David Heap

Overview

David Heap has been arrested twice in attempts to participate in anti-Israel flotilla missions to Gaza. He is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, which he regularly promotes on Twitter.

Heap is a professor in the Department of French Studies at Western University, Ontario (UWO).

Anti-Israel Activism in Gaza

In the summer of 2011, Heap participated in the Canadian Boat to Gaza (CBG), which set sail from Turkey in an attempt “to break the Israeli-led blockade of Gaza.”

The mission was “publicly opposed by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Canada, the Middle East Quartet (consisting of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, and the United States), and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. It was publicly supported by Hamas.”

Several of the participating vessels, including the one Heap was aboard, were detained by the Greek coastguard and the activists were arrested before reaching Gaza.

In November of 2011, the ship set sail again in another attempt to reach Gaza. This time the ship was intercepted by the Israeli Navy and, after refusing to disembark, Heap and his fellow activists were arrested and sent to prison in Israel.

In a letter dated November 5, 2011, Heap described the conditions of his arrest by the Israeli Navy and characterize himself and his friends as “a political prisoners of the apartheid state of Israel.”

On November 14, 2011, Heap published a full chronicle of his experience.  

Following his release from Israeli prison and his deportation to Canada, Heap conducted a speaking tour, in which he shared his experiences and encouraged others to join the campaign.

On January 7, 2015, Heap was interviewed as “a Canadian spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla Coalition's Canada Gaza Boat.”

Supporting BDS

On November 7, 2017, Heap published a congratulatory tweet to York University for passing a piece of BDS legislation.

On June 6, 2017, Heap tweeted a link to a petition calling on the band Radiohead to cancel their upcoming performance in Israel. Along with the link, Heap wrote “Love your music, #Radiohead, but hate #Apartheid. Please respect Palestinian picket line and cancel gig in #Israel.”

On June 19, 2016, Heap tweeted “Boycotting #Israel is not #antiSemitism… #BDS ‘a nonviolent effort to show opposition to this occupation’ #WaPo.”

On April 29, 2014, Heap signed a petition to “Boycott Israeli Cinema and TV Studies Conference at Tel Aviv University.”

The petition called upon scholars to boycott an upcoming conference at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and provided a link to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/DavidHeap

Blog: https://davidheap.blogspot.com/

University Website:https://www.uwo.ca/french/people/faculty/heap.html