Stephanie Rigsby
Overview
Stephanie Rigsby [Stephanie Marie Rigsby] is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and voted in favor of an anti-Israel divestment resolution at De Anza College (De Anza) in 2017.Rigsby is a member of 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 to pass divestment.
Rigsby served on the De Anza Associated Student Body (DASB) senate during 2016-2017 as executive vice president.
Rigsby is a 2017 graduate of De Anza, where she majored in Social and Behavioral Sciences.
As of November 2017, Rigsby’s Facebook page said she was employed at Moreno Valley College (MVC) as a “Student Intern for the Vice President of Student Services.”
Supporting BDS
On September 10, 2017, Rigsby shared a link on Facebook to a buycott campaign called “Long live Palestine, boycott Israel.” The campaign called on “ordinary people” to boycott “companies that are supporting the occupation of Palestine.”On March 15, 2017, Rigsby voted in favor of SFJ’s divestment resolution. The anti-Israel bill, submitted by SFJ’s co-chairs, smeared Israel and condemned companies for providing technologies for Israel’s defense such as scanning equipment used at checkpoints.
Following SFJ’s presentation of its resolution to DASB, Rigsby seconded the motion to approve the resolution.
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.
On February 8, 2017, Rigsby posted a video on Instagram of SFJ co-chair Viana Marie Lopez leading an event promoting SFJ’s divestment resolution.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Twitter:https://twitter.com/kittymafia09
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/kittymafia09
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/user/SarasaK
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- De-Anza
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- SFJ
- Related Profiles:
- Coriena Andy,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
