Sam Blanchard

Overview

Sam Blanchard is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Blanchard also supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

On November 7, 2015, Blanchard campaigned to bring Green party presidential candidate nominee, Jill Stein to Vassar to talk about divestment from Israel.

Blanchard is a student of Women’s studies at Vassar College.

Claiming "The Lobby" Controls the Dictionary

On September 2, 2015, Blanchard claimed that Israeli Israeli Prime Minister was controlling the definition of words on Google — "warning: netanyahu is now defining words on google, stay wary my friends — looking for a new search engine." Blanchard’s objection was to Google’s definition of the word “Diaspora,” which, both the Oxford English dictionary’s and Merriam-Webster dictionary’s primary definitions, when capitalized, also refer to the Jews’ exile from Israel.

In the post’s comment feed Blanchard added, "Netanyahu is a warlord and needs to be regarded as such. Netanyahu, whether directly or not, has a huge lobby in America. That is undeniable."

Advertising with Israel-Hatred

On February 12, 2015, Blanchard invited people to grab a snack, saying: "come 2 burger Fi for mediocre food but awesome music!!!!! One dollar beer and fuck Netanyahu vibes!!!!"

On February 13, 2016, Blanchard publicized a hip-hop performance — and applauded the event’s call for "the demise" of Israel as “the fascist regime that has stolen historic Palestine.”

Lying to Demonize Israel

On October 10, 2015, Blanchard shared a link to video footage misrepresenting a the shooting of a knife-wielding Palestinian woman — fired upon after trying to stab an Israeli security guard — as an "execution." The post also presented Palestinian terrorist Fadi Aloon as an innocent civilian “who was posing no threat,” shot while being “hunted by Israeli settlers.” In reality, Aloon was fired on by Israeli security forces — after he tried stabbing to death a 15-year old Israeli boy. Several hours before committing the stabbing, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.

On February 2, 2016, Blanchard falsely accused Israel of discriminating against the LGBT community -- posting: "the state of israel conceals its disregard for (queer and trans) palestinians by marketing their colonial regime as a ‘safe space in the middle east.’"

On October 21, 2015, Blanchard called Israel "America's next top colonial power revising history to justify genocide."

On September 6, 2015, Blanchard posted footage of a staged confrontation between Palestinian children and an Israeli soldier. Scripted propaganda films, which exploit and endanger Palestinian children are often produced to promote libelous claims of"Israeli brutality," on social media and on TV news.. The video Blanchard shared featured a girl known in the media as “Shirley Temper” — whose real name is Ahed Tamimi. Tamimi has appeared in many other staged productions— also eventually exposed as propaganda. Ahed is a relative of Alam Tamimi, the woman who drove the suicide bomber that blew up Jerusalem’s Sbarro Cafe in August 2001 — murdering 15 and wounding 130.

On June 25, 2015, Blanchard posted a slanted article from countercurrent news.com that misrepresented the Israeli police force as universally racist toward Ethiopian Jews. Blanchard announced "Zionism is Racism."

SJP Vassar - Spreading Incitement

In February 2016, SJP Vassar’s Facebook page said that the group sought a “full decolonization of Palestinian lands,” a call to dismantle the state of Israel.

On October 21, 2013, SJP Vassar posted an article on Facebook alleging that Israel was carrying out a campaign to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state.

Such propaganda served as the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence that flared in the fall of 2015 and incited Palestinians to attempt mass casualty attacks on Israeli civilians in July 2016.

SJP Vassar - Support for Terror

In February 2016, SJP Vassar announced that they would be selling "sweet fucking antiZionist gear" at their future events, such as a T-shirt featuring gun-toting terrorist Leila Khaled.

Khaled was 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.

In a 2014 interview, Khaled opined that the Palestinian second intifada failed because it was not violent enough.

SJP Vassar also advertised the sale of “Existence is Resistance” T-shirts, which include various designs featuring the words “Straight Outta F**k Israel” a picture of a masked gunman, as well as the Leila Khaled T-shirt.

On October 6, 2015, SJP Vassar whitewashed Palestinian terrorist Fadi Aloon as a civilian who was shot while “run[ning] from a racist mob.”

Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.

SJP Vassar - Spreading Hate

In May 2014, SJP Vassar was forced to issue an apology for posting a Nazi-style, anti-Semitic cartoon on its Tumblr account. Vassar’s President, Catharine Hill, announced a review of SJP Vassar’s status as a student group, and said that Vassar would probe use of the image “as a bias incident under college regulations.”

In late February 2014, SJP Vassar staged a protest against a proposed class trip to Israel, outside the classroom of the professor leading the trip. The belligerent behavior of the SJP Vassar members left the professor and her students feeling harassed and intimidated.

On March 3, 2014, Vassar held an open forum to discuss the “ethics” of the class trip to Israel. SJP Vassar members turned out to picket the event. Reports from attendees were that “Jewish kids who spoke were heckled” and drowned out with a finger snapping noise and loudly laughed at” and that “rage against Israel was the theme.”

In February 2014, SJP Vassar shared a video called “This Divestment Hurts my Feelings.”

On March 4, 2014, SJP Vassar mocked pro-Israel students on Facebook who felt “attacked” and “vulnerable” after receiving fake eviction notices in their dorm rooms.

In April 2014, the group posted on Facebook a cartoon ridiculing pro-Israel college students for feeling attacked and unsafe.

SJP Vassar - Honoring Human Shield

In November 2014, SJP Vassar co-sponsored a play with JVP Vassar honoring the memory of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Rachel Corrie.

ISM

The International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was founded in 2001 and, according to the group’s website, is “resisting the long-entrenched and systematic oppression and dispossession of the Palestinian population, using non-violent, direct-action methods and principles.”

Despite this claim, the ISM has been accused of supporting terrorism and has encouraged its foreign volunteers to act “as human shields in cities, towns and refugee camps.” At least once, ISM facilities have been used in attempts to facilitate the escape of known terrorists from Israeli security forces.

ISM has encouraged its volunteers to break curfew and disregard Israeli directives prohibiting access to closed military zones. This policy resulted in the death of ISM operative Rachel Corrie, who was killed by a bulldozer while interfering with an Israeli military operation in 2003.

A wrongful death suit brought by Corrie’s family was dismissed when the judge ruled that Corrie unreasonably chose to put her own life in danger and found there to be no intent or negligence on the part of any Israelis involved in the incident.

Promoting BDS at Vassar

On February 1, 2016 JVP Vassar and SJP Vassar partnered to form the Vassar Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (VBDS) Coalition, which sought to pass a resolution that would be considered by the Vassar Student Association (VSA) on March 6, 2016.

The resolution, which was co-authored by Rosen, demanded that Vassar “boycott and divest from the main colonizing force in Israel/Palestine, Zionism." The resolution also aimed to prohibit using student funds to purchase goods from 11 companies that had ties to Israel, such as Ben & Jerry’s and Sabra Hummus.

VBDS organized over a month and a half of anti-Israel events, culminating in Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), to advocate for the divestment resolution’s passage.

Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been re-named Palestine Awareness Week.

VBDS Promoting Hate-Speech

On February 3, 2016, VBDS’ promoted an event that featured anti-Israel professor Jasbir Puar, speaking on “Inhumanist Biopolitics: How Palestine Matters.”

Puar began her speech by calling for armed struggle against Israel. She went on to demonize Israel, suggesting that Israelis harvest the organs of dead Palestinians. Puar also claimed that Israel was maiming and “stunting” Palestinians via food restrictions.

Puar also opined that the reason Israeli Jews have not killed Palestinians is “[t]hey need the Palestinians alive in order to keep the kind of rationalization for their victimhood and their militarized economy.”

JVP Vassar - Demonizing Israel

In March 2015, JVP Vassar and SJP Vassar co-sponsored an event featuring Dr. Sa'ed Atshan, speaking on “resistance in Palestine.” Atshan, a leading proponent of BDS, wants the Jewish state to be dissolved in favor of another democratic state, but stripped of its Jewish majority.

On November 19, 2015, JVP Vassar promoted an initiative called “Renounce Birthright,” calling on Jews aged 18-26 to renounce a free trip to Israel provided by Birthright. The Renounce Birthright initiative states “We are young Jews living in the diaspora committed to mobilizing for the abolition of Birthright.”

According to the site, anybody that visits Israel on Birthright is “willfully taking advantage of [his or her] racial privilege” and “complicit in sustaining the occupation.”

On November 17, 2015 JVP Vassar shared an article on Facebook titled “The way for Americans to take on the Islamic state is to end support for Jewish nationalism.” commenting “We are Jewish, we stand against the oppressive Israeli state, and we will not be ignored.”

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.