Salwa Kisswani

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

On March 6, 2014, SJP at Brooklyn College (Brooklyn SJP) shared a Facebook photo of Kisswani and other SJP activists wearing various costumes representing Israel’s security barrier, the costumes had messages that demonized Israel.

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.

Kisswani posed next to a SJP activist wearing a costume with a painting of Leila Khaled.

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.  

On March 6, 2014, Brooklyn SJP shared a photo on Facebook of a closeup of Kisswani’s costume from the security barrier photo. Her costume read: “Israel’s plan for peace 1993-2013 * Israeli settler population doubled to over 500K. * 15,000 Palestinian homes destroyed * West bank divided into 167 bantustans. All people have a homeland to live in… But…. Our homeland lives in us.” 

In another photo of Kiswani and fellow activists in their costumes demonizing Israel, three additional activists can be seen holding up signs promoting BDS that read: “The right to boycott, the right to divest, the right to sanction.” 

On March 6, 2014, SJP CSI shared a photo on Facebook of Kisswani with other SJP at CSI activists at their “Israeli Apartheid Wall at CSI.” Kisswani held a sign that read: “The Right to your existence.”

On November 22, 2013, SJP CSI shared a photo on Facebook of Kisswani with other SJP at CSI activists during their “Right to Education Week” holding a sign that read: “Right to History.”



Also on November 22, 2013, SJP CSI tagged Kisswani in a photo on Facebook, with other SJP at CSI activists, holding another sign that read: “פלסטין [Palestine].” 

On May 12, 2013, Kisswani was tagged with other SJP activists in an SJP CSI photo campaign posted to Facebook to promote“Nakba Week” In one photo, Kisswani held a sign that read: “#WeWillReturn #WeWillNotForget.” 

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.

Kiswswani’s sign alluded to the aspiration of “return” by the descendants of many Palestinian Arabs.  

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

CSI SJP - Supporting Intifada  

On October 15, 2015, during the Palestinian “Knife Intifada,” CSI SJP promoted on Facebook a protest in “Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising.” The protest was called to preempt an October 18, 2015 “Jewish Lives Matter” rally scheduled to take place in Times Square. 

The “Days of Rage” in October of 2015 were heralded by Hamas as the advent of a new intifada. They directly resulted in the deaths of Israeli civilians by shootings, stabbings and car rammings.

CSI SJP’s Facebook post said: “Join us loudly in proclaiming that Resistance is not Terrorism, Occupation and Colonialism are Terrorism!”

On October 6, 2015, CSI SJP shared on Facebook an NYC SJP “statement of solidarity” with a “Day of Rage” rally held at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.

At the bottom of that statement was a graphic of a keffiyeh-masked man throwing a rock, with the caption: “Palestine Let the Intifada pave the way for people’s war!” 

Protesters at the rally chanted [00:00:16] “Long live the intifada! Intifada, intifada!” as well as [00:00:01] “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and [00:01:18] “Settler settler go back home, Palestine is ours alone!"

CSI SJP - Defending Terrorists  

On May 16, 2017, CSI SJP participated in the “Saltwater Challenge.”


On June 3, 2016, CSI SJP promoted on Facebook a “Justice for Rasmea Rally & March,” hosted by Within Our Lifetime (WOL), formerly known as New York City SJP (NYC SJP). The event’s Facebook description said the rally was organized to “demand a new trial and justice” for Rasmea Odeh.

CSI SJP - Spreading an Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theory  

On February 22, 2015, CSI SJP posted on Facebook an article stating: “Hundreds of Palestinians flee as Israel opens dams into Gaza Valley.” 

The article claimed that “hundreds of Palestinians were evacuated from their homes after Israeli authorities opened a number of dams near the border, flooding the Gaza Valley in the wake of a recent severe winter storm.”

CSI SJP - Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators  

On March 10, 2015, CSI SJP shared a photo campaign organized by SJP at Hunter College to support Lina Khattab.

Khattab was detained on December 13, 2014, and sentenced to six months jail time on February 16, 2015 for throwing rocks, while celebrating the 47th anniversary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)’s founding.  

On January 29, 2015, CSI SJP posted an article on Facebook supporting disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita. The CSI SJP Facebook post said: “Down with foreign government lobbies bribing universities to silent dissenters and organizers against settler-colonial states!”

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.

JVP

JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.

JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).

Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.” 

JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish values.”

The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans  comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”

According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”