Sara Elzeiny

Overview

Sara Elzeiny promoted and voted for a 2017 anti-Israel divestment resolution while a student senator at De Anza College (De Anza). The resolution forwarded the agenda of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Elzeiny was an activist with De Anza Students For Justice (SFJ). SFJ was praised by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) West, a coalition of West Coast SJP chapters, for being the first community college student group to pass divestment.

Elzeiny has indicated on Facebookthat she went to multiple events at De Anza that spread hatred of Israel and promoted anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.

Elzeiny is an administrator of SFJ’s 2016-2017 Facebook group and has promoted SFJ events at De Anza.

She is a member of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at De Anza, whose events she has promoted. She is also affiliated with the San Francisco Bay Area office of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and was involved with the Muslim American Society (MAS), Bay Area.

Elzeiny was elected to be a De Anza Associated Student Body (DASB) senator in October 2016, during Midterm Elections. She joined the DASB Students Rights and Services Committee on October 19, 2016.

Elzeiny is a 2017 graduate of De Anza, where she majored in Computer Science.

On November 2017, Elzeiny indicated on Facebook that she was studying at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) and attended SJP events held at UC Berkeley that demonized Zionism.

On May 5, 2017, Elzeiny was added to the closed Facebook group “UC Berkeley Transfer Class of 2019.”

As of January 31, 2018 Elzeiny went by the alias “Sara Al Zain” on Facebook.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

In February 8, 2017, Elzeiny participated [00:01:00] in an an event at which Viana Marie Lopez, SFJ’s co-chair, accused [00:00:19]pro-Israel lobbying groups of exercising undue influence over United States congressmen and their parties during the 2016 election cycle.

The event promoted an anti-Israel divestment resolution, submitted by SFJ to the DASB senate on March 15, 2017. The resolution quoted, almost verbatim, the so-called “Palestinian Civil Society Call” for BDS.

The SFJ bill smeared Israel and condemned companies for providing technologies for Israel’s defense such as scanning equipment used at checkpoints.

Pushing BDS at De Anza

On March 5, 2017, Elzeiny promoted on Facebook an SFJ workshop scheduled for March 9, 2017. She wrote: “I would appreciate it if you all could come out to this workshop hosted by De Anza Students for Justice. We're announcing our campaign to divest from human rights violations in Palestine.”

On March 7, 2017, Elzeiny offered volunteer hours to members of Fund our Future at De Anza in exchange for their attendance of the March 9 SFJ event launching its divestment campaign.

On March 9, 2017, Elzeiny indicated on Facebook that she “went” to the SFJ event launching its divestment campaign.

On March 10, 2017, Elzeiny attended an MSA event to “create art’ to display on the group’s “Palestine Wall.” The art included “resistance” fists featuring the words “Free Palestine,” which passersby were encouraged to stick on 10-feet tall, gray, wooden panels erected as a “Palestine Wall” on campus.

MSA erected its Palestine Wall on March 13, 2017, two days prior to SFJ’s presentation of its divestment bill to DASB.

On March 15, 2017, ahead of the DASB senate vote on SFJ’s divestment bill, Elzeiny encouraged students to attend “the DASB vote to divest from the occupied territories in Palestine” and to deliver a statement in support of Palestine during “public comments.”

As a student senator, Elzeiny voted for SFJ’s anti-Israel resolution later that day.

The SFJ bill condemned companies for providing technologies for Israel’s defense such as scanning equipment used at checkpoints.

The resolution smeared Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Motorola Solutions and G4S as companies that profit from “the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories” and enable “human rights abuses and violence.”

The vote to endorse the resolution passed with 12 in favor, one against and four abstentions.

Following the vote, Elzeiny moved for a five minute recess and did not return to the senate for the remaining DASB session.

On March 17, 2017, Elzeiny promoted SFJ’s “potluck and meeting” to celebrate the passage of SFJ’s divestment bill. Elzeiny wrote that the meeting would serve as a strategizing session focusing on SFJ’s media presence and how to forward the bill to the college’s financial governing board — the Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board.

De Anza SFJ

De Anza Students For Justice (SFJ) is a student group at De Anza that claims to promote “awareness of and involvement in political and social issues.”

SFJ has a closed Facebook group for its 2016-2017 members with a cover image of the West Bank security wall featuring the text “To exist is to Resist.”

The group was praised by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) West, a coalition of West Coast SJP chapters, for being the first community college student group to pass a divestment bill.

SFJ promotes SJP events and shares SJP posts.

The group has also shared Facebook posts from the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and held events in conjunction with JVP and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at De Anza.

SFJ - Supporting Terrorists

On May 19, 2017, SFJ De Anza shared a Facebook post with an article supporting Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli prison.

The hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks against Israelis that killed five people during the second intifada. Barghouti financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre. Also among the hunger strikers was Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) Secretary General Ahmad Sa’adat.

More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike — most of whom were also convicted for acts of terrorism.

On April 19, 2017, SFJ shared a Facebook post urging support for the hunger strikers.

SFJ - Demonizing Israel

On March 11, 2017, five days prior to the passage of SFJ’s divestment bill, SFJ promoted De Anza MSA’s “Palestine Wall.”

The wall was erected on the De Anza campus two days prior to the divestment vote to raise awareness of “the occupation of Palestine.” Passers-by were invited to paste pictures of “resistance” fists on the 10-feet tall, gray wall.

Anti-Semitism at De Anza

On February 21, 2017, anti-Semitic posters and stickers were found in three locations on the De Anza campus. A message on two of the posters claimed that the Holocaust never happened.

De Anza SFJ denounced the incident and claimed that it stood “in solidarity with Jewish Americans.”

The incident was investigated by campus police, who treated it as a hate crime. De Anza President Bill Murphy denounced the incident and convened a forum titled “De Anza Stands Against Anti-Semitism and Other Hatreds” to address the issue.

Following the passage of SFJ’s divestment resolution in March 2017, members of Hillel of Silicon Valley raised concerns that passing the resolution would increase anti-Semitism on campus.

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.