Suleiman Hodali

Overview

Suleiman Hodali has demonized Israel and was a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2012.

Hodali is a supporter of the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of January 2021, the Department of Comparative Literature at UCLA indicated that Hodali was a Ph.D. student since 2016, and that he received a master’s degree from UCLA in 2016, and a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 2014.

As of January 2021, Hodali indicated on his LinkedIn that he was a Teaching Associate at UCLA since 2013.

On September 15, 2014, Hodali presented a workshop titled “Palestine 101”at the Levantine Cultural Center at UCLA.

The Center’s website advertised the course as "an audiovisual experience that surveys anti-colonial resistance and explores the history, culture and politics of Palestine, from the early 20th century forward. We will delve deeper beyond Hamas and the PLO as we explore how Palestinians have resisted both colonization and the erasure of their history and culture."

On April 5, 2008, Hodali was reportedly sentenced to four years in prison by the Superior Court of California in Santa Cruz after he pleaded guilty to “Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated.”

Demonizing Israel

Hodali signed an August 3, 2013 statement titled: “Palestinians in Shatat say ‘No’ to Resumption of Negotiations.”

The statement expressed “opposition to the resumption of bilateral Israeli/Palestinian negotiations under U.S. auspices,“and labeled Israel “apartheid.” The statement also claimed all of Israel as Palestinian land, stating: “Our people have struggled for 65 years in order to achieve the liberation of the land.”

Hodali signed an October 12, 2012 statement, published to the anti-Israel news site Electronic Intifada (EI), titled: “The struggle for Palestinian rights is incompatible with any form of racism or bigotry: a statement by Palestinians.”

The statement expressed opposition to “all forms of racism and bigotry, including… Zionism” and alleged that Israel carries out “colonial and apartheid policies.”

BDS Support

On October 23, 2012, Hodali published an article in UCLA’s student newspaper The Daily Bruin, where he commended the University of California’s Student Association (UCSA) for “standing in opposition to HR 35” and the “the racism of Israel’s human rights violations.”

Hodali also characterized supporters of HR 35 as “defenders of Israeli apartheid.”

California state’s August 2012 House Resolution (HR) 35 called on California’s postsecondary educational institutions to “condemn acts of anti-Semitism on their campuses and to utilize existing resources, such as the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ working definition of anti-Semitism to help guide campus discussion. “

In the article, Hodali expressed support for BDS and suggestedIsrael was similar to South Africa under apartheid.

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.

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.