Samir Salih

Overview

Samir Salih has promoted calls for the abolition of Israel, whitewashed a terrorist, spread incitement and engaged in anti-Israel activism.

Salih also pushed a 2019 Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) initiative at Cornell University (Cornell) as a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Cornell (Cornell SJP).

In 2019, Samir was reportedly a member of the Islamic Alliance for Social Justice at Cornell (IAJ Cornell). IAJ officially endorsed Cornell SJP’s divestment campaign in 2019.

As of March 2022,Salih’s LinkedIn page said he received a bachelor’s degree in Government and Near Eastern Studies from Cornell in 2019, and that he was a Meinig Family Cornell National Scholar (MFCNS).

Also, as of March 2022, Salih’s LinkedIn said he was a Product Development Specialist at Meta since March 2021, and that he was located in the New York City Metropolitan Area.

Promoting Calls for the Abolition of Israel

Salih retweeted an August 20, 2020 tweet that promoted a live online teach-in posted to YouTube titled: “The Struggle for Abolition: From the U.S. to Palestine.” The teach-in was moderated by Zaina Alsous, an organizer with Dream Defenders (DD), a socialist Black liberation group in the U.S. that promotes BDS.

The teach-in featured panelist Randa Wahbi who said [00:54:13]: “Palestinian resistence is rooted in abolition. Our fight is rooted in dismantling Israeli settler colonialism, not reforming it.”

Whitewashing a Terrorist

On July 29, 2020, Salih shared a tweet about Ahmad Erakat by his cousin, anti-Israel activist Noura Erakat, and commented: “State-sanctioned brutality allows for this this sort of tragedy. Sad that we are unabashedly funding this violence.”

Ahmad Erekat [Ahmad Moustafa Erekat; Ahmed Erakat] was killed by Israeli security forces after he accelerated and rammed his car into soldiers at a checkpoint. One female soldier was injured. The incident was captured on video.

Spreading Incitement

Salih retweeted a May 8, 2021 tweet by U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren that read: “The forced removal of long-time Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah is abhorrent and unacceptable. The Administration should make clear to the Israeli government that these evictions are illegal and must stop immediately.”

In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month.

Anti-Israel Activism

On June 7, 2021, Salih donated to a Facebook fundraiser for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP). According to NGO Monitor, MAP has worked with groups linked to the terror group PFLP, an internationally designated terrorist organization.

On December 1, 2019, Salih donated to a Facebook fundraiser for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF).

The Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) is a nonprofit organization reportedly set up to “provide urgent humanitarian care for Gaza’s children.” It has been financially linked with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), which was shut down by the U.S. government for funneling donations to a terrorist organization.

On May 19, 2019, Salih donated to a Facebook fundraiser for the Rachel Corrie Foundation (RCF).

RCF was created to honor the memory of Rachel Corrie, a former International Solidarity Movement (ISM) member who was accidentally killed while interfering with an Israeli military operation in 2003 during the Second Intifada. 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.

Pushing BDS on Campus

On March 28, 2019, an article in the student school newspaper, The Cornell Sun, referred to Salih as a “divestment supporter.”

In February 2019, Cornell SJP launched an anti-Israel divestment campaign, introducing and pushing S.A. Resolution 36, “Urging Cornell to Divest from Companies Profiting from the Occupation of Palestine and Human Rights Violation.”

Cornell SJP’s resolution called on Cornell to divest from Cornell Tech’s partnership with the Technion. Cornell Tech is Cornell’s technology, business, law and design campus.

Cornell SJP also called on the university to divest from Tata Motors, Ingersoll-Rand, Raytheon, G4S, and Hewlett-Packard and any other companies SJP Cornell claimed “profit directly from Israeli military occupation.”

Cornell SJP also said: “We will publicly name endowment investments…and hold university leadership responsible for complicity in crimes of apartheid.”

On February 18, 2019, Cornell SJP delivered a letter to Cornell’s President Martha Pollack calling on the University to “divest from companies profiting from morally reprehensible human rights violations in Palestine.”

On March 28, 2019, Samir participated as a “community member” in a Cornell Student Assembly (CSA) meeting during which Cornell SJP introduced their divestment resolution.

According to public meeting minutes posted on the CSA website, Samir said: “...this resolution is not BDS, nor is it connected to the BDS movement...”

On April 11, 2019, Cornell SJP presented their divestment initiative to Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA). During the discussion, Mahfuza Shovik, a resolution sponsor, denied [00:23:03] the resolution was part of the BDS movement.

SA senators used a secret ballot to vote in favor of the resolution, but the resolution failed to pass after a “community vote” (SA by-laws, section 7) was cast.

BDS activists have resorted [00:11:05] to the use of secret ballots to eliminate [02:51:15] transparency from the voting process and avoid any public scrutiny and accountability for their anti-Israel initiatives on university campuses.

Cornell SJP - Overview

Cornell SJP has dismissed anti-Semitism, supported anti-Israel violence and whitewashed terrorists. The student group has also disrupted Israel Day campus events multiple times, demonized Israel and campaigned for the BDS movement.

Cornell SJP activists wrote an anti-Israel statement and presented it at Cornell’s Student Assembly (SA) in May 2021.

Cornell SJP created its Facebook page on April 25, 2013.

Cornell SJP - Promoting Anti-Israel Violence 2020-2021

On May 12, 2021, Cornell SJP promoted on Instagram their upcoming May 15, 2021 “March for Palestine” on Cornell’s Ho Plaza. The event poster featured calls to: “SAVE SHEIKH JARRAH” and “SAVE AL-AQSA.”

Incitement around Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israel’s major centers on May 10-21, 2021. In response, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.

On May 12, 2021, Cornell SJP promoted their upcoming march on Facebook, calling on their followers to “show support for the ongoing rebellion in occupied Palestine against the Zionist occupation” and condemn “Zionism and Israeli state terrorism.”

Zionism is the belief in the right to self-determination and statehood of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, Israel. The word Zion originates in the Bible, where it refers to the land of Israel and Jerusalem.

On May 15, 2021, Cornell SJP demonstrators participated in the group’s march. Protesters displayed a banner that read: “Stand with Palestinian Resistance,” as well as signs that read: “End the Palestinian Holocaust” and “Stop the US Funding of Genocide.”

At the protest, one demonstrator accused [slide 2] Israel of “white supremacy,” as well as [slide 1] “ethnic cleansing” and “violent brutal occupation.” Joseph Mullen, a newly-elected SA member and march organizer, addressed the attendees as “a member of the student assembly and a South African in solidarity with Palestine.”

Mullen claimed that [00:01:50] South African style apartheid “lives on in one place today - Israel” and characterized [00:01:59] Israel as a “a massive police state” that “brutalizes, monitors and murders Palestininans.”Mullen also pledged [00:00:50] “to end Cornell’s relationship with Israel.”

On May 16, 2021, Cornell SJP posted photos of their demonstration to Facebook and commented: “Cornell students and Ithaca residents turned out in force today to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation and apartheid!”

Cornell SJP - Disrupting Israeli Independence Day2016-2017

On May 2, 2017, Cornell’s student newspaper, The Cornell Daily Sun, reported that Cornell SJP disrupted Cornell Hillel’s Israeli Independence Day celebration in Anabel Taylor Hall by holding a “die-in” protest in the middle of the event.

Cornell SJP activists were granted entrance to the event venue after they assured campus police they would not disrupt the Hillel event. However, within minutes of entering the hall, four members of Cornell SJP held up a sign that read: “Celebrating 69 years of Genocide,” while others handed out flyers or lay on the floor, simulating corpses.

Cornell SJP members reportedly distributed flyers that said: “the modern day Jewish state was founded on the expulsion of the indigenous population.”

Cornell SJP - BDS Overview

In February 2019, Cornell SJP launched an anti-Israel divestment campaign, calling on the University to divest from Technion Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) and any companies which Cornell SJP claimed “profit directly from Israeli military occupation.”

Cornell SJPmembers tried to [00:23:03] deny that the resolution was part of the larger BDS movement, a tactic encouraged [00:58:53] by BDS-founder Omar Barghouti. Cornell senators also used a secret ballot to vote on the bill. The bill ultimately failed to pass.

In October 2019, Cornell SJP moved to direct confrontation, disrupting the quarterly meeting of Cornell’s Board of Trustees and calling on the Board to “sever ties” with the Technion. Cornell SJP also called to eliminate the Board’s power of discretion in investments in “the occupation of Palestine.”

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.