Wessam Awadalla

Overview

Wessam Awadalla was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) from 2014 to 2015.She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

UCSC SJP was called the UCSC Committee for Justice in Palestine (CJP) until October 2014.

As of June 2021, Awadalla’s LinkedIn page said she had been an English teacher in the San Francisco Unified School District since June 2016.

As of the same date, Awadalla’s LinkedIn also said she graduated from UCSC with a bachelor’s degree in World Literature and Cultural Studies in 2015, and graduated from Stanford University (Stanford) with a master’s degree in Secondary Education and Teaching in 2016.

As of June 2021, Awadalla used the name “Wessam Abdullah” on Facebook.

SJP Activism

On April 26, 2015, Awadalla appeared in a Facebook video where she and other UCSC SJP activists disrupted a talk on campus featuring former Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers who requested to speak with the protesters.

Awadalla called [00:01:32] the IDF soldiers’ talk “an act of terror and the violence of colonization.” After that, she chanted [00:01:37] “Free Free Palestine” and walked out.

On March 4, 2015, Awadalla featured in an Instagram photo with other UCSC SJP activists taking part in mock checkpoints on campus. One hashtag on the photo accused Israel of “#apartheid” and another was “#bringdownthewall,” referring to Israel’s security barrier.

Israeli checkpoints were built to prevent terror attacks, such as suicide bombings, against Israel's civilian population.

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

On March 4, 2015, two weeks before final exams began, Awadalla and other UCSC SJP activists dressed up as Israeli soldiers and set up four mock “checkpoints” on campus. Activists blocked students from entering a campus library until they “presented identification.” UCSC administration received multiple “hate/bias” reports after the incident where “students felt particularly targeted.”

On February 22, 2015, Awadalla featured in a Facebook photo with other members of UCSC SJP and Steven Salaita after he spoke at an event UCSC SJP co-hosted.

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Steven Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: “You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.”

On October 1, 2014, Awadalla featured in two Facebook photos where she was tabling for UCSC SJP.

On February 26, 2014, Awadalla posted to Facebook: “Hello! Come out to the event hosted by the Committee for Justice in Palestine! We’re going to have some interesting presentations on imperialism, pink-washing, brown-washing, the prison system, greenwashing, and more.”

“Pinkwashing” is a claim that Israel advocates manipulate the LGBTQ community in order to garner support for Israel.

"Greenwashing" is a claim by anti-Israel activists that Israel manipulates the environmentalist agenda to deflect international attention from Israel's alleged "persecution of the Palestinians."

“Brownwashing” is an accusation that pro-Israel activists “appropriate histories, narratives, political symbols and imagery of indigenous people, Native Americans, Africans, and even Palestinians for the purpose of producing a fictitious, if colorful, narrative of Jewish indigeneity and self-Orientalization.”

Supporting BDS

On February 3, 2015, Awadalla signed a letter calling on the University of California Student Association (UCSA) to support an anti-Israel divestment resolution. The letter framed Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge (OPE)” against Hamas in Gaza as “attacks against Palestinian civilians and infrastructure, as was the case in the horrific assault on Gaza this past summer, when hospitals, schools, and homes were destroyed...”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

During Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas in 2014, the U.N. reported that its inspectors found rockets at U.N. schools in Gaza.

In July 2014, then-U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office released a statement saying “those responsible are turning schools into potential military targets, and endangering the lives of innocent children.”

In April 2015, the U.N. released a report stating [p.15] that a “projectile” was launched from a U.N. school on July 14, 2014, concluding [p.15] it “was highly likely that an unidentified Palestinian armed group could have used the school premises to launch attacks.”

Hamas fired rockets from Shifa Hospital (Shifa) at Israeli population centers during Operation Protective Edge. Hamas misfires also struck Shifa and the nearby al-Shati refugee camp. Hamas cleanup crews then concealed the evidence of the misfires, as was confirmed by Amnesty International and an independent Italian journalist.

UCSC SJP - Whitewashing Terrorism

On November 8, 2015, UCSC SJP members held a “die-in” to oppose a pro-Israel student group’s show of solidarity with Israelis who were murdered during a wave of terror attacks that Fall.

October 2015 saw a wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” where young Palestinians throughout Israel were stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians. The upsurge in violence across Israel was incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The attacks were sparked and fueled by Palestinian leaders propagating the libel that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

At the same die-in, UCSC SJP members laid down in front of the student group’s table for the protest, along with signs that said, “Resistance is Not Terrorism” and “Why Can’t Israel Colonize Palestine in Peace?”

UCSC SJP - Spreading Hatred of Israel

On August 4, 2016, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook: “Beautiful to see the official Black Lives Matter platform recognize Israel as an apartheid state and endorse BDS!” The post also quoted a story stating that the platform also accused Israel of “genocide.”

On April 29, 2016, UCSC SJP hosted an event titled, “Legacies of Ethnic Cleansing,” featuring anti-Israel activists Lara Kiswani and Ilan Pappe.

Lara Kiswani has called for Israel’s destruction “to benefit everyone in the world," demonized Israel as well as America and expressed support for terrorists. As of April 2021, Kiswani had been the executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) in the San Francisco Bay Area, as early as 2014.

In August 2016, BDS leader Ilan Pappé admitted that BDS was not initiated by a “call” from Palestinian civil society; rather, it was initiated by a small number of radical anti-Israel extremists.

On October 21, 2015, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook an article titled: “A New Generation of Resistance.” UCSC quoted the article’s subtitle: “In showing that Palestinians won't submit to Israeli violence, the ongoing youth uprising has given the rest of Palestine hope.”

On May 12, 2014, UCSC SJP hosted an event titled: “Apartheid Israel - Oral Histories of Ethnic Cleansing and Apartheid.”

On August 5, 2013, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook: “Stop the Prawer plan - it is ethnic cleansing!!!”

On August 4, 2016, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook: “Beautiful to see the official Black Lives Matter platform recognize Israel as an apartheid state and endorse BDS!” The post also quoted a story stating that the platform also accused Israel of “genocide.”

On April 29, 2016, UCSC SJP hosted an event titled, “Legacies of Ethnic Cleansing,” featuring anti-Israel activists Lara Kiswani and Ilan Pappe.

In August 2016, BDS leader Ilan Pappé admitted that BDS was not initiated by a “call” from Palestinian civil society; rather, it was initiated by a small number of radical anti-Israel extremists.

On October 21, 2015, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook an article titled: “A New Generation of Resistance.” UCSC quoted the article’s subtitle: “In showing that Palestinians won't submit to Israeli violence, the ongoing youth uprising has given the rest of Palestine hope.”

On May 12, 2014, UCSC SJP hosted an event titled: “Apartheid Israel - Oral Histories of Ethnic Cleansing and Apartheid.”

On August 5, 2013, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook: “Stop the Prawer plan - it is ethnic cleansing!!!”

Also on March 4, 2015, UCSC SJP posted to Instagram a photo with its activists taking part in a mock Israeli checkpoint. One hashtag accused Israel of “#apartheid” and another was “#bringdownthewall,” referring to Israel’s security barrier.

Israeli checkpoints were built to protect Israel's civilian population against terror attacks, such as suicide bombings.

Israel’s security barrier, built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks, is 97% low chain-link barrier. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

UCSC set up four mock checkpoints that day where its activists dressed up as Israeli soldiers and blocked students from entering a main library before final exams until they showed “proper identification.” UCSC administration received multiple “hate/bias” reports after the incident where students felt “particularly targeted.”

On January 28, 2015, UCSC SJP posted to Facebook a video of protesters trying to enter a campus pro-Israel event. The post said that after several of them entered, they read a message which included the line: “Participating in a study abroad program in Israel means participating in the ongoing apartheid and genocide of the Palestinian people.”

UCSC SJP member Katherine Berjikian participated in the protest where she held a sign that said, “LONG LIVE INTIFADA” and protesters chanted, “Long live the Intifada!”

The term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence, since the early 2000’s.

UCSC SJP - Supporting BDS

On November 18, 2015, UCSC SJP members spoke at a meeting of the UCSC Student Union Assembly (SUA) where it adopted an anti-Israel divestment resolution. The resolution framed BDS as a successor to a boycott of apartheid South Africa and called Israel’s security barrier an “Apartheid Wall in the West Bank.”

The SUA originally passed the resolution in May 2014, but was later nullified by the SUA chair on procedural grounds. In early November 2015, UCSC SJP appealed the nullification and on November 18, 2015, the SUA held a hearing where it upheld the initial May 2014 passage of the resolution.

When the 2014 resolution passed, UCSC SJP was called Committee for Justice in Palestine (UCSC CJP). In October 2014, the group changed its name to UCSC SJP.

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.