Siriana Abboud

Overview

Siriana Abboud has demonized Israel, spread hatred of Zionism and engaged in anti-Israel activism. Abboud is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In May 2021, Abboud stated in a video posted to her Instagram page that she had intended to start a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter while she was in college.

As of July 2021, Abboud’s LinkedIn page said she was the “Founder” of the Allusio Academy, which she described as “an online preschool program and parent consultation service” founded in July 2020.

Abboud’s LinkedIn also said she graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) with a bachelor’s degree in Clinical Psychology and in French and Francophone Studies in 2016, and graduated from Teachers College of Columbia University (Columbia) with a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education in 2017.

As of July 2021, Abboud’s LinkedIn said she was located in New York, New York.

As of July 2021, Abboud used the alias “siriana.janine” on Instagram.

Demonizing Israel

On June 14, 2021, Abboud shared a post on her Allusio Academy Facebook page featuring slides from an educational “lesson provocation” which claimed the establishment of the state of Israel followed the “ethnic cleansing of Palestine.”

On June 11, 2021, Abboud posted to her Allusio Academy Facebook page, alleging there was a “hidden and brutal history of rape that was used to establish the state of Israel.” Abboud claimed that “sexual violence is embedded… in the nature of Israeli settler-colonial violence itself.”

On May 15, 2021, Abboud posted a video to her Allusio Academy Instagram page, in which she accused [00:07:39] Israel of “ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine,” saying that: “It [Nakba] is the catastrophe that has happened to them by people that came from Europe to colonize their land.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.

On May 13, 2021, Abboud shared several graphics on her Allusio Academy Facebook page of educational material in the form of slides for “Speaking with your child about Palestine.” One slide featured text that described Israel’s security barrier as an “apartheid wall” that was “intended to divide the West Bank in Palestine.”

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

The text on another graphic featured in the same May 13, 2021 post equated police brutality in the U.S. with Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Invoking the “Deadly Exchange” campaign, Abboud’s post read: “You can learn about the long history of military brutality that Israel ‘battle tests’ on Palestinians. Then learn how they invite U.S. police to learn about these violent tactics in free trips to Israel, that are then used on Black Americans here.”

On May 12, 2021, an anti-Israel activist posted images with excerpts of text from a “crash course” on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict written by Abboud on Instagram.

The text Abboud wrote said [image 7]: “FROM 1948 TILL THE PRESENT YOU HAVE SEEN THE CONTINUED ETHNIC CLEANSING AND GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS. (YES IT’S THAT SIMPLE).”

Hatred of Zionism

On June 30, 2021, Abboud wrote on her Allusio Academy Instagram page: “There can be no peaceful Zionism. There can be no peace so long as Zionism exists…”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

On June 25, 2021, Abboud posted a graphic to her Allusio Academy Instagram page that read: “Your teaching can never be radical or revolutionary, so long as you deny the ongoing and violent colonization of Palestine by Zionism.”

Abboud commented on the post, saying: “Liberal Zionism is still Zionism. And Zionism has blatantly, unequivocally and consistently called for the removal of Palestinians from Palestine to create a non-native Jewish majority.”

On May 15, 2021, during Israel’s “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW)” in Gaza, Abboud posted a video to her Allusio Academy Instagram page, claiming [00:11:53]: “For 100 years European Zionists have tried to wipe Palestine off the map.”

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

In the same video, Abboud claimed [00:14:55]: “They [Zionists] are doing exactly what you are seeing now happening in the streets of Sheikh Jarrah and Gaza. It’s happening in the streets of Lydd [Lod] and happening in the streets of Haifa and all over Falastin [Palestine] all over historic and colonized Falastin [Palestine]. That’s what you are seeing happening...and so what happened in 1948 is happening today and it has never stopped.”

In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

On May 11, 2021, during OGW, violent Arab riots broke out in Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod and in other Israeli cities with large Arab populations. The Lod rioters reportedly raised Hamas and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags, and attacked Israeli civilians with slabs and rocks, firebombs and metal rods. Rioters also torched synagogues, cars and businesses, and vandalized hospital medical equipment, schools and government buildings.

On May 12, 2021, an anti-Israel activist posted images with excerpts of text from a “crash course” on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict written by Abboud on Instagram. The text Abboud wrote said [image 10]: “Zionists pull the trigger every day and end the lives of innocent Palestinians.”

On August 12, 2017, Abboud tweeted: “...Let's call these thugs [Zionists] the terrorists they are.”

Abboud’s tweet was responding to another tweet that read: “Trump giving presser just cited violence on ‘both sides needing to stop’ when discussing #Charlotesville.” The hashtag in the tweet referred to the “Unite the Right” rally taking place in Charlottesville on that day.

The “Unite the Right” rally took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, on August 12, 2017, with many far-right groups participating such as the National Socialist Movement (NSM) and League of the South (LS). White nationalist leader Richard Spencer organized the rally to protest the planned removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. Violence erupted at the rally, with one counterprotester killed and at least 33 others injured.

Anti-Israel Activism

Abboud retweeted a June 29, 2021 tweet, by anti-Israel agitator Mohammed El-Kurd that read: “I want to see protests in every damn city in the world against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Jerusalem.”

El-Kurd was one of the Palestinian tenants whose family was illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in Sheikh Jarrah. In May 2021, El-Kurd returned from the United States to his family home, following the Israeli District Court ruling.

On May 15, 2021, Abboud posted a video to her Allusio Academy Instagram page promoting anti-normalization, which said [00:26:09]: “Do not engage with people who are going to call you anti-Semitic as a way to silence you. Do not engage with people who are going to try to debate you.”

In the same May 15, 2021 Instagram video, Abboud stated [00:26:24] she had intended to start a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter while she was in college. Abboud falsely claimed [00:26:25] that SJP is “a peaceful movement” that “hosts events and lectures and educational content about Palestine.”

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running the annual Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), and has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic BDS movement on campus.

Activists have intimidated and harassed Jewish and pro-Israel students and aggressively disrupted pro-Israel campus events.

Supporting BDS

On June 13, 2021, Abboud posted a graphic on her Allusio Academy Instagram page with text that read [slide 4]: “Join the Palestinian call to boycott, divest and sanction support for their oppressor. This international movement, modeled after the South African boycott against apartheid…”

On May 24, 2021, Aboud tweeted, protesting against a stipulation in a California school employment contract forbidding its staff members to participate in anti-Israel boycotts.

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.

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.