Sophie Marika Ross

Overview

Sophie Marika Ross was arrested and charged with riot and sabotage after a violent anti-Israel incident in November 2023 where her group damaged and vandalized an Elbit Systems facility in New Hampshire. 

Ross was also arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and vandalizing property at another violent anti-Israel incident with the same group on October 30, 2023, in Massachusetts.

Ross was arrested as an activist with Palestine Action US, which calls itself a “direct action network dismantling Elbit Systems and the Zionist War Machine.” Elbit Systems Ltd. is a defense manufacturing company based in Haifa, Israel. Ross’s group is part of the broader Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Ross’s arrests occurred following a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The terror attacks left about 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded.  

Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron,” which was going on during both of Ross’s arrests.

As of November 2023, Ross reportedly lived in Housatonic, Massachusetts.

Arrested on Multiple Counts Including Riot and Sabotage

On November 20, 2023, Ross was reportedly arrested at a violent action organized by Palestine Action US at Elbit’s subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, in Merrimack, New Hampshire. 

Palestine Action US activists blocked the company’s driveway and defaced the building with graffiti in red spray paint that said “GENOCIDE PROFITEERS” and “FREE GAZA.” They reportedly smashed windows and skylights. They also caused damage to HVAC equipment and set off incendiary devices while on the building’s roof.

Ross accessed the building’s roof, leading to her arrest by the Merrimack Police Department. Ross was one of three people, including Palestine Action US organizer Calla Walsh, who were reportedly “all charged with Riot, Sabotage, Criminal Mischief, Criminal Trespass, and Disorderly Conduct.”

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.