Taylor Green

Taylor Green promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at the University of Maryland (UMD), in 2019. 

In an April 2019 Facebook video, Green said she was a “Junior” at UMD. 

As of August 2019, Green went by the alias “jadedstemme” on Twitter.

Promoting BDS

On April 25, 2019, Green was featured [03:45:36] in a video posted on Facebook by the UMD Student Government Association (SGA), urging the SGA to pass a BDS bill. The bill was launched by Divest UMD.

Divest UMD is a campaign that calls on UMD to divest from companies that do business with Israel. 

In the video, Green said [03:45:40]: “I’m gonna be reading directly from the Black Lives Matter’s website. ‘The Movement for Black Lives stands with the Palestinian people and especially those in Gaza that have been engaging in resistance at the Gaza border.’”

Green continued [03:45:49]: “As we watch the brutal attacks on these brave activists which continued during and after the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem we are painfully reminded of what happens when black people here in the U.S decide to resist.”

On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The violent demonstrations were instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border. Participants declared their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”

March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Rioters also made numerous attempts to breach Israel’s border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.

Green added [03:46:00]: “We know the United States government sends the same weapons to Tel Aviv as it sends to Ferguson and hundreds of other cities across the country. We know that police officers in the United States learn tactics of war from Israeli police forces... Who come... to train U.S officer’s in methods of Israeli surveilance and murder.”

Green went on to say [03:46:18]: “We also demand an end to the over 3 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars that are sent to Israel to purchase military arms from U.S. corporations. We categorically condemn the mass murder of Palestinians who’s only crime was taking acts of moral resistance to life under occupation.” 

Green concluded [03:46:33]: “We join them in calling for an end to the illegal blockade of Gaza which has allowed for the sealing of its borders trapping 2 million residents in an open air prison.’”

On April 25, 2019, Divest UMD announced on Facebook that following a UMD student government vote, the BDS bill failed to pass with “a vote of 9 for, 25 against, and 2 abstentions.”

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/100002383701359     

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jadedstemme