Yomna Nassar

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

Nassar also demonized Israel on campus with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UMD, and has spread hatred of Israel on Twitter. 

As of August 2019, Nassar’s LinkedIn page said she was a “Health and Wellness Intern” at National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF), since March 2019, and the “Ellicott City Chapter President” of the Islamic Leadership Institute of America (ILIA), since December 2017.

Nassar’s LinkedIn also said that she was studying Global Health and Development at UMD from 2017 - 2021, and that she was an Emergency Medical Technician with the Fifth District Volunteer Fire Department. 

Promoting BDS

On April 25, 2019, Nassar was featured [02:37:46] 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, Nassar said [02:37:51]: “I am here in support of the divestment bill, because it’s a peaceful form of protest and statement that says that we, as the students and the community of UMD do not support human rights violations.”     

Nassar continued [02:37:59]: “When Palestinians have only rocks to defend themselves against the bullets and the bombs of soldiers, when even paramedics are shot and killed for helping wounded... soldiers at the border... it’s time to say ‘enough!’”      
 
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.”

Demonizing Israel on Campus

On May 14, 2019, SJP UMD shared a group photo on Instagram that featured Nassar alongside SJP UMD activists calling to boycott Israel Fest. The caption on the photo read: “Last week, we boycotted Israel Fest and held a teach-in about Palestinian human rights! #boycottisraelfest #freepalestine.”

“Israel Fest” at UMD is an annual campus event designed “to celebrate and educate students on Israeli culture,” hosted by the Jewish Student Union.

On May 11, 2019, SJP UMD reportedly held a teach-in to “boycott the annual celebration of Israel Fest.” SJP UMD’s teach-in involved activists gathering by a mock “Israeli Apartheid Wall” and chanting: “Displacing lives since ‘48, nothing here to celebrate!” 

Nassar retweeted an April 19, 2018 tweet by former SJP UMD president Sarah Eshera that read: “We had our Israel Fest Boycott & Teach-In today. On the left is Israel Fest which went from 10-4 but ended early bc no one was interested in anything but the camel. Meanwhile, on the right is our teach-in. It was just an hour but got a bigger crowd than Israel Fest did all day.” The tweet featured a photo of students gathered around a mock apartheid wall.

SJP UMD organized a “Teach-In: Boycott Israel Fest” held a day earlier, on April 19, 2018.

 
The Facebook event page description said: “This year, we ask that you choose not to be complicit in apartheid, genocide, and the enduring illegal occupation of Palestine. Instead of normalizing Palestinian oppression, SJP calls for a massive boycott of Israel Fest by the UMD community, and ask that you attend our teach-in instead, to learn more about why we are boycotting and how you can support human rights.”

Spreading Hatred of Israel Online

On July 7, 2015, Nassar tweeted: “Couldn't have said it better myself.” The tweet featured screenshots of a Facebook post by Mohammed Zeyara that read: “My response to the Tel Aviv, Israel story on Snapchat: It hurt. It really did. Seeing them live a first class life on a land which does not belong to them. A land which the stole. They killed, they murdered, they raped and they committed massacres for this land….” 

Nassar retweeted an April 16, 2019 tweet that read: “Masjid AlAqsa is 128 years older than Notre Dame, one of Islams holiest sites, and is literally under attack all the time. It was burning the same night the Cathedral, but no one gives a s**t cause it's in Palestine.”

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. Such propaganda served as the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence that flared in the fall of 2015 and incited Palestinians to attempt mass casualty attacks on Israeli civilians in July 2016.. 

SJP UMD - Supporting Terrorists

On April 8, 2018, SJP UMD shared a photo on Instagram of Ghassan Kanafani and wrote: “Today is the birthday of legendary Palestinian author and PFLP member Ghassan Kanafani (1936-72).” 

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.  

On March 9, 2018, SJP UMD shared a poster on Instagram produced by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and wrote: “Poster of the First Martyr of the Intifada #sjp #intifada.” 

The caption on the poster read: “Hatem Al Sesi First Martyr of the Intifada for Freedom and Independence.” 

Hatem al-Sisi was killed after he reportedly attemptedto drop a homemade bomb on an Israeli military vehicle during the first intifada.

SJP UMD - Promoting Anti-Israel Agitators  

On February 14, 2019, SJP UMD shared a group photo on Instagram featuring activists standing in front of a blackboard with “#IStandWithIlhan” written on it. 

SJP UMD commented: “UMD SJP supports Rep. Ilhan Omar in calling out AIPAC’s role in influencing US policy towards apartheid Israel! #istandwithilhan.”

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:www.facebook.com/100001647563590         

Twitter: https://twitter.com/yummmmna 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ynassar/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yummmmna [Private]