Tina Matar

Overview

Tina Matar is the former president of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California-Riverside (UC Riverside). Matar is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and led four divestment campaigns at UC Riverside, a de-shelving campaign to boycott Sabra hummus from campus stores and “many, many” protests and demonstrations.

Matar is involved in the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). As of January 30, 2019, Matar was an administrator of the closed Facebook group for PYM Los Angeles, Orange County and Inland Empire ( LA-OC-IE).

PYM supports and has glorified terrorists, promotes incitement to violence and spreads anti-Israel conspiracy theories. PYM also advocates for the dissolution of the State of Israel, supports BDS, demonizes Israel, supports anti-Israel agitators and praises violent protesters.

As of February  2019, Matar’s LinkedIn page said she worked in Guest Services at Goldenvoice.

Matar’s LinkedIn also said that she was studying for an Master of Business Administration - MBA at California State University-Long Beach (CSULB), scheduled to graduate in 2020. 

Matar graduated from UC Riverside in 2015 with a bachelors of science degree in Business Marketing.  

Teaching UCR Students to Hate Israel

In 2015, Matar taught a Fall 2015 course at UC Riverside, titled "Palestine & Israel: Settler-Colonialism and Apartheid." The faculty sponsor of the course was anti-Israel professor David Lloyd.

The syllabus of the course was analyzed by Verity Educate — an independent, non-partisan, non-profit organization that provides analysis of the accuracy and objectivity of educational material — and found to contain primarily anti-Israel propaganda.

Verity Educate found that the course sought to indoctrinate students and encourage anti-Israel activism. Their analysis concluded that "the core academic and educational values of knowledge acquisition and critical thinking have been hijacked by a particular strain of political action, and specifically by a particular politically oriented activist organization."

In May 2015, over 25 groups sent a letter to UC Riverside’s president and provost voicing their concern over the inherent bias of the course. The letter stated that Matar’s course violates a UC policy prohibiting political indoctrination in the classroom.

Harassing American Performers to Cancel Performances in Israel

In June 2016, Matar spent weeks harassing and insulting comedian Hannibal Buress on Twitter, in an effort to get Burgess to cancel a scheduled performance in Tel Aviv. On June 13, 2016, Matar tweeted a PYM petition that falsely accused Burgess of “playing into a system of apartheid, theft, mass killings, unjust incarcerations and much more.”

Promoting Anti-Semitism — By Demonizing Israel and Israelis

At an October 2015 UC Riverside conference called “Palestine, Israel, and the Assault on Academic Freedom,” Matar likened all Israelis to Klu Klux Klan members.

On June 23, 2014, Matar tweeted a video titled: “Why Would a Texan Boycott Israel?” by someone who introduced himself as Bill McKee, from San Antonio, Texas. The video propagated false, incendiary claims about Israeli settlements having been created by forcing Palestinians off of their land at gunpoint. The video also justified Palestinian terrorism and called on viewers to join the BDS movement.

Matar commonly employs the word “Zio,” a derogatory reference to Zionists and an anti-Semitic slur. On August 19, 2014 Matar propagated the libel that Israel denies Palestinians water rights, tweeting: “people in #Palestine don't even have water to drink because they are under occupation.” This falsehood has long been used as a weapon to attack Israel. On August 12, 2016, the Palestinian Authority arrested a number of Palestinian municipality officials for organizing a massive water theft operation in the West Bank. While denying that he stole water, one Palestinian mayor admitted that his constituents have regularly diverted and stolen water in the West Bank, but said — “as a mayor, I do not have the tools to monitor them.”

On June 6, 2013, Matar posted on Facebook a incendiary — fraudulent — claim that “Israel almost made it a law that it is ILLEGAL to marry a non-Israeli.”

Slandering Zionism as Racism

Matar has falsely claimed that Zionism — the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture — is a form of racism and bigotry.

On December 17, 2013, Matar tweeted that all Zionists are racists. On February 4, 2014, she claimed that a "Zionist is a person that believes in a Jewish only state. They deny the rights of others because of religion/ethnicity." On May 8, 2014 Matar tweeted “You are f**king racist for being a Zionist. Zionist is NOT A GOOD THING!” On February 8, 2015, Matar tweeted “there shouldn’t be a Jewish state. That’s racist in itself.”

This canard remains a staple of the Palestinian anti-Israel narrative. In 1975, an Israel-hating resolution — that falsely branded Zionism as a form of racism — was proposed to the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), at the instigation of the Soviet Union, its client states, The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Arab and Islamic-majority countries hostile to Israel. Although the anti-Semitic resolution passed in 1975, it was repealed in 1991, by a much larger majority.

SJP UC Riverside - Creating a Hostile Campus Environment

In 2013, Matar played the role of "Israeli soldier" at a mock checkpoint that SJP UC Riverside set up for “Palestine Awareness Week.”

In 2012, SJP members disrupted a talk given by two Israeli reservist soldiersat UC Riverside. Protesters also called Israelis "baby-killers" at a rally that same year.

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.

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/tina.matar.3

Twitter:https://twitter.com/tignar

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/pub/tina-matar/9a/194/b69