Stephen Ellis

Terrorist Marwan Barghouti was sentenced to five consecutive life terms for some of his crimes, including his role in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. In 2017, he initiated the hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners known as the “Dignity Strike.” He headed the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which carried out many terror attacks against Israeli civilians.

During her speech, Shoufani villified peace and co-existence with Israel and promoted the ideology of the late Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) activist “Ghassan Kanafani,” whom Shoufani called “our martyr.”

Shoufani also declared “we salute and demand the freedom of Bilal Kayed a 34 year-old activist,” Kayed was a PFLP member jailed for terrorist operations committed during the second intifada.

Following her speech, Shoufani was suspended for a month from teaching.

On October 24, 2017, Ellis claimed in an op-ed in the Toronto Sun that one of the paper’s columnists had “shamelessly” accused “teacher, Nadia Shoufani” of “supporting hateful terrorists.”

Supporting an Anti-Israel Agitator

On February 8, 2018, Ellis wrote on Facebook: “Call your MP and ask why Liberals have said nothing about the arrest of Ahed Tamimi!!”


On January 31, 2018, Ellis shared on Facebook a link to a petition calling for Tamimi’s release. Ellis wrote: “SIGN AND SHARE!!!!!!!!!!!!”  

On January 4, 2018, Ellis posted on various Facebook groups that he was forming a sub-committee to help organize a “Free Ahed” demonstration in Toronto “and maybe elsewhere in the coming days.”

On January 2, 2018, Ellis posted a status on Facebook: “RELEASE AHED TAMIMI RIGHT F**KING NOW!!!!!!”

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On March 3, 2018, Ellis linked to a gofundme campaign titled: “Label The Occupation.” The campaign raised funds for a lawsuit to challenge the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s decision to label wine produced in Judea and Samaria as a “Product of Israel.” 

The plaintiff and his lawyer, Dimitri Lascaris, had alleged that the wines were fraudulently mislabeled, in violation of Canada’s consumer protection laws. Ellis wrote on Facebook: “expose Israeli Apartheid! Please donate to this worthy campaign. Label the Occupation.”

On December 9, 2017, Ellis attended [00:00:43] the protest “Hands off Jerusalem,”hosted by Canadians for Palestine to denounce U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to relocate the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
 
On December 6, 2017, Ellis shared a link on Facebook with the hashtag “#HandsOffJerusalem.”

On October 24, 2017, Ellis wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Sun and said: “While many of us find the reality of Israeli apartheid repugnant, there remain some among us, namely government officials and pundits, who, for various reasons, seek to sustain and bolster Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.”

Defending Vandalism

On April 12, 2017, Ellis was the point of contact on an SJP UOITC and SJP Durham College (SJP DC) press release that attacked B'nai Brith Canada and The CIJ News (Honest Reporting Canada) for calling out and reporting on an incident that occurred during a cultural festival at UOIT.

On March 9, 2017, a local SJP chapter was reportedly involved with “covering up an Israeli flag” during a university diversity festival and reportedly celebrated the act on Facebook, referring to Jews as “rodents.”

On March 22, 2017, SJP UOIT/DC expressed on Facebook its support for “the act of covering the Israeli flag as a show of political protest…” and “a legitimate exercise of expressive freedom.”

SJP UOIT/DC then criticized the UOIT administration for “carrying out an ongoing witch-hunt,” employing “scare tactics, racial profiling, and abuse of power” and alleged the administration was “complicit in fostering discrimination and hostility on campus.”  
 
On March 24, 2017, Ellis reportedly e-mailed a “cease and desist” letter, on behalf of SJP UOIT/DC, to B’nai Brith Canada and CIJ News, claiming they published false claims about SJP. 

Ellis threatened legal action unless the organizations retracted their articles about the incident from their social media and allowed SJP UOIT/DC to publish its own articles about the incident. 

On April 12, 2017, SJP UOIT/DC posted a “Press Release” on Facebook, publicizing its threat of legal action against B’nai Brith and CIS News.

Promoting BDS

On January 15, 2018, Ellis posted on Facebook: “Join BDS today!!! Msg me for details.”

On November 21, 2017, Ellis wrote on Facebook: “If any of your orgs can pass a resolution in support of BDS, let me know!”

On October 22, 2017, Ellis wrote an op-ed in the Toronto Sun, stating: “I am proud to be part of the BDS movement, a campaign that is anti-racist at its core.” 

On September 8, 2017, Ellis posted an invitation on Facebook to BDS promoter and anti-Israel speaker Archbishop Desmond Tutu, to give a talk at BDS Canada and offered to make “all the arrangements.”

On July 23, 2017, the Canadian BDS Coalition thanked Ellis for his initiative to challenge the group to boycott Canadian singer Bryan Adams in Israel in December 2017. Ellis encouraged followers on Facebook to contact Adams’ agent and wrote: “Bryan Adams: It is reckless to play apartheid Israel!.” 

In a July 23, 2017 post to Roger Waters’ Facebook page, Ellis wrote: “Let’s build the BDS campaign.” His post linked to an article titled: “Bryan Adams to perform in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in December. 

Roger Waters is a world-famous musician and BDS activist who has compared Israel to Nazi Germany. He has also been accused of spreading anti-Semitism at his concerts.

On November 30, 2016, Ellis urged Facebook followers to enlist their friends and pressure Ontario Legislators to vote down an anti-BDS motion. 

Ellis wrote: “the pro-Israel lobby is also pressuring Ontario MPPs very hard!” 

On May 12, 2016, Ellis posted on Facebook: “Hey everyone! I was thinking of bringing a pro-BDS motion to the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. Any activists out there want to help make that happen with me? please advise…”

Ellis was also a member of multiple BDS groups on Facebook, including BDS Canada and the “Call for Cultural Boycott of Israel (BDS).”

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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/stephen.ellis.522066

Twitter: https://twitter.com/stephen741218

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-ellis-499b5121/