James Quesada

Overview

James Quesada has defended anti-Israel activism on campus, is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and has expressed support for anti-Israel activist, professor Rabab Abdulhadi.

Quesada is a professor in the Department of Anthropology at San Francisco State University (SFSU).

Defending Anti-Israel Activism on Campus

Quesada is a member of the California Scholars for Academic Freedom (cs4af) and signed an open letter published by the group on June 27, 2014, to the Los Angeles City Council.

The letter supported an allegation that the Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Hasbara Fellowships work to “lobby student leaders and council members through free trips and other in-kind gifts as a means of buying loyalty and influencing student council votes.”

The signatories defended a pledge proposed for candidates in student body elections at UCLA, committing them not to participate in trips to Israel funded by AIPAC, the ADL and Hasbara Fellowships.

The letter also condemned the Blumenfield Resolution, a piece of legislation which outlawed the pledge as an effort to “harass” and “intimidate” pro-Israel candidates for student government and urged the university to develop policies and institute practices at every UC campus to outlaw “intimidation or harassment of any student.”

Quesada also signed a letter, authored by cs4af, to SFSU President Leslie Wong and the California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees, defending anti-Israel activism on campus, which it characterized as an expression of “academic freedom” and “the free exchange of ideas.”

The letter went on to defend meetings organized between SFSU students and members of terrorist organizations such as Hamas, PFLP and the PLO.

Supporting BDS

Quesada signed the 2014 American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) boycott of Israel, which accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing, colonization, discrimination, and military occupation” and called upon the AAA to boycott Israeli academic institutions.

In August 2012, cs4af published another open letter, which Quesada signed, to California Assembly Members, opposing a piece of anti-BDS legislation.

That cs4af letter argued that BDS, descriptions of Israel as “an apartheid state” and accusations against Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “crimes against humanity” do not constitute anti-Semitism and should be protected on campus.

Quesada also signed an open letter to California State University (CSU) Chancellor Charles Reed, opposing the reinstatement of a CSU-Israel study abroad program.  

Signatories of the letter argued that “CSU participation with the government of Israel in the proposed study abroad program could be interpreted as an endorsement of the international crime of apartheid.”

Expressing Support for Rabab Abdulhadi

Quesada signed a letter published on June 28, 2017, to SFSU President Leslie Wong, condemning actions taken against professor Rabab Abdulhadi and her anti-Israel activism on campus.

Signatories of the letter claimed that “The conflation of criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism has become a standard tactic by Zionist organizations, which seek to censor criticism of the Israeli state.”

In 2016, Quesada had signed a different letter defending Abdulhadi to President Wong. The letter demanded “from President Wong and his office to issue a clear and firm statement in support of Prof. Abdulhadi.”

According to a Middle East Forum report, Professor Rabab Abdulhadi has — since at least January 2014 — sought to cultivate alliances between SFSU and two Hamas-dominated Palestinian universities.

During an SFSU faculty event, Abdulhadi praised international hijacker Leila Khaled as an “icon in liberations movements and… an icon for women’s liberation.”

In 2016, Abdulhadi signed a letter to Vassar College President Catherine Bond Hill defending Jasbir Puar. Puar demonized Israel, suggesting that Israelis harvest the organs of dead Palestinians.

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:https://anthropology.sfsu.edu/people/faculty/james-quesada