William Ortiz
Overview
William Ortiz [William Shannon Ortiz] has demonized Israel and defended terrorists as a 2016-2017 board member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Florida State University (FSU). Ortiz is also a member of the closed Facebook group — “SJP South” since April 2016.Ortiz is a supporter [00:47:07] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on FSU’s campus.
As of January 28, 2017, Ortiz listed on Facebook that he was slated to graduate from FSU in 2019, with a degree in International Affairs, History and Middle-Eastern studies. He also wrote that he attended Indian River State College (IRSC) from 2012 to 2015.
On January 9, 2018, Ortiz posted to Facebook that he was starting an internship at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Tallahassee, Florida.
Demonizing Israel
On March 31, 2017, Ortiz gave an interview with fellow FSU SJP board members on the "411 Teen" talk radio at WFSU. The interview demonized Zionism [00:24:08] as an “exclucivist” ideology and Israel [00:25:06] as guilty of war crimes, apartheid and genocide — and called [00:41:37] for BDS.During the interview, Ortiz also expressed hope that the international reaction to Israeli policies are changing, referencing [00:29:49] a controversial 2017 UNESCWA UN report titled: “Israeli Practices Towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid.”
Defending Terrorists
On May 19, 2017, Ortiz retweeted a tweet featuring a photo of terrorist Rasmea Odeh, standing with Oscar Lopez Rivera.Promoting BDS
On March 31, 2017, during an interview with "411 Teen" talk radio, Ortiz reported [47:05] that FSU SJP was looking to pass BDS at FSU, adding [00:46:34] that “plenty of other universities” have had successful BDS resolutions.SJP Activism
Ortiz has indicated on Facebook that he “went” to 14 FSU SJP events from 2015-2017.On September 14, 2016, Ortiz tabled for FSU SJP together with fellow board member Morgan Flake. On the table was sign featuring a graphic known as the “Map That Lies”
The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
The workshop featured Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida Legislative & Government Affairs Director Laila Abdelaziz and U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO) Policy Director Josh Ruebner.
CAIR has been accused of being connected to terrorist activity.
FSU SJP Incitement to Terror
On October 27, 2015, FSU SJP shared to Facebook a “PALESTINIAN YOUTH INTERNATIONAL CALL TO SUPPORT THE INTIFADA.”The declaration called for an “international mobilization” of Palestinian youth in exile and their allies to “support the resistance,” and glorified the Knife Intifada terrorists as “heroic.”
FSU SJP Defending the Knife Intifada
On October 5, 2015 — at the beginning of the Knife Intifada — FSU SJP shared an article to Facebook claiming a “Palestinian teen” was “executed” as a “death-chanting” mob rejoiced. The teen was Fadi Aloon.Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
On November 5, 2015 — following the first month of the Knife Intifada — FSU SJP posted to Facebook: “October. Was. Scary. For. Palestinians. How are things looking for November? How about 2016? ... Something's gotta give!! #BDS.”
On November 7, 2015, FSU SJP shared a photo to Facebook of Dania Irsheid after she was shot, commenting: “Lost for words…”
Dania Irsheid was shot by an Israeli police officer after she attempted to stab him.
On November 24, 2015, FSU SJP shared a video misrepresenting terrorists Hadeel and Nurhan Awad, as having been “executed” by Israel. The video was titled “execution of civilians - what Israeli settlers do best.”|
Hadeel Awad and her cousin Nurhan Awad were shot after they stabbed two people — including a 70-year-old Palestinian resident of Bethlehem — near Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market. Hadeel was shot by police as she was slashing at other Israeli civilians with scissors.
On November 22, 2015, during Israel’s “Knife Intifada,” Ashraqat Taha Qatanani was run over and shot during her attempt to stab an Israeli woman. According to the Donia Al-Watan Palestinian newspaper, Qatanani died as “a Martyr as she wished.”
On November 26, 2015, FSU SJP posted to Facebook: “Brutal military occupation uses violence to quell peaceful resistance. And we wonder why resitance [sic] turns to armed struggle? To knives?"
On April 25, 2016, FSU SJP shared to Facebook a post defending Dima Al-Wawi, adding “Her face says it all.”
On April 24, 2016, FSU SJP shared to Facebook a post in defence of Al-Wawi, presenting her arrest as “discrimination against Palestinians.”
On April 13, 2016, FSU SJP defended Al-Wawi on Facebook, claiming: “This is how the Israeli government and illegal settler forces demonize Palestinians and their children.”
12-year-old Al-Wawi was imprisoned for attempting to stab a security guard at the Israeli community Karmei Tzur. Al-Wawi later claimed she intended to kill the guard and hoped she would be killed in the process. “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred,” she said.
Jasmine Rashad al-Zaru [Yasmeen Rashad al Zaro] attempted to stab an Israeli Border Policeman before she was shot.
FSU SJP Honoring Terrorist Rasmea Odeh
On April 13, 2017, FSU SJP posted to Facebook several photos of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh after a court ordered her deportation from the United States. FSU SJP referred to Odeh as a “Palestinian freedom fighter” and added the hashtag #HonorRasmea.FSU SJP Defending Terrorists
On December 12, 2015, FSU SJP commemorated the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, tweeting: “PFLP marks 48th establishment anniversary in Gaza.”On December 13, 2015, FSU SJP shared to Facebook an article reporting the PFLP’s celebration in Gaza. the article added that during the festivities, the PFLP “re-asserted its commitment to the new Palestinian Intifada.”
On March 9, 2017, FSU SJP posted a photo of Leila Khaled to Facebook in honor of International Women’s Day.
On March 14, 2017, FSU SJP posted an illustration of Basel Al Araj to Facebook with the caption “Long Live Basil Al-Araj! Long Live the Resistance! Until Victory.”
On May 27, 2017, FSU SJP celebrated the end of the hunger strike on Facebook, commenting: “Victory to the #DignityStrike!”
FSU SJP Defending the 2017 Shooting Attack at al-Aqsa Mosque
On July 21 2017, FSU SJP claimed on Facebook that the al-Aqsa Mosque was “taken hostage by Israel” and that Israel was “murdering innocent devotees who dared question the seizure.”The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state.
The Israeli government removed the detectors on July 25, 2017.
FSU SJP Hosting Hate Speech
In November 2017, FSU’s Student General Assembly (SGA) considered suspending funding for an FSU SJP panel event featuring Nerdeen Kiswani, Noura Farouq and Dan Cione of New York City (NYC) SJP.On November 9, 2017, FSU SJP members sat in at an FSU SGA meeting to protest the proposed defunding.
During the hearing, which FSU SJP posted on its Facebook page, the group’s secretary and treasurer Albert Kishek acknowledged FSU SJP was accused [00:42:45] of hate speech and anti-Semitism.
But Kishek claimed [00:46:00] that Kiswani and Farouk were “feminist organizers” of Palestinian background “who are playing a useful part to the building of the anti-war movement.”
FSU SJP’s post stated the group would “not tolerate infringement upon rights to school funding for our events and ended with the hashtags #RightToResist and #AIPACOutOfFSU.”
SGA voted 24-10 with 4 abstentions to provide funding to FSU SJP for the panel.
On November 16, 2017, during the panel, Kiswani accused Israel of committing [00:08:29] “mass rapes” and claimed that [00:9:08] “to this day there is daily assault and sexual harassment of Palestinian women by Zionists.”
Kiswani’s also stated that [01:45:52] “...we see in Israel, when Ethiopian Jews are trying to integrate themselves into the white settler colonial project of Israel, they put on the uniform and kill Palestinians and then their babies still get stabbed by Israelis and they still don’t see a day of justice in the court.”
Cione noted [00:26:14] that, after the Oslo accords, the U.S. gave the Palestinian Authority “over 32 billion dollars… for state building institutions.” Cione then condemned [00:25:36] the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for not funding radicals.
Cione said that [00:24:42] “when they were dumping all this money into Palestine” USAID included a “terror clause, which said that none of this money can go to “anyone that… is a terrorist organization as defined by Israel or who does not recognize the right of Israel to exist.”
At the end of the panel, the attendees and panelists chanted [01:48:48] “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution!”
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
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