Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi
Overview
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has expressed support for disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita.Ghamari-Tabrizi was a non-tenured professor in the Departments of History and Sociology at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (UIUC), College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Global Studies from 2017 to 2018.
As of September 2019, Ghamari-Tabrizi was a professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University (Princeton), since February 2019.
Supporting BDS
Ghamari-Tabrizi signed an open letter to United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, dated July 31, 2014, condemning “the disproportionate harm that the Israeli military, which the United States has armed and supported for decades, is inflicting on the population of Gaza.”The letter exclusively blamed Israel for the Gazan civilian crisis and called upon the administration “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”
The letter was in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE).
Supporting Steven Salaita
Ghamari-Tabrizi co-authored a statement, as a member of the Executive Committee of the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, condemning “the unilateral revocation of Steven Salaita's contract by the University administration... apparently on the basis of his open opposition to Israel's military onslaught against the civilian population in the besieged Palestinian Gaza.”The authors stated that “There is nothing anti-Semitic in Dr. Salaita's comments on Twitter; the targets of his criticisms are Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, the illegal and unethical assault on Gaza, and those who support it.”
Ghamari-Tabrizi’s statement went on to claim that “The University of Illinois must resist political pressures to silence voices of legitimate outrage.”
In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.
Ghamari-Tabrizi signed a petition, published on August 23, 2015, to University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (UIUC) President Killeen and Acting Chancellor Wilson, calling upon them to “use the authority of your offices to recommend to the Board of Trustees that they reverse their previous decision and reinstate Dr. Salaita.”
Ghamari-Tabrizi also signed a open letter to UIUC Chancellor Phyllis Wise, President Robert Easter and the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, published on October 30, 2014.
Signatories of the letter condemned the decision to withdraw Salatia’s tenure position offer, claiming that of Salaita’s anti-Semitic tweets, “None of the statements that we have seen represents an attack on any racial or ethnic group, unless one accepts the disingenuous equation of the state of Israel and Jewish people generally.”
On September 1, 2014, Ghamari-Tabrizi published an article condemning UIUC administration for revoking Salaita’s position. In the article, Ghamari-Tabrizi claimed that the decision had been made as a result of the administration being “lobbied… not only by pro-Israel students, parents and alumni, but also by the fund-raising arm of the university.”
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.
