Jasbir Puar

Accusations against Israel stealing or harvesting organs have been revived over the years, echoing old anti-Semitic blood libels against Jews.

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

Puar also suggested that Israel did not want a two-state solution because “the outcome is not so much about winning or losing nor a solution, but about needing body parts, not even whole bodies, for research and experimentation.” 

Puar was quoted saying: “And again part of my argument is that keeping Palestinians alive is crucial to this economy and it’s precisely crucial to this equation of who is the genocided population. The Jewish Israeli population cannot afford to hand over genocide to another population. They need the Palestinians alive in order to keep the kind of rationalization for their victimhood and their militarized economy.”

In 2015, Puar wrote an article in the Borderlands e-journal titled: “The ‘Right’ to Maim: Disablement and Inhumanist Biopolitics in Palestine.”

In the article, Puar wrote [p.16]: “Given that Israel in particular and Jewish populations in general have thoroughly hijacked the discourse of trauma through exceptionalizing Holocaust victimization, Palestinian trauma is overshadowed, classified into impossibility through ‘an assemblage of laws, policies, narratives, symbols, and practices that re-named trauma and suffering of the dispossessed with colonial terminology.’”

Puar also wrote: “Through the practice of maiming, stunting, and debilitation, Palestinians are further literalized and lateralized as surface, as bodies without souls, as sheer biology, thus ironically rendered non-human...”

On December 14, 2014, Puar said in an interview with Cosmologics Magazine: “I am most interested in how this works in Gaza—how mathematical algorithms are deployed to fix calorie intake, water supplies, and electric currents, among other infrastructural elements—to create an asphixatory regime of control, in which the Palestinians can breathe and not breathe according to the desires of the Occupier/Israel.”

Promoting Terrorists

On October 25, 2020, Puar tweeted a Youtube video of a USACBI-moderated Zoom panel which featured [00:07:19] a taped message from Leila Khaled. 

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.  

In the video Puar posted, Khaled said [00:09:58]: “We have used all means of struggle and we are still determined to continue using all means of struggle including armed struggle.”

Khaled continued [00:10:34]: “I’m optimistic about the historical victory that we will achieve with you, with your support, with this solidarity, with going to BDS - boycott divest and sanctions against Israel - to isolate this apartheid state. When it’s isolated, it is the first step towards victory.” 

The video then showed Khaled speaking at an event where she said [00:11:02]: “Until now, our country is still occupied by the Zionists.”

On October 24, 2020, Puar tweeted the same Youtube video featuring Khaled.

On July 20, 2020, Puar tweeted about a video featuring PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani: “Interviewer: ‘Why not just talk?’ Kanafani: ‘That's a conversation between the sword and the neck.’ Iconic footage and more of #GhassanKanafani and the era of revolutionary Palestinian media @AJEnglish.”

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson of the designated terrorist organization the PFLP in its early years.

Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people.  

Puar’s tweet linked to an Al Jazeera video idealizing [00:00:08] Kanafani for being a voice of “clarity” while representing the PFLP. The video stated [00:03:18]: “He was an advocate of armed struggle and understood its mediatic value.” The video then showed [00:03:24] his quote: “If our armed struggle went quiet, no TV network would willingly give any Palestinian a minute of coverage to express themselves.”

The PFLP — designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Israel, the European Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Australia — pioneered aircraft hijackings to draw attention to their movement’s demands, most notably with the capture of an Air France plane in 1976.

The hijackers flew the plane to Entebbe, Uganda, where they separated nearly 100 Jewish passengers from the others and threatened to execute one Jew per hour. Israel, however, launched a successful commando raid to rescue the hostages.

The PFLP also claimed “credit” for the November 18, 2014 Har Nof Synagogue massacre — where PFLP operatives murdered six people with a gun, axes and a butcher knife during morning prayers. PFLP Gaza leader Hani Thawbta stated: “We declare full responsibility of the PFLP for the execution of this heroic operation..."  

Puar retweeted a July 20, 2020 tweet that said: “So pleased to have contributed to the @AJListeningPost TV segment on Ghassan Kanafani. Thank you @TariqNafi for shining the light on Palestinian magazines & journalism in the 1960s & 70s!”

Puar retweeted a June 26, 2020 tweet that said: “Thank you Izzy Mustafa for such a critical and moving piece.The dangers of driving under Israeli apartheid #AhmedErekat #Palestinian #Freedom.”

Ahmad Erekat [Ahmad Moustafa Erekat; Ahmed Erakat] was killed by Israeli security forces after he accelerated and rammed his car into soldiers at a checkpoint. One female soldier was injured. The incident was captured on video.  

Supporting Violent Rioters

On February 12, 2020, Puar tweeted about her multimedia art exhibition “Future Lives of Return” in the United Arab Emirates. Puar wrote: “Our exhibition on the Great March of Return in Gaza at the Sharjah Architecture Triennial is now closed, but hopefully coming to the US soon! #Gaza#GreatMarchofReturn.”

On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The violent demonstrations were instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border. Participants declared their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”

March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Rioters also made numerous attempts to breach Israel’s border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.
The violent riots during the “March of Return” continued into 2019 and included armed protesters using gunfire, penetrating Israeli territory, launching incendiary kites into Israel and throwing IEDs, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails. Some of the attacks were carried out by Hamas operatives.

On October 31, 2019, Puar tweeted: “We now have a title! Future Lives of Return. #sharjaharch #gaza #palestine #GreatMarchofReturn #RightToMaim.” The tweet embedded a tweet that said: “Architect @FSBRG and queer theorist @JazzBeerPooAre research practices of maiming and containment in Palestine, particularly in the context of the brutal repression of the Great Return March protests in Gaza.”

On March 30, 2019, Puar tweeted: “Despite this failure, the determination of the Palestinians in Gaza to end a medieval blockade that has lasted for over 12 years - robbing a whole generation of its potential… will go down in the annals of history as testimony to the human spirit.”

The United Nations approved [pp. 39–41] the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza in 2011 as a security measure to stop Hamas from acquiring sophisticated rockets. Multiple flotillas have attempted to breach the blockade, with at least one flotilla initiating a violent confrontation with Israeli forces. 

Also on March 30, 2019, Puar tweeted: “The past year has been a testament to the unbridled bravery of the Palestinian people in Gaza. The international community has, unfortunately, yet again, failed them - further emboldening Israel's sense of impunity that fuels its crimes.”

Hatred of Israel

On July 1, 2010, Puar wrote an article discussing the Mavi Marmara flotilla in which Puar claimed: “Israel's recent attack on a flotilla delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, killing at least nine people, suggests a growing indifference of the Israeli government to global condemnation of its Palestine policies.”

The Mavi Marmara was the lead ship in the “Freedom Flotilla” that attempted to sail to Gaza in May 2010. Activists aboard the ship agitated for violent confrontation and chanted a slogan glorifying the killing of Jews. When Israeli security forces boarded the Marmara, protesters attacked them with iron bars, metal chairs, knives, stun grenades and firearms, rocks and bottles. A United Nations report found that the flotilla agitators initiated an organized, violent confrontation with Israeli forces, and that the Marmara was carrying no humanitarian aid, only weaponry.

On May 3, 2012, Puar said [00:25:54] in an American University of Beirut lecture that Israel’s “rationale positions it perfectly as a settler-colonial state that intersects with a certain version of neo-liberalism.”

On August 9, 2012, Puar wrote in an article: “Pinkwashing ignores the settler-colonialism of Israel. Unfortunately, pinkwashing ignores the settler-colonialism of the United States and its own entrenchment in homonationalism.”  

“Pinkwashing” is a claim that Israel advocates manipulate the LGBTQ community in order to garner support for Israel.  

On November 16, 2016, in a YouTube video titled “Palestine, BLM [Black Lives Matter] and Boycott in the Arts,” posted by Decolonize This Place, Puar suggested [00:54:55] there is “Israeli genocide” against Palestinians. She also alleged [01:57:39] that there is “Israeli apartheid.”

On January 14, 2020, Puar tweeted a quote stating that Israel has “settler colonialism.”

Puar retweeted a February 28, 2020 tweet from Palestine Legal, which accused Israel of “racism and state violence.”

Puar retweeted a March 5, 2020 BDS movement tweet which said that Israel has a “model of apartheid and colonialism.” The tweet included a video that said [00:00:56] that Israel’s Law of Return is a “central pillar of Israel’s apartheid regime.”

The Israeli Law of Return grants Jews worldwide the right to Israeli citizenship.  

Puar retweeted a July 15, 2020 tweet which called for the “decolonization” of Israel and said: “#ZionismIsRacism.”

On July 28, 2020, Puar tweeted: “For 25 years Georgia State and the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange GILEE have been endangering their own students through their ‘proud partnership’ w Israel. @DeadlyExchange.” 

In 2017, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) launched the “Deadly Exchange” campaign that accused American Jewish organizations of promoting human rights abuses. JVP also released a video that blamed [00:04:04] Jewish organizations for violence that occurs against Black and Brown communities, immigrants and activists in the U.S.

Puar retweeted an April 7, 2021 tweet accusing Israel of “occupation, colonization, apartheid, ethnic cleansing.” 

On May 17, 2021, Puar tweeted her support for an anti-Israel petition during Israel's Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas. The petition claimed that Israel is “genocidal,” and accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and “ongoing settler colonial terror.”

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

The same statement that Puar endorsed on Twitter said: “As educators and cultural workers, we respond to the call by the Palestinian community in Lydda [Lod] for international protection for Indigenous Palestinians from Israeli state-sanctioned pogroms.”

Supporting BDS

On April 12, 2021, Puar had been listed on the USACBI website as one of its advisory board members since February 2012.

Puar retweeted a March 9, 2021 tweet from USACBI about coronavirus which said: “Drs. Fauci, Wailoo, Park, June and Rosenberg: Say No to Israel’s Medical Apartheid – Reject the Dan David Prize.” The tweet’s link said that “Israel’s practices of Apartheid extend to the ‘vaccine apartheid’ imposed on Palestinians.”

All Israel's citizens, including Arabs, were provided equal and free access to a coronavirus vaccine.

On January 11, 2017, Puar said that she would donate money she received from a Modern Language Association (MLA) award to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), after the MLA voted down a resolution endorsing BDS.

On November 16, 2016, Puar said [00:32:30] in a Youtube video that she has been a BDS activist since 2009.

On February 3, 2016, Puar reportedly said at a lecture at Vassar: “...we need BDS as part of organized resistance and armed resistance in Palestine as well.There is no other way the situation is going to change.”

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/jkpuar [Private]  

https://twitter.com/JazzBeerPooAre [Deleted]

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/chucho_the_protest_dog/ 

Website:http://jasbirkpuar.com/
                
http://www.jasbirpuar.com/ [Deleted]

University Webpage:https://grsj.arts.ubc.ca/profile/jasbar-puar/

University Webpage 2: https://www.grad.ubc.ca/researcher/23536-puar