Simone Lovano
Overview
Simone Lovano [Simoni LoVano Scirocco] was a student activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Rutgers University of New Brunswick (Rutgers) in 2016. In September 2017, Lovano was a member of the SJP Rutgers Facebook group.As of August 2019, Lovano’s LinkedIn page said he was the Social Media Chair of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at Rutgers from September 2013 to September 2014 and a member of the MSA at Rutgers Facebook group.
Also as of August 2019, Lovano’s Linkedin page said he was a “Manufacturing Associate, Car-T,” at Celgene.
SJP Rutgers - Supporting Terrorists
On April 19, 2017, SJP Rutgers organized an emergency rally to “Support Palestinian Prisoners Hunger strike."
The prisoners’ hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, then serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings, and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada.
Barghouti led the the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
In January 2014, SJP Rutgers participated in Right To Education Week, where they hosted two visiting students from Birzeit University.
Birzeit is a hotbed of anti-Israel agitation. The university has been accused of radicalizing students as well as promoting and encouraging political violence.
The student body elected Hamas to power in 2003, 2015 and 2016.
In January of 2016, Birzeit characterized an IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent ... attack on the university and our right to education …"
SJP Rutgers Activists - Harassing Jewish Students
In a July 10, 2017 Tempest article, Syjil Ashraf — a founding executive board member of SJP Rutgers and former public relations - marketing officer — bragged “... I personally feel that the newly-built, multi-million dollar Rutgers Hillel Center for Israel Engagement is a testament to how badly we freaked out campus Zionists…"
Ashraf claimed: “At Rutgers, we single-handedly changed campus dialogue regarding Middle Eastern policy…"
On February 18, 2014, Rutgers SJP activist John Lisowski wrote an article attacking the Board of Trustees of the Daily Targum, Rutgers’ student newspaper, claiming the board “elected to censor" the “Israel-Palestine conflict."
Lisowski also downplayed an anti-Semitic op-ed that the SJP activist Amani Al-Khatahtbeh — then editor of The Daily Targum — chose to publish. Lisowski characterized it as “a false accusation against Hillel that questioned the organization’s funding."
On October 6, 2013, SJP Rutgers members slid hundreds of mock eviction notices under Rutgers dorm and apartment doors in a controversial SJP anti-Israel campaign.
In an October 14, 2013 article in The Daily Targum, John Lisowski — then events coordinator of SJP Rutgers — dismissed Jewish student concerns about campus anti-Semitism prompted by the campaign.
Although the mock eviction tactic violated campus rules and demonized Israel, Lisowski alleged “critics of the fliers only seem to be speaking out against them because they are on the opposite side of this debate from SJP."
Lisowski went on to claim: “Branding criticism of Israel as ‘anti-Semitism’ is inherently anti-Semitic..."
After Rutgers’ Hillel submitted a press release to the Daily Targum criticizing SJP’s campaign, it was reported that Al-Khatahtbeh inappropriately altered the release before publishing it.
SJP Rutgers - Hosting Terror Supporters
On March 6, 2017, SJP Rutgers co-hosted an event with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). The event featured a panel that included Josh Ruebner — the Policy Director for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation (ETO).
Ruebner has accused Israel officers of studying Nazi tactics to use against Gazan Palestinian and has accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) of placing Israeli interests ahead of American interests.
Also speaking at the event was Osama Abu Irshaid, the national policy director of AMP. Abu Irshaid formerly served as editor of Islamic Association for Palestine's Arabic periodical, Al-Zaitounah — a mouthpiece for pro-Hamas propaganda.
On November 9, 2016, SJP organized an event titled: “ISrael: A Manifestation of Imperialism & Colonialism."
The Facebook event description read: “Come out to learn about how ZIONISM embodied the 19th century ethos of the European Mission Civilisatrice, racism, supremacy, and utilitarian principles, to justify the creation of a settler colonialism project on the land of Palestine."
The event featured Raja Abudlhaq, who has claimed that one cannot represent Palestine if one condemns armed resistance. Abdulhaq believes that Israel is a racist colonial state, asserting that “It’s very important to always remember that Western colonial powers are as guilty as Israel in the mass-murder of Palestinians, especially the USA."
He has also stated that he considers any Muslim organization that organizes an Interfaith event with a “Zionist" counterpart to be a “betrayal to your brothers in sisters in Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt and other countries."
On April 29, 2015, SJP Rutgers hosted an event featuring Haneen Zoabi. The Facebook event description read: “SJP invites you to a discussion with Haneen Zoabi on Israeli Apartheid, Zionism and more from a viewpoint of a Palestinian living in Israel."
Zoabi, a member of Israel’s parliament (the Knesset), has been investigated for inciting "popular" violence on a number of occasions. In July 2014, Zoabi was suspended from the Knesset after she excused the Hamas kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers — declaring that the abductors were “not terrorists." The boys were later found in a field — executed by their Hamas kidnappers.
In October 2015, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu initiated a criminal investigation against Zoabi after she called for Muslims to give “popular support" to terrorists in the Hamas-affiliated Al Resalah newspaper.
SJP Rutgers - Hosting Anti-Israel Propagandists
On October 26, 2016, SJP Rutgers hosted violent agitator Issa Amro — the head of Youth Against Settlements — known for vandalism and attacking Israeli soldiers. Amro has been charged with numerous acts of violence against Israeli civilians and security forces.
Burnat is the coordinator of the Bil’in popular resistance committee and has since 2005 organized weekly demonstrations against the Israeli West Bank security barrier. The protests have attracted the media and participation of anti-Israel groups. Although described as “non-violent," these demonstrations have often turned violent.
Burnat has repeatedly equated Israel with Hitler and ISIS, claimed Zionism is a “racist ideology" and accused “Zionists" of controlling American politics.
Also attending the event with Burnat were members of the Neturei Karta — a fringe anti-Israel Jewish group.
Neturei Karta member Yisroel Dovid Weiss was excommunicated by many Orthodox Jewish groups for attending a 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Iran. Weiss has also defended prominent Iranian anti-Semitic leaders like former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
On September 11, 2014, as part of PAW, SJP Rutgers hosted radical Muslim cleric Zaid Shakir, who established the Zaytuna College in Berkeley, California, with SJP founder Hatem Bazian and others.
According to an Investigative Project report (Page 1) Shakir “suggests that ‘Zionist’ forces and the FBI were behind the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center."
Regarding his vision for the United States, Shakir has said, “under Islamic law the kafir [non-Believer] won’t be equal with the Muslim. The Christian or the Jew will be a dhimmi [second class citizen]. They won’t be equal with the Muslim."
On March 15, 2014, SJP Rutgers hosted anti-Israel propagandist Ali Abunimah, who said in 2010: “Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit."
On February 25, 2014, SJP Rutgers hosted David Sheen as part of an SJP Rutgers- organized “Palestine Awareness Week" (PAW) event.
Sheen is an anti-Israel extremist who often lectures to American college students about the supposed evils of the Israel.
On May 5, 2013, SJP Rutgers hosted notorious terror-supporter and anti-Israel agitator, Miko Peled. In an October 1, 2012 video, Peled claimed: “The Israeli Army which I like to refer as the best trained, best equipped, best fed terrorist organization." On August 19, 2013, Peled tweeted that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) “lusts for blood."
SJP Rutgers - Demonizing Israel
On November 12, 2014 — as part of Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) — SJP Rutgers organized a “Die In.” SJP activists lay on the floor covered in fake blood, next to signs that read: “Israel is responsible for murder, occupation and apartheid.”The Die-In demonized Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) that summer. Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 in order to stop rocket attacks targeting Israeli civilians and destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On November 18, 2014, the General Body Coordinator of SJP Rutgers — Don Courter — wrote an article in the Daily Targum attacking Hillel students who protested against SJP’s Die In. Courter described OPE as the “abhorrent murder of children carried out by the state of Israel.”
SJP Rutgers - Hosting an Anti-Israel Activist
On November 23, 2015, SJP Rutgers hosted prominent anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour.Sarsour frequently uses the word “Zionist” as a pejorative and has tweeted that “nothing is creepier than Zionism.”
In 2014, Sarsour attacked a documentary that called attention to the plight of women in the Islamic world, in part because Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a former Muslim, was an executive producer of the film. Sarsour worked together with CAIR to ban the film from being screened at American universities.
On March 8, 2011, Sarsour attacked Ali — a victim of female genital mutilation — on social media. Sarsour tweeted “Brigitte Gabriel= Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She's asking 4 an a$$ whippin'. I wish I could take their vaginas away - they don't deserve to be women.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:www.facebook.com/1593904218
Twitter:https://twitter.com/simonilov
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-lovano-149b1b22/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/alsiqilli/
Tumblr:http://sicilianu.tumblr.com/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/simonilov
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-lovano-149b1b22/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/alsiqilli/
Tumblr:http://sicilianu.tumblr.com/
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- Rutgers
- Organizations:
- MSA,
- SJP
- Related Profiles:
- Diala Ghneim,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
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