Andy Clarno
Overview
Andy Clarno has expressed support for terrorists, spread incitement, demonized Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism. Clarno is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.As of March 2023, Clarno was listed as an associate professor of sociology and Black studies at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC). Clarno has been affiliated with the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) since 2019.
As of the same date, Clarno served on the board of directors of Palestinian American Research Center (PARC). Also as of March 2023, Clarno was [p. 12] on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR).
Clarno is the author of “Neoliberal Apartheid: Palestine/Israel and South Africa after 1994,” which was published in 2017.
He is also the author of “Or Does it Explode? Collecting Shells in Gaza,” published in 2009, and “A Tale of Two Walled Cities: Neoliberalization and Enclosure in Johannesburg and Jerusalem,” published in 2008.
In 2012-2013, Clarno was a visiting research associate at Birzeit University (Birzeit).
Birzeit University’s student body has celebrated terrorists since at least 2003. That year, student government elections featured models of exploding Israeli buses, as parties competed on the basis of which Palestinian faction had killed the most Israelis.
As of May 2023, Clarno was located in Chicago, Illinois.
Terror Support (PFLP)
In 2017, Clarno published an article describing a farewell event for Rasmea Odeh. At the event, a speaker celebrated Odeh’s “lifelong commitment to revolutionary struggles against racism, Zionism and imperialism.”Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
On June 11, 2017, Clarno updated his Facebook cover photo to an image of Ghassan Kanafani.
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
On August 22, 2022, Clarno shared on Facebook a post from the US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) that said: “We must #StandWithThe6 now more than ever…”
Al-Haq is one of the six Palestinian NGOs with ties to the PFLP terror group, according to the Israeli government.
Spreading Incitement
On May 8, 2021, Clarno added a temporary profile picture on Facebook with text that said: “...#SaveSheikhJarrah.”Demonizing Israel
On February 25, 2023, Clarno gave an online lecture titled: “Neoliberal Apartheid and Imperial Policing,” in which he said [00:07:59]: “The Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law, as well as Israel’s refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to exercise the internationally recognized right of return.”The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
Israel and Egypt implemented a United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.
In the same talk, Clarno also said [00:17:27]: “Israeli apartheid operates by fragmenting the Palestinian population and subjecting each fragment to a different form of racial rule.”
Clarno further stated [00:30:19], alluding to Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)’s“Deadly Exchange” campaign: “Israeli security companies export expertise by training police departments in crowd control counterinsurgency and counterterrorism.”
In 2017, JVP launched the “Deadly Exchange (DX)” campaign, which accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] U.S.-based Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.
On August 27, 2017, Clarno co-authored an article, where he wrote: “The Gaza Strip has been transformed into a ‘concentration camp’ and a model ‘native reserve’ through a deadly, medieval siege described by Richard Falk as a ‘prelude to genocide’ and by Ilan Pappe as an ‘incremental genocide.’”
Clarno further stated: “70% of Gaza’s two million residents are refugees, a living reminder of the Nakba and an embodied demand for the right of return.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
In 2013, Clarno published an article titled: “Securing Oslo: The Dynamics of Security Coordination in the West Bank,” where he wrote: “Coordination lost all coherence during the second intifada, when Israel unleashed the full force of its military against the Palestinian people: reoccupying cities, demolishing refugee camps, assassinating leaders, and killing and arresting thousands.”
The second intifada took place from 2000 to 2005 where Palestinian terrorists carried out over 130 suicide bombings, murdering over 1,000 Israeli civilians and soldiers. Terrorists targeted city buses, shopping centers, dance clubs and cafes. Palestinian leadership encouraged children to carry out “martyrdom” operations against Israel.
Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, BDS)
On February 28, 2023, Clarno participated [00:24:30] in a panel discussion event hosted by SJP at the University of Chicago (UChicago) as part of a BDS initiative launched by SJP UChicago in 2023.During the event, Clarno said [00:32:09]: “The so-called global war on terror must be understood as a racial project driven by Israel and the United States to shore up unstable settler colonial and imperial regimes.”
On January 30, 2023, Clarno posted on Facebook: “Please sign and support.” His post linked to a petition from the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) in support of anti-Israel activist Lara Sheehi.
In January 2023, Sheehi was accused by her students at George Washington University of anti-Semitism and promoting violence against American and Israeli civilians, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.
USCPR
The United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) — formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (ETO) — is a coalition of American-based anti-Israel organizations that lobbies the U.S. Congress to adopt anti-Israel policies and end government support for Israel.
Included in the coalition are groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), National Lawyers Guild, Palestine Legal, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), CODEPINK, US Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), Christian Peacemakers Teams (CPT), Israel Palestine Mission Network – Presbyterian Church (U.S.A) and Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), as well as various chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). USCPR is a major promoterof the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
USCPR claims to provide (p.14) "online and in-person trainings, workshops, one-on-one strategic support, and other mentorship to more than 100 organizations nationwide, including campus groups, faith-based organizations, and broad coalitions."
The coalition was founded in 2001 by anti-Israel activists.
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.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/andy.clarno
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
