Jonathan Osorio

Overview

Jon Osorio [Jonathan K. Kamakawiwoʻole Osorio] is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. He also defended disgraced anti-Israel Professor Steven Salaita and spoke at an anti-Israel event.

As of August 2020, Osorio was Dean of the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge (HSHK) and a Professor at the Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, at the University of Hawai’i (UH).

Supporting BDS

As of August 2020, Orosio was a signatory to a list of endorsers of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). ”

In February 2014, Osorio signed an open letter condemning the administration of UH, for expressing its opposition to the American Studies Association’s (ASA) recent endorsement of the academic boycott of Israel.

The open letter that Osorio signed charged that opponents of the academic boycott of Israel “support academic institutions that participate in the denial of human rights, including the right to education, experienced by Palestinians who, like Native Hawaiians, live under conditions of occupation.”

The letter Osorio signed went on to charge: “our administrators nowhere in their statement acknowledge Palestinian existence, let alone ways Palestinians’ academic and human rights are violated by Israel and with the support from the US of over three billion federal tax dollars a year in direct aid alone.”

Defending Steven Salaita

In 2014, Orosio reportedly signed a letter to the Board of Trustees from UH staff, in support of a “boycott of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) until you reinstate Dr. 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.

Anti-Israel Activism

On November 28, 2014, Osorio, following Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), was scheduled to speak at an event titled: “Spotlight on Gaza: Contexts and Ethical Responses,” which was part of a speaking tour by anti-Israel activist Noura Erakat.

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.  

Osorio was scheduled to introduce Erakat.

The event’s Facebook description said it was hosted by anti-Israel professor Cynthia Franklin and sponsored by anti-Israel groups including Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP)’s Hawai’i chapter, Friends of Sabeel’s Hawai’i chapter and the Hawai'i Coalition for Justice in Palestine (HCJP).

The Hawai’i Friends of Sabeel is a chapter of Sabeel, which applies “liberation theology.” Liberation Theology “claims that Palestinians represent a modern-day version of Jesus’ suffering,” including “deicide imagery, and supersessionist rhetoric used to demonize Israel and Judaism.”

As of August 2020, HCJP’s Facebook page said it was founded to oppose “Israel's illegal and unjust acts” and that they “oppose the use of our tax dollars--over $3 billion per year--being used to support ethnic cleansing, colonization, blockades, and occupation by Israel in Palestine.”

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://manoa.hawaii.edu/hshk/people/

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-osorio-27bb7b29/