Paul Kennedy

Overview

Paul Kennedy is a freshman at Vassar College (Vassar). Kennedy is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Vassar (SJP Vassar) and is an avid supporter of the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Supporting BDS Resolution

On February 1, 2016, Kennedy changed his Facebook profile picture to a poster reading Vassar College BDS, Vote Yes to the Resolution.

On February 1, 2016 Jewish Voice for Peace at Vassar (JVP Vassar)and SJP Vassar partnered to form the Vassar Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (VBDS) Coalition with the goal of passing a resolution that will be considered by the VSA on March 6, 2016.

The resolution demands that Vassar "boycott and divest from the main colonizing force in Israel/Palestine, Zionism," and listed eleven companies “complicit in the occupation" (at 38:15). The resolution also aims to prohibit using student funds to purchase Ben & Jerry’s ice cream — because it is sold in “settlements” — as well as in supermarkets where “settlers” and Palestinian Arabs regularly work and shop together, despite the tense situation. VBDS also organized over a month and a half of anti-Israel events, culminating in Israeli Apartheid Week, to advocate for the divestment resolution’s passage.

On February 17, 2016 Kennedy accused Israel of "Apartheid" and referred to it as an “oppressor.” Kennedy asserted: “BDS in and of itself is not the only possible campaign to secure jus­tice for Palestine, however at the moment it is the only viable movement towards ending the occupation that is gaining momentum and sup­port in the international community.”

Standing with Terror

On February 15, 2016, Kennedy joined SJP members for a weekend with the anti-Israel group Existence is Resistance.

In February 2016, SJP Vassar announced that they would be selling "sweet fucking antiZionist gear" at their future events, such as a T-shirt featuring Leila Khaled, a leading member of the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP) and a convicted airline hijacker. In a 2014 interview, Khaled opined that the Palestinian Intifada of 2000 failed because it was not violent enough.

PFLP is recognized as a terrorist organization by theEuropean Union as well as the United States and Canada. Khaled participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970.

As of 2015, Khaled sat on the PFLP Central Committee. The PFLP claimed responsibility for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi, the 2011 butchering of the Fogel Family (including a three month old infant, a four year old and an eleven year old) and the 2014 Har Nof Massacre - where Jews were slaughtered at prayer

SJP Vassar also advertised the sale of "Existence is Resistance" T-shirts, which include various designs featuring the words “Straight Outta Fuck Israel” a picture of a masked gunman, as well as the Liela Khaled T-shirt.

SJP Vassar - Spreading Incitement  

In February 2016, SJP Vassar’s Facebook page said that the group sought a “full decolonization of Palestinian lands,” a call to dismantle the state of Israel.

On October 21, 2013, SJP Vassar posted an article on Facebook alleging that Israel was carrying out a campaign to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

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 Vassar - Support for Terror

In February 2016, SJP Vassar announced that they would be selling "sweet fucking antiZionist gear" at their future events, such as a T-shirt featuring gun-toting terrorist Leila Khaled.

Khaled was a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970.

In a 2014 interview, Khaled opined that the Palestinian second intifada failed because it was not violent enough.

SJP Vassar also advertised the sale of “Existence is Resistance” T-shirts, which include various designs featuring the words “Straight Outta F**k Israel” a picture of a masked gunman, as well as the Leila Khaled T-shirt.
  
On October 6, 2015, SJP Vassar whitewashed Palestinian terrorist Fadi Aloon as a civilian who was shot while “run[ning] from a racist mob.” 

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.

SJP Vassar - Spreading Hate  

In May 2014, SJP Vassar was forced to issue an apology for posting a Nazi-style, anti-Semitic cartoon on its Tumblr account. Vassar’s President, Catharine Hill, announced a review of SJP Vassar’s status as a student group, and said that Vassar would probe use of the image “as a bias incident under college regulations.”

In late February 2014, SJP Vassar staged a protest against a proposed class trip to Israel, outside the classroom of the professor leading the trip. The belligerent behavior of the SJP Vassar members left the professor and her students feeling harassed and intimidated.

On March 3, 2014, Vassar held an open forum to discuss the “ethics” of the class trip to Israel. SJP Vassar members turned out to picket the event. Reports from attendees were that “Jewish kids who spoke were heckled” and drowned out with a finger snapping noise and loudly laughed at” and that “rage against Israel was the theme.”  

In February 2014, SJP Vassar shared a video called “This Divestment Hurts my Feelings.”

On March 4, 2014, SJP Vassar mocked pro-Israel students on Facebook who felt “attacked” and  “vulnerable” after receiving fake eviction notices in their dorm rooms.

In April 2014, the group posted on Facebook a cartoon ridiculing pro-Israel college students for feeling attacked and unsafe. 

SJP Vassar - Honoring Human Shield

In November 2014, SJP Vassar co-sponsored a play with JVP Vassar honoring the memory of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Rachel Corrie. 

ISM

VBDS Promoting Hate-Speech

On February 3, 2016, VBDS’ promoted an event that featured anti-Israel professor Jasbir Puar, speaking on “Inhumanist Biopolitics: How Palestine Matters.”

Puar began her speech by calling for armed struggle against Israel. She went on to demonize Israel, suggesting that Israelis harvest the organs of dead Palestinians. Puar also claimed that Israel was maiming and “stunting” Palestinians via food restrictions.

Puar also opined that the reason Israeli Jews have not killed Palestinians is “[t]hey need the Palestinians alive in order to keep the kind of rationalization for their victimhood and their militarized economy.”

JVP Vassar - Demonizing Israel  

In March 2015, JVP Vassar and SJP Vassar co-sponsored an event featuring Dr. Sa'ed Atshan, speaking on “resistance in Palestine.” Atshan, a leading proponent of BDS, wants the Jewish state to be dissolved in favor of another democratic state, but stripped of its Jewish majority.

On November 19, 2015, JVP Vassar promoted an initiative called “Renounce Birthright,” calling on Jews aged 18-26 to renounce a free trip to Israel provided by Birthright. The Renounce Birthright initiative states “We are young Jews living in the diaspora committed to mobilizing for the abolition of Birthright.” 

According to the site, anybody that visits Israel on Birthright is “willfully taking advantage of [his or her] racial privilege” and “complicit in sustaining the occupation.”

On November 17, 2015 JVP Vassar shared an article on Facebook titled “The way for Americans to take on the Islamic state is to end support for Jewish nationalism.” commenting “We are Jewish, we stand against the oppressive Israeli state, and we will not be ignored.”

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.

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