Adam Becker
Overview
Adam Howard Becker has expressed support for anti-Israel campus activists and defended intimidation tactics led byStudents for Justice in Palestine (SJP).He is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has also defended Professor Imad Ahmad Barghouthi, who is affiliated with Hamas,
Becker is a professor of Classics & Religious Studies at New York University (NYU).
Supporting Anti-Israel Activism on Campus
On February 25, 2009, Becker signed a petition, published by the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).In February 2009, a group of activists from the group Take Back NYU (TBNYU) barricaded themselves in the cafeteria at NYU’s Kimmel Center and refused to leave until the administration agreed to meet their demands.
Included in the group’s list of demands was that the university “donate all excess supplies to rebuild the University of Gaza.”
Becker signed a 2017 letter, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization, condemning a decision by Fordham University (Fordham)’s dean to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham. In 2016, Fordham reportedly blocked the formation of a Fordham SJP chapter “based on the reported behavior of other [SJP] chapters on other campuses,” indicating that “the establishment of a local branch could be ‘polarizing’ and pose a safety concern to students and faculty.”
Signatories demanded that Fordham “immediately rescind the rejection of SJP as a student group on campus, apologize to the students affected by this harmful decision, and reaffirm Fordham’s commitment to free speech and academic freedom.”
The petitioners also highlighted SJP’s BDS activity, characterizing SJP’s efforts to promote anti-Israel boycott as part of “a time-honored non-violent mode of political expression.” The petition accused Fordham’s administration of a “fundamental misunderstanding of what boycotts are, the purpose of a university, and the goals of SJP.”
Defending SJP Intimidation
Becker signed a petition, published on April 28, 2014, defending controversial intimidation tactics by NYU’s SJP chapter.2014 Mock Evictions
The SJP petition stated that “We, the undersigned NYU faculty members, believe that the First Amendment right of NYU students to express, and advocate for, their opinions on issues of public concern must be respected and protected. This includes the mock eviction notices that members of the NYU chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a recognized student organization, recently distributed in NYU dormitories.”In April 2014, SJP at NYU served fake eviction notices to undergraduate students. According to a report, the notices, slipped under the doors of the students’ dormitories, read: “We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in three days...If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on 25 April, 2014, we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings. Charges for demolition will be applied to your student accounts.”
One NYU student was quoted stating that "It's an attack on the Jewish community… It's specifically targeting Jewish students, which makes them feel not so safe."
After serving the notices, NYU SJP released a statement validating their campaign, claiming that “Through its policy of housing demolitions, Israel aims to ethnically cleanse Israel/Palestine of its Arab inhabitants in a systematic manner.”
Supporting BDS
Becker signed a 2015 petition stating that “NYU must divest itself of any holdings it may have” in Israeli companies.NOOP Petition
The petition, written by the NYU Out of Occupied Palestine (NOOP) coalition, claimed that “Israel has turned the impoverished and densely-populated Gaza strip into the world’s largest open-air prison and launched repeated military assaults against it.”The petition was authored by “a coalition of NYU faculty, students, and organizations” who “are united in the belief that NYU should not be invested in companies that contribute to and profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
2009 TIAA-CREF Petition
The letter stated that “It gravely concerns us to know that a portion of TIAA-CREF retirement portfolio funds are invested in approximately thirty companies that profit from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”Signatories went on to write that “We hope that you too are appalled by the terrible injustices associated with Israel’s occupation... As concerned clients and people of conscience, we urge you to divest TIAA-CREF’s funds from those companies that profit from Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.”
Becker signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama, published by USACBI on January 12, 2009.
The USACBI letter accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa and concluded that “Israel too maintains an apartheid regime.”
After charging Israel with inflicting “one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times,” the signatories called upon Obama to join in the BDS movement.
Defending Imad Ahmad Barghouthi
Becker signed an open letter, co-published by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and USACBI to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on behalf of Imad Ahmad Barghouthi.Palestinian Astrophysicist Professor Imad Barghouthi of Al Quds University was sentenced in 2016 to seven months in prison for incitement to violence.
Barghouthi is a vocal supporter of Hamas's military wing — the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — and has called for killing and being killed in the name of Islam.
An October 22, 2014 video showed Barghouthi at an Al-Quds university Hamas rally, draped in a Hamas banner, [00:00:33] urging students to design precision guided missiles, and sniper rifles as [00:01:11] “weapons ofthe resistance” to [00:02:35] kill “zionist soldiers” in their bedrooms.
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.
