Chika Okeke-Agulu
Overview
Chika Okeke-Agulu supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at Princeton University (Princeton), where he is an associate professor of African and African Diaspora Art.Okeke-Agulu frequently attacks Israel on Twitter and has accused the Jewish state of practicing “apartheid.” On August 15, 2015, Okeke-Agulu tweeted a Ha’aretz blog with the title: “It's time to admit it. Israeli policy is what it is: Apartheid - A Special Place in Hell”.
Okeke-Agulu has also tweeted that Israel practices “ethnic cleansing” and has tweeted support for an academic boycott of Israel.
On April 25, 2017, Okeke-Agulu posted “I SUPPORT!” on Facebook with a link to an article describing a group of artists campaigning on behalf of Palestinian prisoners who began a hunger strike on April 17, 2017.
The hunger strike is led by terrorist Marwan Barghouti, currently serving five consecutive life sentences related to murder charges and is widely viewed as a political bid to raise Barghouti’s profile in Palestinian society.
Okeke-Agulu also tweets articles from Mint Press News, a “super anti-Israel” website that frequently compares Israel to ISIS. On February 15, 2016, Mint Press News posted a side-by-side comparison of Israel and ISIS on Facebook with the comment “Same st, different name.”
Trivializing Hamas Terrorism
On July 21, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Okeke-Agulu tweeted an article titled “Why I object to Israel’s military campaign, even as Hamas fires missiles at my city.”The article minimized the terrorist actions of Hamas, as well as Israel’s reason for launching OPE: to destroy Hamas’ attack tunnels and stop rocket attacks from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians, which increased dramatically in the weeks prior to OPE.
On July 29, 2014, Okeke-Agulu insinuated on Twitter that Hamas was not responsible for the kidnap and subsequent murder of three Israeliteenagers, tweeting: “It Turns Out Hamas May Not Have Kidnapped and Killed the 3 Israeli Teens After All --SURPRISED!”
This claim — that Hamas was not responsible for the kidnap-murder — has been used to suggest that Israel fabricated the kidnapping charge in order to justify OPE.
Demonizing Israel
Okeke-Agulu frequently promotes the claim that Israel is a racist state on Twitter. On October 22, 2013, Okeke-Agulu shared a documentary created by anti-Israel activists David Sheen and Max Blumenthal and commented “Video Documentary on extreme racism in Israel; history is a paradox.”On February 15, 2015, Okeke-Agulu tweeted “Israel Forcibly Injected African Immigrants with Birth Control, Report Claims” with a link to a January 2013 article which was based on a flawed report by Ha’aretz.
In September 2014, as well as July and February of 2016, Okeke-Agulu either criticized or linked to articles that were critical of Israel deporting illegal African migrants.
On March 19, 2015, Okeke-Agulu accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of being a racist, and often tweets his general disdain for Netanyahu.
On May 5, 2016, Okeke-Agulu tweeted “Israeli Justice Minister: It’s Anti-Semitic To Ever Criticize Israel--WOW!--”. He then linked to an article that did not contain any such quote.
Princeton Divests Campaign
In April of 2015, Okeke-Agulu was part of Princeton Divests — a coalition of Princeton students and faculty “committed to divesting from companies committing human rights violations in occupied Palestine” — that initiated a BDS referendum at Princeton. The referendum, voted on by Princeton students, was narrowly defeated.On August 2014, Okeke-Agulu posted a BDS petition on his personal blog.
Faculty Divestment Petition
On November 5, 2014, Okeke-Agulu signed a petition entitled “An Invitation to the Tenured Faculty at Princeton” that was featured in Princeton’s student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. The petition invited tenured faculty to support divestment from companies “that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank until the State of Israel complies with UN Resolution 242, ends its military occupation of the West Bank and lifts its siege of Gaza.”The faculty petition was rejected by the Resources Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community, because it did not meet guidelines for consideration. It was reported that organizers of the faculty petition “plan to press on.”
According to Professor Max Weiss, a co-founder of the faculty divestment initiative, the “faculty petition urging divestment set the stage for the student referendum.”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/chika.okekeaguluTwitter:https://twitter.com/Chikaokekeagulu
Blog:http://chikaokeke-agulu.blogspot.com
University Website:https://artandarchaeology.princeton.edu/people/faculty/chika-okeke-agulu
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Princeton
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Michael Wood,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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