Diana Lozano

Overview

Diana Lozano is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. She was a leader of the BDS campaign at the University of Chicago (U of C) — UofC Divest — run by the university’s chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

Lozano is the co-chair of Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán at UChicago (M.E.Ch.A.) and brought this group into UofC Divest.

Lozano is a senior at U of C, majoring in Public Policy Studies and Comparative Human Development.

UofC Divest

On March 28, 2016, a coalition of organizations including Jewish Voice for Peace UChicago (JVP UChicago), SJP at the University of Chicago (SJP U of C), M.E.Ch.A. and Queers United in Power launched the ‪‎UofC Divest‬ campaign. The campaign called on U of C’s College Council to pass a resolution urging the university’s divestment from targeted companies doing business with Israel. The launch urged students to sign a petition supporting the resolution.

On March 29, 2016, Lozano changed her Facebook cover photo to UofC Divest members at the rally with a large Palestinian flag and urged students to sign a petition supporting a proposed divestment resolution. She wrote in the post, "Viva Viva Palestina!" and included a link to donate to UofC Divest.

UofC Divest’s inaugural Facebook post claimed that "we act in direct response to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement" — that lists the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine as the first member of its national committee and takes its financing, inspiration and marching orders from foreign sources.

Also on March 28, 2016, UofC Divest hung banners throughout the campus, supporting the divestment resolution. Lozano spoke at the rally that day to launch their campaign. Dozens of BDS supporters held the rally while marching with a huge Palestinian flag through U of C’s central quad.

On March 28, 2016, Students at the U of C who were opposed to UofC Divest responded by launching their own counter campaign — "University of Chicago Coalition for Peace."

On April 14, 2016, two-weeks after the UofC Divest campaign’s launch, the College Council passed the resolution in an 8-4-3 vote.

In a marked departure from prior College Council policy, all photography and voice recordings were prohibited at the divestment vote. Representatives’ individual votes on amendments disassociating the resolution from the international BDS movement and asserting Israel’s right to exist were not captured on the record. Two attempts by the university newspaper to re-poll members of the Council yielded different numbers than the totals from that night — and indicated that at least two representatives misreported their votes.

At the meeting following the divestment vote the Council began to consider formulating new transparency bylaws.

Following the vote, some students sought to illustrate that UofCDivest was not about human rights but rather about singling out Israel for demonization. They proposed a resolution to the college council to divest from Chinese weapon manufacturers, due to China’s record of human rights violations and occupation of Tibet. Council members condemned the resolution, claiming it was political and offensive to Chinese students.

Lying to Slander Israel

On April 11, 2016, Lozano was featured in a UofC Divest promotional video which propagated lies to demonize Israel. Lozano said, in Spanish: "the same colonial forces in the U.S.-Mexico borders are the ones that are oppressing Gaza" and “Palestine needs to be free, now.”

Another student in the video said — "this University shouldn’t be profiting off the murder of women and children." Yet another student, who presented herself as a recipient of financial aid, complained that: “it makes me really angry to know that the money used to fund my education comes from loads of human rights violations.” Another student said she supports UofC Divest because she doesn’t “support a state founded on Apartheid.”

On April 11, 2016, Lozano was featured in a UofC Divest photo campaign of the group’s team members on their Facebook page. In the post, she also falsely accused Israel of practicing "apartheid. " Lozano doubled down — accusing the university of “profiting from the death and oppression of Palestinians under Israeli apartheid.” Lozano also misleadingly described Israel a “settler colonial” country.

Supporting Student-Killer Rasmea Odeh

On March 31, 2016, Lozano posed for a photo on Facebook with unrepentant terrorist-murderer Rasmea Odeh during the "kickoff night" of the UofC Divest campaign.

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.

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

Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/dzlozano

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/frustratedphoto [Deleted]