Zakarya Mitiche

Overview

Ahmed Zakarya Mitiche Mitiche was the program coordinator for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at U Indy (SJP U Indy).

Mitiche received a Fulbright scholarship to continue his studies in Morocco. Mitiche also works as a teacher at the MTI School of Knowledge in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Mitiche is an organizer within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and spearheaded a divestment resolution at U Indy. The divestment vote and the events leading up to it are detailed below.

Mitiche graduated from the University of Indianapolis (U Indy) in 2016, with a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Sociology.

Promoting Anti-Semitism Under The Guise of Human Rights

In March of 2016, Mitiche signed a petition endorsing BDS and disingenuously denying that BDS is rife with anti-Semitism.

The petition was headlined "BDS Opposes all Racism--Including Anti-Semitism." The petition, however, showcased BDS’ anti-Semitism. The petition quoted Omar Barghouti who broadly called Zionism a form of racism and bigotry:

"The struggle for our inalienable rights is one opposed to all forms of racism and bigotry, including, but not limited to, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, Zionism, and other forms of bigotry directed at anyone, and in particular people of color and indigenous peoples everywhere."

The petition also stated that "[a]n end to racism in all its forms depends on an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine."

SJP U Indy

SJP U Indy was created in October 2014. On Facebook, the group’s page is called Indiana Palestine Solidarity (IPS). The page was created by SJP U Indy-chapter founder, Sireen Zayed, to "bring together activists and SJP chapters from all over the state of Indiana." The page details the activities of SJP U Indy and SJP Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).

Supporting Terrorist-Murderer Rasmea Odeh

On January 28, 2016, SJP U Indy tweeted that unrepentant terrorist-murderer Rasmea Odeh was a "Palestinian hero." On February 25, 2015, IPS held a fundraiser for Odeh, mischaraterizing her arrest and prosecution as “part of a “broader pattern of persecuting Arabs and Muslims who are outstanding and outspoken leaders in their communities throughout the U.S.”

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

UIndy Divest

In late February 2016, SJP U Indy launched a BDS campaign to encourage UIndy “to divest from companies that support the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” including but “not limited to Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, G4S, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and Boeing.” SJP U Indy’s divestment resolution also demanded that UIndy Dining Services stop carrying Sabra, a hummus brand partially owned by the Israeli Strauss Group. It was reported that SJP UIndy spent “about a year.” working on the campaign.

SJP U Indy’s also launched a Facebook page called “UIndyDivestWeek” that listed a number of campus events leading up to the UIndy Student Senate Divestment Vote. The events included a poster exhibit called “"Boycott!: The Art of Economic Activism” and an “interactive maze of military checkpoints.”

On February 27, 2016, SJP U Indy’s resolution failed to pass, although the student senators decided to “open the conversation to the entire campus” and hold another vote in early April.

On April 2, 2016, SJP U Indy passed the divestment resolution in the Student Senate.

On May 9, 2016, U Indy Board of Trustees and President Robert Manuel released a statement that university would not join the BDS movement, writing “we believe that boycotts have dramatic and negative effects on academic freedom.” In response, SJP U Indy wrote that “we are not done” and that the group “will keep pressing for our call until the Board feels compelled to act.”

On May 3, 2016, SJP U Indy leader Zakarya Mitiche wrote an open letter saying that U Indy’s decision not to join the BDS movement, as well as the decision of the university’s newspaper not to cover the story, was “another case of social justice struggle being silenced in favor of political expediency.”

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.