Hamid Algar

Overview

Hamid Algar has blamed Israel for Palestinian terrorism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Algar is a professor of Persian and Islamic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley).

Blaming Israel for Terrorism

In June of 2003, Algar gave an interview, in which he attempted to explain away Palestinian terrorism by charging Israel as the cause.

In the interview he asserted that, “these so-called suicide bombings did not start until a considerable time after the beginning of the Intifada, when a large number of Palestinian children had been killed by Israeli forces, for nothing other than throwing a stone, or in some cases not even that. It was only after such casualties had begun to mount that this tactic was used.”

Algar went on to call the Israeli army one of the “most ruthless military forces in the world,” and claimed that they continue “daily, with impunity, to kill and to humiliate the Palestinian people.”

He ended off by stating that since Israel’s is the cause of terrorism, “to criticize or condemn an effect while overlooking the cause is not very helpful.”

Support for BDS

On February 3, 2015, Algar signed a petition, published by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) West, calling upon the University of California Students Association to join the BDS movement.

On August 2, 2014, Algar signed a petition, authored by various American Muslim organizations, entitled “End Israeli Aggression and Occupation.”

The petition called upon the American government to cut economic ties with Israel and to support BDS.

Algar signed another petition — published on January 12, 2009 — by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

The petition, an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama, accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and apartheid and described the situation in Gaza as “one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times.”

It concluded with a call for the U.S. to divest from Israel.

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.

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

University Website: http://nes.berkeley.edu/Web_HamidAlgar/Algar.html

Status:: Professor
University:

Organizations:: BDS,; SJP
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Last Modified:: 05/04/2026

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