Stephanie Skora
Overview
Stephanie Skora has expressed support for terrorists, trivialized the Holocaust and blamed Jewish organizations for the murder of Jews. Skora also spread hatred of Israel online.As of September 2020, Skora was the chapter leader and a Coordinating Committee member of the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Chicago (JVP Chicago) since March 2017.
As of September 2020, Skora was listed as a founding member of the Trans Liberation Collective since March 2017. In this capacity, Skora reportedly forced a Jewish lesbian out of the 2017 Chicago Dyke March for carrying a rainbow flag with a Star of David on it.
Skora supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and was affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 2014 through 2016.
Skora was also a panelist at the 2019 National SJP Conference.
Skora co-chaired a workshop at the 2018 US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) National Conference.
While at UIUC, Skora was the core organizer of a group created to defend anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita, who was fired after writing anti-Semitic tweets. Skora has also expressed support for anti-Israel Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
Skora is also an activist [00:01:15] with the anti-Israel organization IfNotNow (INN). INN actions have aimed to demonize [00:38:13]Israel, harass the American Jewish establishment, and decrease support for Israel among Diaspora Jewish young adults.
Skora graduated from UIUC in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in Gender & Women’s Studies and Political Science.
As of December 2020, Skora was the Associate Executive Director of Brave Space Alliance (BSA), which is headquartered in Chicago, and served as the Board President for the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity. Skora was also the co-author and then the solo author of Girl, I Guess progressive voter guide since 2018.
Expressing Support for Terrorists
On April 28, 2017, Skora promoted the “Saltwater Challenge,” held in support of over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom were convicted for acts of terrorism. The “Saltwater Challenge” was held in solidarity with Palestinian inmates hunger-striking in Israeli prisons.Trivializing the Holocaust
On October 30, 2019, Skora posted to Facebook: “Although the Shoah receives more historical attention (and therefore, is designated more importance) than the Armenian genocide, and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, it should not he [sic] controversial to say that all genocides have equal impact and severity.”On January 30, 2017, Skora tweeted: “Netanyahu is just Jewish Trump. Different hair, different Twitter, different Nazis, but the policies are identical.”
On July 3, 2016, shortly after Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel passed away,Skora tweeted: “#ElieWiesel was a hero for surviving the Holocaust, and a villain for facilitating the genocide of Palestinians. He is not uncomplicated.”
On the same day, Skora also tweeted: “In the face of the horrors of the Holocaust, we must remember that we, as Jews, are still capable of inflicting harm upon others #ElieWiesel.”
Blaming Jewish Organizations for the Murder of Jews
Skora went on to claim: “Some of the largest Jewish organizations in the country are complicit in this violence… Complicit in funding the messengers of an ideology that led a Nazi to shoot and kill 11 older Jews, in a synagogue on Shabbat.”
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On May 15, 2020, Skora posted to Facebook: “Israel does not have the right to exist #FreePalestine #NakbaDay #Nakba72.”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 15, 2019, Skora posted to Facebook: “Today is #NakbaDay” and added, “Every day, but this day especially, it bears repeating: Israel does not have the right to exist.”Skora then added: “#FreePalestine #FromTheRiverToTheSea.”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.
On May 16, 2018, Skora wrote a Facebook post that began: “No, the Israeli State does not have a right to exist.... No, the Israeli State does not have a right to defend its borders. Its borders are a farcical construct designed to enforce a system of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and overt brutality.”
In the same post, Skora accused Israel of “genocide” for its response to Hamas-led riots on its Gaza border, called the “March of Return.” Skora added: “Now is the time for action, to follow the lead of Palestinians in open and active resistance and refusal of Zionism, the Israeli State, and all forms of settler colonial White Supremacy.”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On March 26, 2017, Skora participated [00:01:15] in an INN protest outside the Washington, D.C. venue of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference. Protestors chained themselves to the entrance of the conference center.
The stated mission of AIPAC is to “strengthen, protect and promote the U.S.-Israel relationship in ways that enhance the security of the United States and Israel.”
On June 5, 2017, Skora wrote on Facebook: “This Jew is proud to stand in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinians forever, and I know that one day soon we'll see the end of Zionist ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism, genocide, and apartheid.”
Further on in the same post, Skora continued: “Let me be clear: Zionism is White Supremacy. Israel is an illegitimate apartheid state which is currently committing war crimes including genocide, ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment against the Palestinian people. Palestine will always belong to the Palestinian people. AND more and more Jews hold these views every single day. Fight me, f**kers.”
On August 5, 2016, Skora tweeted: “As Jews, we need to stop letting our commitment to social justice end where critiques of Israel begin. Zionism is incompatible with justice.”
On July 21, 2016, Skora tweeted: “USA and Israel: Bffs in genocide since 1948.”
As of September 2020, Skora’s website promoted several of Skora's talks “on Palestine solidarity topics,” which were described as “forcing discussions in Jewish spaces about silence on racism, Islamophobia, and complicity in genocide.”
One of the talks was titled: “Pride with Prejudice: Exposing the Pinkwashing Agenda.”
Skora promised to teach “how to take action to prevent queer and trans bodies to be mobilized to justify apartheid.”
On June 6, 2019, Skora posted to Facebook: “Reminder to everyone in my networks that I provide consultation, advising, and crisis management services for any Dyke March anywhere that has made, or is in the process of making the decision to ban Israeli iconography and/or nationalist symbols, and is currently/could potentially face backlash from Zionists and other right-wingers as a result.”
Skora added: “If the Dyke March in question is run in part or in whole by Palestinians or anti-Zionist Jews, I'll do it for free. #DykeMarch2019 #FreePalestine #SmashAntisemitism #WeWillOutliveThem.”
In February 2019, Skora published a report titled “Pride with prejudice” that allegedly exposed the “right-wing” funding of the pro-Israel LGBTQ organization A Wider Bridge (AWB).
In the report, Skora accused [p.10] AWB of pinkwashing and labeled AWB as a “right-wing” organization funded by “pro-Israel,” “right-wing,” or [p.20] “anti-progressive” organizations. Skora also defined [p.4] “right-wing” as fascist or Conservative, “that would further colonialism, promote racism or other forms of bigotry.”
On January 25, 2019, Skora helped lead a disruption during the 2019 Creating Change Conference and “shut down” the Conference’s plenary session. The disruption rejected Creating Change’s decision to decline inclusion of a “Pinkwashing” workshop in the Conference program.
On January 26, 2019, Skora led two rogue “CancelPinkwashing” workshops during the Creating Change Conference.
On April 13, 2018, Skora led an “Exposing the Pinkwashing Agenda” workshop in coordination with Smith College SJP.
On April 11, 2018, Skora led a workshop at the University of Maryland (UMD) alongside anti-Israel activists Remi Kanazi and George Abraham.
In January 2018, Skora co-led two unofficial “CancelPinkwashing”workshops during the 2018 Creating Change conference. Skora also led a protest and disruption against the Creating Change conference for refusing to give an official space to discuss “pinkwashing.”
On June 25, 2017, Skora reportedly forced a Jewish lesbian out of the 2017 Chicago Dyke March for carrying a rainbow flag with a Star of David on it. Skora claimed credit on stephanieskora.com for havingstrategized and organized a shutdown of the Chicago Pride Parade in 2017, protesting their historical transphobia, racism, and Zionist tilt.”.
In June 2017, Chicago Dyke March organizers were accused of anti-Semitism after expelling Jewish marchers for carrying rainbow flags with Jewish stars. Organizers claimed that the flags were a “trigger” offensive to other marchers and that one of the banned marchers was employed by an organization that had “connections to the Israeli State and right wing pro-Israel interest groups.” In July 2017, Chicago Dyke March reportedly tweeted: “Zio tears replenish my electrolytes!” The term “Zio” [Zionist] is an often-used anti-Semitic slur.
Pushing BDS
The talk’s description stated: “A major accusation against the movement is that BDS is antisemitic… however nothing could be further from the truth.” Skora also claimed that BDS was the “best method for fighting contemporary antisemitism in the US and around the world.”
On April 16, 2018, Skora led “A Jewish Case For Divestment” workshop with SJP and JVP at Vassar College.
On March 18, 2020, Skora posted to Facebook: “Race Call: Marie Newman has defeated Dan Lipinski in IL-3, removing an anti-Choice man from the House. Let's push her on BDS!”
On June 24, 2018, Skora posted to Facebook: “Not gay as in happy. Queer as in Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. #BDS #FreePalestine #Pride.”
Campaigning for Steven Salaita
Skora claimed to have been one of seven founding “core organizers” for the group “#UIStudents4Salaita,” a “movement” that endorsed anti-Semitic professor Steven Salaita. .In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.
Skora claimed the movement Skora helped create resulted in ”the removal of many upper administrators implicated in the firing” of Salaita and “created a solid coalition for other ongoing Palestinian justice organizations on campus.”
Supporting Ilhan Omar
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for implying that AIPAC bribes members of Congress to support Israel.
On March 5, 2019, Skora posted to Facebook: “One of the most wild things about the backlash against Ilhan Omar is that I don't know a SINGLE Jewish person who hasn't either called the AIPAC a lobby, questioned the US-Israel relationship, or both.” Skora went on to claim Omar “just sounds like the average progressive voter in the US.”
Panelist at National SJP Conference
On that same day, SJP at Fordham University (Fordham) and SJP at Occidental University (Oxy) also posted a video of the same panel event to their Instagram stories.The 2019 National SJP Conference was held at the University of Minnesota- Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3. The Conference themes centered on support for BDS as well as the rejection of Israel and Zionism.
The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS
The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”
The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.
2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism
The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.
Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.
2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy
The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations
National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari.
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish value.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100002017367896Twitter: https://twitter.com/Stephanie_Skora
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- INN,
- more...
- Related Profiles:
- Dunia Ghanimah,
- Junaid Rana,
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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