Solidarity For Palestinian Human Rights

On April 14, 2013, seven SPHR chapters, including SPHR Guelph and SPHR George Brown, signed a petition opposing a University of Manitoba Students’ Union (UMSU) Council decision to revoke the student club status of UM Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) two days prior.

The petition's signatories said that SAIA is part of a peaceful movement, and claimed that the UMSU, “without any evidence,” alleged that incidents of violence and harassment in universities across Canada surrounded SAIA’s promotion of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW). The signatories denied any IAW endorsement of violence and harassment “of any group of students” and claimed “we have not heard anything of these supposed incidents of violence and harassment.”

However, in 2009, violent pro-Palestinian activists, including SAIA members, attacked Jewish students at York University, shouting “Zionism equals racism!” and “Racists off campus!” The students eventually barricaded themselves inside the Hillel offices, as attackers banged the door and windows, screaming anti-Semitic slurs, like “Die Jew,” “Get the hell off campus,” “Go back to Israel” and “F**king Jew".

In 2011, following the shelving of a divestment motion by Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA), approximately 200 SAIA protesters reportedly began rioting outside the council room, “banging on the walls, yelling ‘shame’ and screaming.” Students reported they were subject to physical intimidation, threats and homophobic slurs for opposing the SAIA motion, and felt trapped and threatened. Students who felt unsafe to venture out of the room during SAIA’s outburst were escorted out when additional security arrived.

On February 18, 2011, Hashem Hamdy, a CUSA councillor in the Faculty of Public Affairs, said in a release. “[m]y personal safety was threatened repeatedly last night, and I am extremely apprehensive about coming onto campus now. I feel like a marked man, like many other students on campus.”

IAW itself has also been a locus of violence and harassment. During an event at the 2009 Israeli Apartheid Week coordinated by SAIA at the University of Toronto (UofT), Isaac Apter, a UofT alumnus, who urged a speaker to forthrightly address why Hamas had persistently refused to recognize the legitimacy of Israel, was grabbed by a SAIA-hired usher and commanded: “You shut the f**k up!”

In 2010, it was reported that York University had cancelled events associated with Israeli Apartheid Week, citing security concerns. Tension also surrounded Israeli Apartheid Weeks at the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, and the university administration has had to get involved in the student initiatives at both campuses.

Saluting Militants

On April 20, 2016, SPHR at UofO posted a message to the Palestinian people, authored by militants Khalida Jarrar and Lena Jarbouni in honor of “Prisoners Day.” In the article, published by anti-Israel website Samidoun, Jarbouni saluted “all of the prisoners throughout Palestine,” while Jarrar declared arrests “will only escalate the struggle.”

As of January 2016, Jarbouni was serving a 17-year prison sentence for aiding terrorists from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) during the second intifada and for conspiring to commit terrorist attacks.

Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Israel.

Jarrar was arrested in April 2015 on charges of inciting violence, calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, and PFLP membership. Jarrar was later sentenced to 15 months in jail as part of a plea deal when she confessed to all of the charges leveled against her. Jarrar was released early, in June 2016.

Idealizing Militancy

In 2014, Ala’a Hamdan, then-president of SPHR at the University of British Columbia (UBC), became a source of concern for local media and pro-Israel groups owing to some of her Facebook posts — such as one in which she proclaimed: “I was born to become the next Palestinian fighter” that glorified the martyrdom of Palestinians “living under Israeli occupation.” Hamdan went on to write: “This land will be proud that Palestinian babies are born men and women ready to spill their blood.” Hamdan later said that her comments were “ poetic writing, creative writing — whatever you want to call it.”

Endorsing a Terrorist

On May 4, 2013, SPHR UBC invited convicted terrorist Leila Khaled to speak via Skype at the Conference of the Palestinian Shatat [Diaspora], hosted by SPHR UBC and held on the UBC campus.

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.

SPHR UBC’s chapter director, Omar Shaban, attempted to whitewash Khaled’s terrorism, claiming that what Khaled did "was not an act of terrorism, she was communicating a message to the entire world... her strategy, (which) people may or may not agree with... (but) she was compelled to this desperate action."

Spreading Incitement to Violence

On October 16, 2015, SPHR at Concordia University shared a misleading Al-Jazeera video at a time of heightened tensions in Jerusalem, focusing on visitor access to the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound, where the Al Aqsa Mosque stands. The video was captioned with a byline claiming that “Israeli forces stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque.”

October 2015 saw an upsurge in violence across Israel, incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” saw young Palestinians across Israel stabbing and attempting to stab scores of Israeli civilians.

The attacks were sparked and fueled by Palestinian leaders propagating the libel that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque.

Demonizing Israel

In November of 2015, SPHR at McMaster University (SPHR Mac) posted a graphic to its Facebook page of a consumer picking up a can with “made in Israel” stamped on it, to reveal a flattened, bloodied child wearing a Palestinian flag.

On September 30, 2016, SPHR Mac posted an article on Facebook propagating the widely debunked Al-Dura hoax. The Al-Durah hoax is an iconic piece of anti-Israel propaganda that was fabricated during a riot in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000, at the start of the Second Intifada. A France 2 report — filmed by a Palestinian cameraman and narrated by France 2's editor, who was not at the scene — purported to show Jamal Al-Durah and his 12-year-old son, Muhammad, crouching behind a concrete cylinder, shot by Israeli forces.

Subsequent review of the raw footage revealed that France 2 had edited out the final scenes captured by the Palestinian cameraman, which showed the boy peeking at the camera from beneath his raised arm. Film of the father and son from other news networks — indicating that the entire scene was staged — was also uncovered.

The article, published by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), claimed Muhammad was “executed” and suggested that Jamal was killed, as well.

For more information about the history of SJP, an alternative name for SPHR, see SJP.