Elias Serna
Overview
Elias Serna is a university lecturer who spread hatred of Israel in the classroom and online, including calling for Israel’s destruction, during a war against Hamas terrorists in late 2023 and early 2024.Serna’s actions occurred in the wake of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Serna is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of March 2024, Serna was listed online as a faculty member in the Department of History at Santa Monica College (SMC). Serna’s LinkedIn profile said he had been teaching “Introduction to Ethnic Studies” at SMC since August 2022. SMC is located in Santa Monica, California.
Also as of March 2024, Serna was listed online as a lecturer in Chicano studies at California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI), which is located in Camarillo, California.
As of the same date, Serna’s LinkedIn also said he had been a faculty lecturer at San Jose State University (SJSU) since September 2023. SJSU is located in San Jose, California.
Also as of March 2024, Serna’s LinkedIn said he received a PhD in “English-Rhetoric” from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in 2017.
As of the same date, Serna’s LinkedIn said he was located in Santa Monica, California.
Hatred of Israel in the Classroom during a Hamas War
In March 2024, during Israel’s war against Hamas, Serna reportedly [image 2] gave the SMC students in his “Introduction to Ethnic Studies” class an assignment titled: “Settler Colonialism & the Dominant Narrative.”In the assignment, Serna suggested [image 2] that there was a connection between “settler colonialism and immigration” and Israel. He also accused Israel of committing “genocide.”
One way that anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is by claiming that Israeli Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel.
Hatred of Israel Online and Calling for Israel’s Destruction
As of March 10, 2024, during Israel’s war against Hamas, Elias had made his Facebook background photo an image of two protesters at an anti-Israel rally. One held a sign that said: “COLONIZATION KILLS.” The other sign said: “FREE PALESTINE.”On January 17, 2024, Serna shared on Facebook a post that said: “We will Never forget.
/ We will NEVER stop sharing / FREE PALESTINE !!
.” The post included a cartoon showing an Israeli representative standing before International Court of Justice (ICJ) judges and saying: “NOT GUILTY!” To the left of him is a giant folder titled: “GAZA EVIDENCE,” with dead bodies and blood coming out.
Serna commented on the post: “Meanwhile at the Hague …”
On January 16, 2024, Serna shared on Facebook a post that said: “We will Never forget.
/ FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE! 
/ FREE PALESTINE !!
.”“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state.
Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.
On December 19, 2023, Serna posted on Facebook a graphic that said: “Has Israel been ‘recognized’ as a Terrorist State?”
On December 18, 2023, Serna wrote on Facebook: “...This narrative of ‘Israel’s right to ‘DEFEND’ itself’ is daily becoming more absurd, partly because it is being broadcast DAILY on corporate news, while the daily crimes of GENOCIDE are COVERED UP - DAILY…”
The same post continued: “...We are living through a fascist and RACIST genocide operation, funded by our tax dollars. At this point I support all acts of revolt against tyranny, overseas and at home.”
On December 16, 2023, Serna posted on Facebook a graphic that said: “THIS IS NOT WAR. / MASS STARVATION IS NOT WAR. / BOMBING HOSPITALS IS NOT WAR. / WIPING OUT ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOODS / IS NOT WAR. / THIS IS MASS MURDER. / THIS IS AN ANNIHILATION OF MORE / THAN TWO MILLION PEOPLE ALREADY / PERSECUTED UNDER APARTHEID. / SPEAK OUT / BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.”
On October 17, 2023, the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fired rockets at Israel from Gaza, one of which misfired and fell on the parking lot of the al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital. Initial media reports blamed Israel. Following the incident, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib immediately accused the Biden administration of funding Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinian people.
On November 26, 2023, Serna wrote a Facebook post where he promoted BDS and called Israel a “violent settler colonizer.”
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/elias.serna.3Twitter:https://twitter.com/esern002
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/xicanotime2019 [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/elias-serna-ph-d-m-f-a-691889117/
Photos & Screenshots
