Syeda Rahman
Overview
Rahman supported the UMN Divest campaign at the University of Minnesota (UMN), launched by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UMN in 2016.
As of January 2020, Rahman’s LinkedIn page said she worked as a “Developer/Programmer Analyst” at Ameriprise Financial, in Minneapolis, Minnesotafrom “Jan 2018 - Present,” and studied “Computer Science,” at UMN, from “2013 - 2016.”
Rahman’s LinkedIn page also said she was an “Office Assistant” at UMN, in the “Department of Computer Science & Engineering,” from Aug 2013 - Jan 2014,” and was a “Research Associate,” at UMN, from “Jan 2015 - Dec 2015.”
In September 2018, the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy, indicated on Facebook that Rahman was a student slated to graduate in 2022.
As of January 2020, Rahman’s Twitter bio said: “pharmD '22” and that she was located in Chicago, IL.
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On April 5, 2016, Rahman featured in an SJP UMN Facebook group photo in front of their mock apartheid wall.In April 2016, SJP UMN built a “mock apartheid wall” for its “Divest Week 2016,” which the group called a “divestment special edition of our annual Israeli Apartheid Week,” promoting the 2016 UMN Divest BDS campaign.
Promoting BDS on Campus
On February 15, 2016, Rahman changed her Facebook profile photo to an SJP UMN produced graphic that read: “UMN DIVEST 2016.”Rahman posted: “UMN Divest is a grassroots, student-led campaign calling on University of Minnesota to divest from corporations that are profiting off of human rights violations in Palestine. Join us by signing this petition: http://goo.gl/forms/b1IiVjl0KS FACEBOOK.COM/UMNDIVEST sjpumn.com/UMNDIVEST#UMNDivest.”
On the same day, SJP UMN launched UMN Divest, a campaign suggesting [00:01:53] Israel was like Apartheid South Africa and demanding [00:01:10] that the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) and UMN divest from all companies “complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
On February 16th, 2016 SJP UMN issued a press release claiming UMN’s divestment from four companies explicitly targeted by the campaign “would neutralize the University of Minnesota in this conflict [sic] …” and that “The call to divest is a response to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”
On February 19, 2016, Rahman featured in a photo posted on Facebook by SJP UMN taken at an event titled: “Why Divest?”
UMN’s Chief Investment Officer reportedly told The Minnesota Republic, a student-run newspaper at UMN, that the university had “no direct exposure” to the four companies highlighted by the UMN Divest campaign.
On March 1, 2016, Rahman featured with other UMN Divest activists in group photos with other UMN Divest activists shared on Facebook by UMN Divest.
In March 2016, Rahman also changed her Twitter profile photo to the SJP UMN- produced graphic that read: “UMN DIVEST 2016.”
On March 8, 2016, the MSA voted [00:26:24] to strike the divestment resolution from the MSA agenda.
On the same day, Rahman featured in a photo among supporters of the resolution shared on Twitter by SJP activist, Nora Nashawaty. Nashawaty wrote: “Several hundred here in support!! #UMNDivest.”
On March 28, 2016, Rahman changed her Facebook cover photo to an SJP UMN produced flier promoting the schedule of events for “UMN Divest Week.”
In April 2016, the MSA passed a heavily amended resolution that removed all references to Israel and any specific corporations. The amended resolution endorsed divestment generally from “corporations involved in human rights violations,” and from “companies profiting from human rights abuses and violations of international law.
SJP UMN - Praising Violence
On October 20, 2017, SJP UMN shared on Instagram a graphic that featured a Palestinian woman carrying an assault rifle. The graphic was based on a poster originally published by the terror group, the Palestinian Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).The graphic shared by SJP UMN had the caption: “Glory to the Women of the Intifada.”
“Intifada” has carried the connotation of violence since the early 2000’s.
SJP UMN wrote on their Instagram post: “..come learn about Palestinian women’s resilience, contribution to the movement, and what a Palestinian feminist vision for liberation looks like…”
SJP UMN - Supporting a Terrorist 2018
On July 8, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Facebook a post that read: “This week marks the anniversary of the assassination of Ghassan Kanafani. A writer, intellectual, and spokesperson for the Palestinian resistance, he is remembered as one of the most significant literary and political figures of the 1960s-70s Palestinian revolution.”Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the terrorist organization, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during their formative years. Kanafani was also involved in the Lod Airport Massacre near Tel Aviv, for which PFLP took responsibility.
SJP UMN - Promoting BDS 2018
The 2018 UMN Divest campaign launched a petition calling to “demand that the University of Minnesota Investment Committee and any other responsible bodies authorized to make investment decisions divest fully from the companies mentioned in the UMN Divest campaign.”On February 25, 2018, SJP UMN shared to Instagram a post launching the UMN Divest 2018 campaign that said: “UMN Divest is back and this time we’re doing a campus wide referendum. March 5-7 all undergraduate and graduate students can vote ‘yes’ to divest.”
SJP UMN’s “explanation statement” in support of its proposed “campus-wide” referendum claimed that UMN had investments in companies “that violate human rights” and called on UMN to divest from G4S, Boeing and Raytheon and Elbit Systems for being “complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, 2) maintaining and establishing private prisons and immigrant detention centers, or 3) violating Indigenous sovereignty.”
In March 2018, the divestment referendum reportedly was passed by the UMN “All Campus Elections Commission” and sent to the UMN Board of Regents for review.
It was reported that 6,567 people out of UMN’s 51,367 students who were eligible to vote on the referendum actually voted upon the divestment referendum, representing less than 13% of eligible voters.
SJP UMN Honoring Terrorists: 2015 - 2016
On January 27, 2016, SJP UMN posted on Facebook support for Muhammad Al-Qiq. Al-Qiq was detained by Israel for his involvement in Hamas terror activity.On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN held a “die-in” in support of Palestinians who were conducting a wave of stabbing attacks on Israelis, known as the “Knife Intifada.”
During the die-in, SJP UMN activists lay on the ground, while SJP UMN activist Motaz Nashawaty, spoke accusing [00:00:05] Israel of an escalation in “state violence” and [00:00:32] of “extrajudicial murders.”
Nashawaty continued: [00:00:41] “We will pay respects to the Palestinian martyrs executed by Israeli forces” and recited [00:01:57] the names of Palestinian terrorists, such as Fadi Aloonand [00:02:03] Muhannad Halabi, who he described [00:02:07] as “young Palestinians whose lives were unjustly taken away from them by Israeli security forces.”
Aloon stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy after posting “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page, and Halabimurdered two Israelis and injured two others, including a 2-year-old, during a stabbing spree. Halabi posted on his Facebook page “[t]he third Intifada is here…Let the revolution erupt.”
Nashawaty continued [00:02:43] “our people are dying in streets now in Palestine, but they are not helpless - they are resisting.”
On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN posted to Facebook photos from a rally in support of Rasmea Odeh and wrote: “Thank you to our friends for keeping us updated with some pictures from Rasmea's appeal today.” Participants in the rally held signs that read:“I support RASMEA” and “Minnesota stands with Rasmea Odeh.”
Odeh was a key military operative with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket.
One of the photos of Odeh that SJP UMN shared on Facebook was captioned: “This is what you call a #Warrior.”
On October 12, 2015, SJP UMN shared on their Facebook page a video that claimed Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara), purportedly “bled to death” and suffered abuse by Israeli soldiers.
Mansara was wounded while he engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem, critically wounding a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounding a 25-year-old man.
Manasra was successfully treated at the same Israeli hospital as his victims and later convicted of attempted murder.
SJP UMN wrote in their Facebook post: “We cannot ignore these constant, heinous crimes, acts of racism, hatred, and inhumanity Palestinians are subjected to by Israeli settlers.”
SJP UMN Demonizing Israel: 2015-2016
In April 2016, SJP UMN built a “mock apartheid wall” for its “Divest Week 2016,” which the group called a “divestment special edition of our annual Israeli Apartheid Week,” promoting the 2016 UMN Divest BDS campaign.IAW is a series of events on university campuses that promote Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and claim to “raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system.”
On April 22 2015, SJP UMN wrote on Facebook that “Israel’s ‘birthday’ is established on the occupation and exile of an entire people,” in a post which also denied SJP involvement in the vandalism of a pro-Israel group’s display celebrating Israeli independence.
The next day, Rula Rashid, SJP UMN treasurer, reportedly approached a table set up by a pro-Israel campus group to educate students about Israel’s independence and said “you stole our land.”
On April 9, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “‘If it's centered around Judaism, why are only white Jews allowed to live in Israel? It's not a case about religion and Judaism.’ @MnarMuh.”
On March 4, 2015, SJP UMN hosted an event with Dan Cohen, a journalist with the anti-Israel Mondoweiss, speaking about his experiences reporting from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). OPE was launched by Israel to stop Hamas rocket attacks and destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
During his talk, Cohen reportedly said the war was “not an attack on Hamas....it was an attack on Palestinian society.” He also claimed that “Israeli soldiers were allowed to take revenge” and that they intentionally shot civilians.
SJP UMN Promoting BDS: 2016
On February 15, 2016, SJP UMN launched a divestment campaign, calling for the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) and UMN to support divestment from companies that SJP UMN claimed “profit from human rights violations in Palestine/Israel.”SJP UMN’s statement announcing the campaign said UMN’s investment in the companies targeted by the campaign showed “implicit support for…the killing of civilians, and violations of their basic human rights.”
UMN’s Chief Investment Officer reportedly told The Minnesota Republic, a student-run newspaper at UMN, that the university had “no direct exposure” to the four companies targeted by the campaign.
On March 8, 2016, the MSA voted [00:26:24] to strike down the divestment resolution from the MSA agenda.
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/1281850623LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/syeda-rahman-0ab58193
Twitter:https://twitter.com/syedamahnaz [Private]
_203x172_XZQ3pL.jpg "Syeda Rahman")
