by AJ+, that featured Marc Lamont Hill defending Ilhan Omar’s series of anti-Semitic statements.
Promoting BDS
On March 3, 2018, Ahmed shared to Facebook a graphic calling on UMN students to vote for a divestment referendum targeting Israel.The 2018 UMN Divest campaign launched a petition calling to “demand that the University of Minnesota Investment Committee and any other responsible bodies authorized to make investment decisions divest fully from the companies mentioned in the UMN Divest campaign.”
On February 25, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Instagram a post launching the UMN Divest 2018 campaign that said: “UMN Divest is back and this time we’re doing a campus wide referendum. March 5-7 all undergraduate and graduate students can vote ‘yes’ to divest.”
SJP UMN’s “explanation statement” in support of its proposed “campus-wide” referendum claimed that UMN had investments in companies “that violate human rights” and called on UMN to divest from G4S, Boeing and Raytheon and Elbit Systems for being “complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, 2) maintaining and establishing private prisons and immigrant detention centers, or 3) violating Indigenous sovereignty.”
On March 3, 2018, Ahmed shared a UMN Divest graphic on Facebook, urging to “Vote Yes March 5th - 7th.”
On March 5, 2018, Ahmed wrote on Facebook: “Here’s all of your questions answered!” The post featured a graphic of “FAQS: Why Divest?”
On the same day, Ahmed shared to Facebook a link to a UMN Divest post urging support for the divestment resolution. Ahmed commented: “Vote vote vote!!!”
On March 6, 2018, Ahmed wrote on Facebook: “This is a must read if you’re having ANY doubts about voting YES this week.”The post linked to a student newspaper article by SJP UMN activist Malak Shahin, titled: “Letter: Why you should vote yes on the UMN Divest referendum.”
In March 2018, the divestment referendum reportedly was passed by the UMN “All Campus Elections Commission” and sent to the UMN Board of Regents for review.
It was reported that 6,567 people out of UMN’s 51,367 students who were eligible to vote on the referendum actually voted upon the divestment referendum, representing less than 13% of eligible voters.
The resolution reportedly passed by 217 votes, with a total of 3,392 voting "yes" and 3,175 voting "no" on divestment. The “yes” votes represented 6.18% of the eligible voters.
On March 11, 2018, Ahmed wrote on Facebook: “This is AMAZING news and I am so proud of all of the hard work SJP has put in. 🙌🏾🙌🏾.” The post linked to a Facebook post by SJP UMN celebrating the passing of the resolution.
On October 1, 2016, Ahmed tweeted: “Lmao President Kaler is a damn joke y'all.”
Ahmed added: “Remember when Kaler wrote a letter to MSA telling them not to support SJP & our resolution bc it made students ‘uncomfortable’?”
Ahmed’s tweet referred to a statement issued by UMN President Eric Kaler in March 2016 that opposed a 2016 SJP UMN divestment resolution targeting Israel.
SJP UMN - Praising Violence
On October 20, 2017, SJP UMN shared on Instagram a graphic that featured a Palestinian woman carrying an assault rifle. The graphic was based on a poster originally published by the terror group, the Palestinian Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).The graphic shared by SJP UMN had the caption: “Glory to the Women of the Intifada.”
“Intifada” has carried the connotation of violence since the early 2000’s.
SJP UMN wrote on their Instagram post: “..come learn about Palestinian women’s resilience, contribution to the movement, and what a Palestinian feminist vision for liberation looks like…”
SJP UMN - Supporting a Terrorist 2018
On July 8, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Facebook a post that read: “This week marks the anniversary of the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani. A writer, intellectual, and spokesperson for the Palestinian resistance, he is remembered as one of the most significant literary and political figures of the 1960s-70s Palestinian revolution.”Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during their formative years. Kanafani was also involved in the Lod Airport Massacre near Tel Aviv, for which PFLP took responsibility.
SJP UMN - Hosting National SJP 2019
On September 16, 2019, SJP UMN shared a flier on Instagram announcing that the chapter would be hosting the 2019 National SJP Conference on November 1-3, 2019.SJP UMN wrote on their Instagram post: “We are excited to officially announce that the 9th annual national SJP conference, Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation, will be hosted by Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities (SJP UMN) on Fri.-Sun., November 1-3, 2019 in the Twin Cities, MN…”
SJP UMN - Hosting Anti-Israel Propagandists 2019
On March 30, 2019, SJP UMN and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) Minnesota co-hosted an event titled: “Palestine Day Conference.”The Facebook event page description said the events speakers included Miko Peled and Taher Hezallah.
Miko Peled is an anti-Israel activist. In January 2017 Peled said [00:00:06] that the Israeli army was one of the “best trained, best equipped, best fed, terrorist organizations in the world,” and claimed [00:00:16] that “their entire purpose is terrorism.”
Taher Herzallah is the Associate Director of Outreach & Grassroots Organizing of AMP, working to expand AMP activism.
On November 27-29, 2014, during the seventh annual AMP conference, Herzallah idolized [00:47:27] violent revolutionaries as models for change — and rhetorically asked [00:49:06]: “What if, as Muslims we wanted to establish an Islamic state? Is that wrong? What if, as Muslims, we wanted to use violent means to resist occupation? Is that wrong?”
On March 24, 2019, AMP shared on Facebook the program for the conference which included a session run by SJP UMN of a “detailed presentation on how to run a divestment campaign on campus and the important on Palestine in media.”
SJP UMN Honoring Terrorists: 2015 - 2016
On January 27, 2016, SJP UMN posted on Facebook support for Muhammad Al-Qiq. Al-Qiq was detained by Israel for his involvement in Hamas terror activity.On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN held a “die-in” in support of Palestinians who were conducting a wave of stabbing attacks on Israelis, known as the “Knife Intifada.”
During the die-in, SJP UMN activists lay on the ground, while 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, who he described [00:02:07] as “young Palestinians whose lives were unjustly taken away from them by Israeli security forces.”
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.”
On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN posted to Facebook photos from a rally in support of Rasmea Odeh and wrote: “Thank you to our friends for keeping us updated with some pictures from Rasmea's appeal today.” Participants in the rally held signs that read:“I support RASMEA” and “Minnesota stands with Rasmea Odeh.”
Odeh was a key military operative 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.
One of the photos of Odeh that SJP UMN shared on Facebook was captioned: “This is what you call a #Warrior.”
On October 12, 2015, SJP UMN shared on their Facebook page a video that claimed Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara), purportedly “bled to death” and suffered abuse by Israeli soldiers.
Mansara was wounded while he engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem, critically wounding a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounding a 25-year-old man.
Manasra was successfully treated at the same Israeli hospital as his victims and later convicted of attempted murder.
SJP UMN wrote in their Facebook post: “We cannot ignore these constant, heinous crimes, acts of racism, hatred, and inhumanity Palestinians are subjected to by Israeli settlers.”
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.”
In October 2015, SJP UMN posted a photo on Instagram of their section on the Washington Avenue Bridge. One of their panels featured a map that erased Israel, portraying the whole country with no internal borders and entirely covered by a keffiyeh.
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.
Breaking the Silence was discredited by Israeli investigative TV show, HaMakor, in July 2016, in a report revealing that a substantial number of BTS testimonies are untrue or distorted.
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.”
The article also said that after protesters were removed from the hall by university police, they continued disrupting the event by shouting [00:00:01] chants including “free, free Palestine” and [00:01:55] “Israel is an apartheid state” in the hallway, which were audible from inside the lecture hall. Anti-Israel propagandist Sabry Wazwaz, who has called for the destruction of Israel and the U.S., spread anti-Semitism, compared Zionists to Nazis and expressed support for a terrorist, led the chants.
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.
During his talk, Cohen reportedly said the war was “not an attack on Hamas....it was an attack on Palestinian society.” He also claimed that “Israeli soldiers were allowed to take revenge” and that they intentionally shot civilians.
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.”The policy of “anti-normalization” aims to ensure that all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians align only their agenda, including ending the occupation and a full right of return for Palestinians, which is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. The policies are shared with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
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.
On April 20, 2015, SJP UMN co-sponsored an event featuring disgraced anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita on “how critique of American and Israeli colonization might be productively undertaken.” In 2014, Salaita had an offer employment retracted by the University of Illinois, after a series of anti-Semitic tweets he had posted were uncovered.
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.
On March 8, 2016, the MSA voted [00:26:24] to strike down the divestment resolution from the MSA agenda.
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.
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.
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