Andrew Paul Gutierrez
Overview
Andrew Paul Gutierrez has promoted anti-Israel activism on campus, expressed support for the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS)movement and demonized Israel.Gutierrez has expressed support forProfessor Imad Ahmad Barghouthi, who is affiliated with Hamas, and supported convicted terrorist Khalida Jarrar.
Gutierrez is a professor emeritus in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).
Promoting Anti-Israel Activism on Campus
Gutierrez signed a letter, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and published on January 25, 2017, condemning Fordham University’s decision 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.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in cooperation with Palestine Legal (PL), and civil rights attorney Alan Levine sued Fordham on behalf of four students in April 2017. A New York court annulled Fordham’s decision in August 2019, mandating that the university recognize SJP as an official club.
Fordham appealed the ruling to the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division in January 2020. On July 24, 2020, Fordham SJP students filed a brief asking the appellate court to deny Fordham’s appeal of the lower court’s decision.
As of October 2020, a variety of groups, not directly involved in the case, filed amicus briefs with the Appellate Division for the court's consideration including JVP.
Supporting BDS
Gutierrez signed an open letter stating that a boycott of Israeli settlements is insufficient, because Israel must be boycotted entirely.The letter, published on October 21, 2016 and addressed to the editors of the New York Times (NY Times), condemned a prior statement published in the NY Times that called for a limited boycott on specific areas of Israel.
The letter attacked the statement’s narrow focus, arguing that “the statement calls for boycotting settlements while letting Israel, the state that has illegally built and maintained those settlements for decades, off the hook.”
In 2015, Gutierrez signed an open letter supporting BDS at the University of California.
The resolution, proposed by the student organization BDS Earlham in April 2015, stated that “Earlham College students are inspired by the intention of the global Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign and have designed a divestment campaign that is tailored to our campus.”
In April 2015, Gutierrez signed his name to a petition supporting a BDS resolution at Earlham College.
The resolution, proposed by the student organization BDS Earlham in April 2015, stated that “Earlham College students are inspired by the intention of the global Boycott Divestment Sanctions campaign and have designed a divestment campaign that is tailored to our campus.”
On November 14, 2014, Gutierrez signed a declaration expressing support for BDS.
The declaration was titled: “Faculty Support Student-Workers of UAW 2865 in Standing in Solidarity with Palestinian Students and Workers and Voting YES on BDS December 4th!”
Signatories of the declaration called upon the university and UAW International “to divest their investments, including pension from Israeli state institutions and international companies complicit in severe and ongoing human rights violations, and on the US government to end military aid to Israel.”
Gutierrez signed a petition calling for divestment of funds from Israeli companies.
The petition, authored by Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) and published in March 2011, called on the investment company TIAA-CREF, to “divest from Israeli occupation.” The petition provided a list of Israeli companies from which signatories demanded TIAA-CREF divest its funds, claiming that the companies listed “were “profiting from Israelʼs violations of international law and international human rights standards.”
The petition, authored by Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) and published in March 2011, called on the investment company TIAA-CREF, to “divest from Israeli occupation.” The petition provided a list of Israeli companies from which signatories demanded TIAA-CREF divest its funds, claiming that the companies listed “were “profiting from Israelʼs violations of international law and international human rights standards.”
Gutierrez also signed his name to a list of individuals endorsing the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).
Gutierrez signed the “Endorsements of the Spring 2010 Evergreen Divestment & CATerpillar Boycott Resolutions,” which included two resolutions: “one calling for divestment from companies profiting off of Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and the other for the creation of a CAT Free Zone, prohibiting the use of Caterpillar Inc. equipment on campus.”
Gutierrez signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama, published 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.
Demonizing Israel
In January 2018, Gutierrez signed an open letter, condemning anti-BDS legislation.In addition to signing, Gutierrez wrote a comment on the letter, stating that “I don’t expect Israel first Senator Schumer to understand that Israel is a brutal apartheid state which is why decent folk around the world support BDS.”
Gutierrez is also an endorser of the “Free Gaza Movement.”
The “Free Gaza Movement” [Gaza Freedom Movement] has organized boats to Gaza meant to “break the siege,” including a May 2010, “Freedom Flotilla.” Activists on board the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara, were found to be carrying crude weapons and initiated an organized, violent confrontation with Israeli forces.
In 2015, Gutierrez commented on a petition defending two “anti-apartheid protesters” who were arrested for disrupting an event at a local synagogue. In his comment, Gutierrez wrote: “Israel is an apartheid state as stated by Bishop Desmond Tutu, President Carter and other notables -- we need to stop burying our head in the sand and recognize what the rest of the world knowns [sic].”
Gutierrez signed a petition in 2003 demanding an end to American foreign aid to Israel.
The petition, published on January 30, 2003, stated: “With an average of more than $10 million dollars per day of American tax dollars going to Israel, we believe Americans cannot remain silent while crimes as abhorrent as ethnic cleansing are being openly advocated.”
The petition stated that “We condemn the University of Vienna for inviting a far right politician who has utilized her position at the top of the Israeli government, perpetuating systematic human rights violations in the Palestinian Territories, to espouse divisive rhetoric and policies.”
Supporting Imad Ahmad Barghouthi
Gutierrez 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.The letter called upon Prime Minister Netanyahu “to order the immediate release of Dr. Imad Ahmad Barghouthi from Israeli military custody.”
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.
Expressing Support for Khalida Jarrar
Gutierrez signed a petition, published on August 26, 2014, demanding “the immediate cancellation of the expulsion order against Khalida Jarrar.”The petition claimed that “It is clear that Khalida Jarrar is being targeted in order to suppress Palestinian political organizing.”
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
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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