Yasmena AlMulla
Overview
Yasmena AlMulla has demonized Israel, expressed support for violent protesters, promoted anti-Israel agitators and endorsed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of August 2019, AlMulla’s LinkedIn profile said she was Co-President of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at New York University (NYU) (SJP NYU) while she attended NYU.
As of the same date, AlMulla’s LinkedIn profile said she received a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Political Science from NYU, in 2017.
Also as of August 2019, AlMulla’s LinkedIn profile said she worked as a Research and Content Analyst at Nuqat in New York, NY. Nuqat is a nonprofit organization based in Kuwait aimed at developing Arab creativity.
Demonizing Israel
On November 9, 2016, AlMulla tweeted: “Racist, horrible people are everywhere.. And now they have united.” AlMulla’s tweet linked to a tweet from anti-Israel journalist, Antony Loewenstein, which read: “Major settler group in #Israel just released statement endorsing @realDonaldTrump win and praising his support for endless occupation.”On September 18, 2017, AlMulla tweeted: “End the occupation & the militarization of the police.” AlMulla’s tweet linked to a tweet and an article from the Intercept.
The Intercept’s tweet said: “The same security forces accused of mistreating stateless Palestinian subjugates are training American cops” and the article promoted the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)’s Deadly Exchange campaign.
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange (DX)” campaign, which accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] U.S.-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
On June 29, 2018, AlMulla tweeted: “...the Palestinian people haven't resisted for 70 years for this,” referring to U.S. efforts for peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
AlMulla’s tweet included an article by anti-Israel journalist Robert Fisk, who has used anti-Semitic tropes in reporting on Israel.
The article shared by AlMulla, which was about those efforts, referred to the “occupation…after vast Jewish colonization of land thieved from its Arab owners.”
It also said that violent protesters at the March of Return have suffered “mass killings” and that Israel “got away with it” and that protesters “have not been demonstrating in their streets for better roads, duty free zones or another airport? Does he think that the people of Gaza have come onto their streets and marched towards the lethal border fence because they are demanding new prenatal clinics?”
Fisk’s article also advocated for the Palestinian right of return, lamented that the terror group Hamas “has been forgotten” in Gaza and bemoaned that “America’s diplomatic ‘peacemakers’...are all Jewish.”
Supporting Violent Protesters
On May 15, 2018, AlMulla tweeted: “It is crazy to me how the western media is reporting on the massacre in #Gaza by connecting it to the decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Yet the forget to mention that the people of #palestine have been suffering under a murderous apartheid state for the past 70 years”AlMulla retweeted aMay 14, 2018 tweet: “Q: How exactly do Israeli snipers, dug in their trenches behind two fences, face an imminent lethal threat requiring them to kill 55 Palestinians at Gaza border protest? A: They don't, but senior Israeli officials ordered the snipers to open fire anyway. http://bit.ly/2rJDoYr”
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
Promoting Anti-Israel Agitators
AlMulla retweeted a March 8, 2018 tweet: “Teenager Ahed Tamimi and all other young people across MENA fighting patriarchal structures, colonial puppets, tyrants and occupation are my heroes. The feminism struggle must be a fight for their rights too#InternationalWomensDay”AlMulla retweeted a January 5, 2018 tweet: “Nour Tamimi and her mama enjoying her first day out of prison. She still has to go to a police station every Friday and sign. But she is glad she is out. #NabiSaleh #Palestine”
On December 19, 2018, Nour Tamimi, cousin of Ahed Tamimi, was detained by Israeli security forces in the West Bank after she was filmed punching and kicking Israeli soldiers. The video [00:00:32] shows both [00:01:03] Nour and Ahed ordering Israeli soldiers off the family’s property and then assaulting the soldiers physically.
AlMulla retweeted a December 19, 2017 tweet: “The IDF raided and arrested a 17 year old Palestinian from her home overnight, who was known for her activism. She had no weapons in the face of men who carried guns. I hope the world gives attention to this like they did with a little white boy who got bullied. #FreeAhedTamimi.”
Endorsing BDS
AlMulla retweeted a December 14, 2018 tweet from Mehdi Hasan of The Intercept andAl Jazeera, that contained a video essay, titled: "The Truth about Israel, Boycotts and BDS."In the video, Hasan described [00:00:05] BDS as “the Palestinian movement that targets Israel for human rights violations” and for “illegal occupation of Palestinian land” and suggested [00:03:03] that Israel is guilty of apartheid.
AlMulla retweeted a December 6, 2017 tweet condemning the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel: “This anti-Palestinian and illegal act reverses decades of official U.S. policy regarding Jerusalem and contradicts the international consensus. - BDS”
AlMulla retweeted a November 22, 2017 tweet that read: “Sign @amnestyusa's petition: call on the US government to ban all Israeli settlement goods from entering our markets #BanSettlementGoodshttps://act.amnestyusa.org/page/14408/petition/1 …”
AlMulla retweeted a November 19, 2018 tweet: “Big Boycott victory! After a long campaign of organizing against @Airbnb's profiteering on stolen Palestinian land the company will stop listing properties in Israeli settlements!!!”
AlMulla indicated on Facebook that she “went” to Israeli Apartheid Week 2017 hosted by NYU SJP from March 20-24, 2017.
The Facebook event description said: “This year's IAW marks 100 years of Palestinian resistance against settler colonialism...IAW will be an opportunity to reflect on this resistance and further advance BDS campaigns for the continued growth and impact of the movement.”
Anti-Israel Activism
On April 11, 2016, AlMulla was featured in a photo posted to Facebook by NYU SJP standing next to a mock apartheid wall,” meant to simulate Israel’s security barrier.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.
NYU SJP’s Facebook post read: “Pass by our apartheid wall to learn more about the occupation! #endisraeliapartheid.”
AlMulla indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a May 12, 2016 event hosted by NYU SJP titled: “Nakba Remembrance Day Protest.”
The Facebook event description said: “NYU Students for Justice in Palestine will be holding a peaceful protest in Washington Square Park in rememberance [sic.] of the 1948 Nakba. Bring flags, signs and your friends!”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
AlMulla indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a November 30, 2016 event titled: “SJP Future Leaders: Coffee Chats”
AlMulla indicated on Facebook that she “went” to NYU JVP’s first official event on November 8, 2017, titled: “Jewish Voice for Peace Showcase.” The Facebook event description claimed that JVP was the “Jewish wing of the Palestinian solidarity movement.”
AlMulla indicated on Facebook that she “went” to a September 27, 2017 event co-hosted by NYU SJP and NYU JVP, titled: “Palestine 101.” The Facebook event description said: “We will be reviewing the current situation in Occupied Palestine as well as some history and what SJP and JVP do on campus.
NYU SJP Support for Anti-Israel Agitators
On March 13, 2019, NYU SJP posted to Facebook an image from a petition calling to “Disinvite Linda Sarsour” and wrote: “This is just a list of Islamophobes. As always, solidarity with Linda Sarsour!”On July 26, 2018, NYU SJP posted to Facebook a statement supporting Ahed Tamimi’s release from Israeli prison.
NYU SJP Supporting Violent Protestors
On March 30, 2018, SJP NYU co-hosted an event titled: “Emergency rally: solidarity with Gaza #GreatMarchofReturn.”Birthright Israel is a heritage trip to Israel for Jewish young adults from across the world.
The event’s Facebook description said: “We'll be outside Birthright’s gala to say loud and clear- Boycott Birthright, end the Gaza massacres and let Palestinian refugees return home!”
On April 6, 2018, SJP NYU co-hosted a “rally in support of the heroic Palestinians in Gaza and throughout historic Palestine participating in the #GreatReturnMarch and honor the martyrs who gave their lives fighting for liberation and return!”
Most of the Gazans who died between March 30 and April 6, 2018, were identified as terror operatives who were killed while carrying out terrorist attacks, rioting against IDF forces or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
On May 19, 2018, NYU SJP co-sponsored an event titled: “70 years of Nakba - Remember, Resist, Return - Palestine.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
The event’s Facebook description said: “Monday, May 14, Israeli forces killed over 60 Palestinians in besieged Gaza and wounded thousands.”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On July 21, 2018, NYU SJP minimized the use of “flaming kites” by protesters on Twitter.
Since March 2018, Hamas’s “Kite Unit,” along with other March of Return participants, sent hundreds of kites that carried incendiary devices and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) across Israel’s border to terrorize Israelis. Multiple kites were marked with swastikas. These kites burned over 3500 acres of Israeli territory.
NYU SJP Anti-Israel Activity
On May 9, 2019, NYU SJP staged a “die-in” protest, next to Realize Israel’s annual "Rave in the Park" event celebrating Israeli Independence Day. Realize Israel is a pro-Israel club at NYU.The Facebook description of the protest, titled: “ACTION: Resisting the Celebration of Apartheid,” said: “speak out against the lack of acknowledgement of the expulsion, massacre, and destruction of Palestinians and their homes.”
NYU SJP also called Israel’s Independence on Twitter an “act of ethnic cleansing and apartheid.”
On April 18, 2019, NYU SJP posted a photo on Facebook of students with their faces obscured by emojis, in front of a table featuring the Israeli flag and a banner that said: “Jews are Indigenous to the Land of Israel CHANGE MY MIND.”
The Facebook post said: “Thumbs Up If You’re a Racist: they intimidated to sue us because they don’t like getting called out version!”
NYU SJP’s post referred to anoriginal version of the NYU SJP post which reportedly showed the faces of the pro-Israel students and said: “Thumbs Up If You’re a Racist.”
On April 27, 2018, NYU SJP organized a protest against the annual “Rave in the Park” celebration of Israel’s Independence Day. The protest’s Facebook description said: “We refuse to let such a disturbing public celebration of colonialism and apartheid on our campus and in our park go by without a response.”
During the protest, activists chanted [00:04:55]: "Intifada, Intifada, Long live the Intifada" and two protestors were reportedly arrested and charged with reckless endangerment and assault after grabbing [00:00:41] a microphone and an Israeli flag out of the hands of a student singing the Israeli national anthem.
Other protesters wiped [00:00:10] their feet on the Israeli flag and stomped on it.
That same day, NYU SJP posted to Facebook, urging anyone “angered at this celebratory event” to file a noise complaint with the police.
NYU SJP hosted Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) 2017, from March 20-24, 2017.
During IAW 2017, NYU SJP exhibited a mock apartheid wall, with text that demonized Israel, simulating Israel’s security barrier.
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.
NYU SJP 2018 Divestment Campaign
On November 1, 2018, members of NYU SJP presented a divestment bill to the NYU Student Government Association (SGA), to further the agenda of the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.The resolution was co-authored by then-student senators and members of SJP, Rose Asaf, Leen Dweik and then-student senator Bayan Abubakr, who was reportedly a member ofNYU SJP.
The resolution demonized Israel, invoked the “threefold” goals of the BDS movement and was passed by the SGA on December 6, 2018, using a secret ballot. NYU’s administration opposed the BDS resolution.
NYU’s then-President Andrew Hamilton said: “‘A boycott of Israeli academics and institutions is contrary to our core principles of academic freedom, antithetical to the free exchange of ideas, and at odds with the University's position on this matter...and divestment from Israeli-related investments is not under consideration.’”
NYU SJP Promoting BDS
On April 15, 2019, NYU SJP hosted an event featuring a panel that included Omar Barghouti. The panel was moderated by Leen Dweik, then-President of NYU SJP.On November 19, 2018, NYU SJP wrote on Facebook: “When we fight, we win.BDS works” and attached an article in the post reporting the decision by Airbnb Inc. to remove listings in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
On October 24. 2018, NYU SJP hosted a panel about BDS where anti-Israel Professor Jasbir Puar was listed among the panel of speakers. Puar is on the Advisory Board of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and applauded the American Studies Association (ASA)’s move for an Academic Boycott of Israeli universities.
NYU SJP hosted NYU Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) 2018, from April 15-21, 2018. The Facebook event description said: “IAW will be an opportunity to reflect on this history of resistance and further advance BDS campaigns for the continued growth and impact of the movement.”
On April 9, 2018, NYU SJP posted to Facebook: “We are proud to announce a coalition of 50 NYU student groups who have pledged to support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement for Palestinian human rights by pledging not to spend NYU club funds on Israeli goods, to boycott pro-Israel groups at NYU and off campus, and to call on NYU to divest from companies that profit off the violation of Palestinian human rights.
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.
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish value.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
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.
