Jeanne Theoharis
Overview
Jeanne Theoharis has expressed support for violent protesters, defended anti-Israel campus activists, promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and defended disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita.Theoharis is a distinguished professor of Political Science at the City University of New York, Brooklyn (Brooklyn College).
Supporting Violent Protesters
On May 15, 2018, Theoharis tweeted to United States Senator Chuck Schumer, asking: “why aren't you answering your office phones?A catastrophe is happening in Israel today as Israelis continue to harm and kill nonviolent Palestinians in #GreatMarchReturn. When will you speak out against this?New Yorkers are waiting!”On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On May 16, 2018, another Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
Defending Anti-Israel Campus Activists
In an article published on September 28, 2016, Theoharis was quoted defending students involved with the organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and alleging a conspiracy whereby those students were being “targeted.”Theoharis stated that “The rush to judgment by the [Brooklyn College] administration and semester-long disciplinary process spurred by outside pressure—along with a growing targeting of SJP activists nationwide—resembles a new kind of McCarthyism… Brooklyn College had a picture of all the students who engaged in the [faculty council] protest but chose to pursue disciplinary charges against a few—those active in SJP.”
Promoting BDS
Theoharis signed an open letter to former United States President Barack Obama and the American Congress, demonizing Israel and calling for an end to foreign aid.The July 31, 2014 letter, addressed to former U.S. President Barack Obama and the American Congress, called “to suspend US military aid to Israel, until there is assurance that this aid will no longer be used for the commission of war crimes.”
The letter was in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE), which Israel commenced in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Theoharis signed another open letter, published on February 4, 2014, condemning anti-BDS legislation and, specifically, efforts made in opposition to the BDS resolution proposed to the American Studies Association (ASA).
Signatories of the letter defended BDS, arguing that “Boycotts are a long recognized and legally protected mode of political speech.
Defending Steven Salaita
Theoharis signed a petition published on August 21, 2014 by the BDS movement titled: “A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic] the Contract to Hire Professor Steven Salaita.”In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.
Unable to find a teaching position “on four continents,” Salaita again took to social media, stating on FacebookI“no longer consider myself among the professoriate.” Salaita went on to say that “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not… I will die unapologetic.”
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/jeannetheoharisUniversity Website: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/people/jeanne-theoharis
