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Sarah Rahimi

Overview

Sarah Rahimi promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2015 and was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)’s divestment committee at UCLA in 2014. Rahimi was also a member of SJP at UCLA in 2013 and 2014.

Rahimi served as external vice president of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UCLA for the 2014-2015 academic year.

As of April 2021, Stris & Maher LLP listed Rahimi on their website as a legal associate, located in Los Angeles, CA. The site also said Rahimi received a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law in 2019, and both a master’s degree in Islamic Studies and a bachelor’s degree in International Development Studies from UCLA in 2015.

Stris & Maher LLP’s site also indicated that while Rahimi was at UCLA School of Law, she served as the Chief Comments Editor of the UCLA Law Review. She was also a member of the UCLA Supreme Court Clinic and the UCLA International Human Rights Clinic.

Promoting BDS

Rahimi was a member of SJP at UCLA’s divestment committee in 2014.

In November 2014, SJP at UCLA pushed a divestment resolution they drafted in 2013, “calling on the Regents to divest from companies that enable and profit from violations of Palestinian rights.”

The resolution claimed that Caterpillar, Cemex, Cement Roadstone Holdings (CRH), General Electric (GE) and Hewlett-Packard (HP) “provided weapons used” by Israel “in attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip” and that investment in these companies “shows implicit support” for “the killings of civilians.”

On February 22, 2014, Rahimi appeared in an SJP at UCLA photo posted to Facebook, with other activists, holding a sign with the word “Divest.”

That same day, Rahimi appeared in a second similar photo posted by SJP at UCLA to Facebook. SJP at UCLA added: “UCLA students unite for Palestinian rights #UCLAdivest.”

After a debate on February 25, 2014 lasted over ten hours and went until six in the morning the following day, the resolution was voted down.

On March 7, 2014, Rahimi featured in an op-ed authored by SJP at UCLA activist Alex Shams, which was posted to his website and published by Maan News Agency, titled: “10th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week Kicks Off Globally.”

Rahimi, interviewed by Shams, stressed how Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) at UCLA, and re-branded “Palestine Awareness Week (PAW), had laid the groundwork for a divestment campaign that targeted five companies that Rahimi alleged were involved in Israeli human rights abuses against Palestinians.

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.

Rahimi reportedly said: that students would “come and learn about the situation and be upset, but when they found out that the university’s funds are invested in such human rights violations, they were shocked.”

Rahimi also reportedly stated that despite the divestment campaign’s failure to pass a divestment bill in the student government, she was optimistic about the role IAW would play in mobilizing a global movement in solidarity with Palestinians.

Apparently responding to comments about IAW and divestment campaigns created an “unsafe” environment on campus for Israelis and those who support Israel on campus, Rahimi said: ”It speaks volumes about the amount of privilege behind such a comment, when the most threatening or unsafe thing imaginable to someone is a bill that seeks to attack corporations that enable human rights violations.”

In November 2014, following Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), SJP at UCLA again pushed a divestment resolution “calling on the Regents to divest from companies that enable and profit from violations of Palestinian rights.” 

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

The November 2014 resolution claimed that the same five companies “provided weapons used” by Israel “in attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip” and that investment in these companies “shows implicit support” for “the killings of civilians.”

On November 13, 2014, Rahimi was featured in a UCLA Divest photo posted to Facebook, holding a sign that states: “Because no one wants to make money off of Human Rights Violations.”

On November 14, 2014, Rahimi published an Op-Ed in the UCLA student newspaper the Daily Bruin, titled: “USAC needs to make the right choice by voting to divest.”

In the op-ed, Rahimi called on UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) to vote to divest from “companies that systematically violate Palestinian human rights” and likened support for divestment to being “against South African apartheid.”

On November 18, 2014, the undergraduate student government adopted the divestment resolution with a vote of 8-2-2.

Rahimi signed an SJP West January 8, 2015 letter calling for the UC Student Association (UCSA) to adopt SJP at UCLA’s divestment resolution. The resolution reportedly called on the UC Regents to divest from American-based corporations that “violate Palestinian human rights.”

In February 2015, the UCSA Board of Directors passed the resolution by a 9-1-5 vote.

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.  


Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1111664824
Sarah Rahimi
Status:
Professional
University:
California-Los-Angeles
Organizations:
BDS,
MSA,
more...
SJP

Related Profiles:
Jemima Pierre,

Last Modified:
06/23/2025

Photos & Screenshots

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