Joshua Cooper
Overview
Joshua Cooper [Joshua N. Cooper] has expressed support for terrorists as the faculty advisor for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of South Carolina (UofSC).Cooper also opposed an “anti-Semitism bill” as an an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Cooper was reportedly a member of the JVP Academic Advisory Council in 2017.
As of November 2019, Cooper was a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) Facebook group.
As of November 2019, Cooper was a Professor of Mathematics at UofSC since December 2016. Also as of November 2019, Cooper’s LinkedIn page said he was the Chief Scientist at AtomBeam Technologies since February 2018.
Cooper received a Ph.D. in Combinatorics from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in 2003 and a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1999.
Expressing Support for Terrorists
UofSC SJP’s Facebook post said: “Joining the intl call to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all political prisoners!”
Ahmad Sa’adat is the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He is currently sentenced for terror activities, including his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi and is in an Israeli prison. Under Sa’adat’s leadership, the PFLP perpetrated many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians during the second intifada.
UofSC SJP’s Facebook post also included a quote about Sa’adat by Samidoun The Palestinian Prisoners Network: “‘[Sa’adat] is a figure of international importance and political clarity…he stands alongside nearly 6,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails on the front lines of the liberation struggle. As such, he is a symbol of Palestinian, Arab and internationalist resistance to capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization.’"
On September 4, 2018, UofSC SJP tweeted a picture of Cooper with other activists at a UofSC SJP event discussing “the role women play in the Palestinian liberation struggle.”
The event’s Facebook page listed Rasmea Odeh, Khalida Jarrar and Dareen Tartour as examples of women at the forefront of the Palestinian movement. At the event, UofSC SJP activists wrote letters of support to Jarrar and Dareen Tatour.
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
Opposing a State Bill Addressing Anti Semitism
On March 11, 2017, Cooper authored an opinion piece in a South Carolina newspaper, The State, where he wrote that “As an educator and a Jew” he was “troubled” by the South Carolina state legislature’s support for H. 3643.
Cooper claimed: “H.3643 directs public colleges to adopt a widely discredited definition of anti-Semitism.” Cooper also accused Israel of 50 years of “military occupation of Palestine.”
On April 20, 2017, the same say as the state Senate Committee on Education’s vote on the bill, Cooper reportedly told UofSC’s student newspaper, The Daily Gamecock, that he saw the bill as “problematic” and expressed hope that the bill would be defeated.
The bill did not pass in 2017, however, it was later placed in the 2018-2019 budget and currently applies on college campuses.
Cooper reportedly told Al Jazeera in an article on the bill, that he opposes the bill “because it violates the values of his Jewish faith.”
Cooper also reportedly said: “‘The bill identifies Jews with Israel. As a Jew, I don't want to be associated with Israel's human rights abuses.’”
SJP Activism
In November 2018, Cooper tabled with UofSC SJP during their fourth “Palestine Cultural night,” which celebrated the March of Return, then occurring on Israel’s Gaza border.On November 9, 2018, UofSC SJP posted a photo of the cultural night to Facebook, of the stage with the mock separation wall. A photo of March of Return protesters was projected on the wall behind the stage, along with the phrase “Resistance until Return.”
UofSC SJP posted a photo of the cultural night, with a photo collage with the words: “Jerusalem - Capital of Palestine.” The event also sold UofSC SJP’s bookmarks glorifying terrorists.
On January 11, 2019, Cooper appeared in a posed group photo with other UofSC SJP activists, posted to Twitter, by UofSC SJP.
On November 1, 2018, Cooper posed for a group photo posted to Facebook by UofSC SJP with anti-Israel activist Benjamin Ladraa. The photo was from an event UofSC SJP hosted featuring Ladraa.
Ladraa undertook a solo “walk for Palestine” to spread the demonization of Israel in 2017-2018. He has also defended terrorists, promoted the violent March of Return, demonized Israel and advocated for anti-Israel agitators.
UofSC SJP - Celebrating Terrorists
On January 23, 2019, UofSC SJP posted to Facebook: “Joining the intl call to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all political prisoners!”along with a photo of UofSC SJP activists holding signs that demanded “Freedom for Ahmad Sada’at.”Ahmad Sa’adat is the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He is currently sentenced for terror activities, including his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi and is in an Israeli prison. Under Sa’adat’s leadership, the PFLP perpetrated many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians during the second intifada.
In December 2018, UofSC SJP sold bookmarks glorifying Palestinian terrorists Fatima Bernawi, Rasmea Odeh and Khalida Jarrar, as well as terror-inciter Dareen Tatour.
Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.
On August 3, 2018, UofSC SJP posted to Facebook a PFLP poster that featured a photo of George Habash and his quote “Palestine, all of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
George Habash, who has been called“the godfather of Middle East terrorism,” founded the terrorist organization the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1970, Habash was the mastermind behind the hijacking of four Western airliners known as the Dawson Field hijackings. In 1972, the PFLP collaborated with Japanese Red Army terrorists to massacre 24 people at Israel's Lod International Airport (renamed Ben Gurion International Airport).
On November 21, 2017, UofSC SJP shared an Al Jazeera interview about Marwan Barghouti to Facebook.
Marwan Barghouti is currently serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second intifada.
Barghouti led the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
UofSC SJP - Defending Terrorists
On August 13, 2018, UofSC SJP shared an article to Facebook that defended several“Knife Intifada” terrorists, including Ahmed Manasra and Nurhan Awad.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.
Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015, during the Knife Intifada. They critically wounded a 13-year-old boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. The spree ended when police shot Hassan and a passing motorist hit Ahmed. Ahmed was taken to an Israeli hospital. He admitted to investigators: “I went there to stab Jews.” He was later tried and convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
In December 2015, 16-year-old Lama al-Bakri drew a knife and attempted to stab a pedestrian in the Jewish neighborhood of Kiryat Arba before she was shot. Bakri was then detained for 3 years.
UofSC SJP- Glorifying Violent Protesters
On May 14, 2018, UofSC SJP posted to Facebook: “Just today, the number of Palestinian martyrs doubled since the beginning of the #GreatReturnMarch as Israel opened live fire” and added: “demand the US and Israel put an end to this ruthless massacre.”On May 15th, 2018, UofSC SJP launched a photo campaign of UofSC SJP activists and members holding up signs in defense of the March of Return.
That day, UofSC SJP tweeted: “peaceful Palestinian protestors at the #GreatReturnMarch demanding basic rights are being massacred by Israeli snipers. Israel opened live ammunition murdering over 50 Palestinians yesterday.”
UofSC SJP - Promoting Supporters of Terror
On April 22, 2018, UofSC SJP co-hosted Joe Catron and Islam Marqa of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). The event’s Facebook page noted that ISM volunteers acted as human shields, writing: “They stayed with resistance fighters trapped under siege in the Nativity Church in Bethlehem.”The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), founded in 2001, is a movement allegedly “committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct-action methods and principles.”
However, the group has been accused of supporting terrorism and has encouraged its foreign volunteers to act “as human shields in cities, towns and refugee camps.” ISM has also encouraged activists to break curfew and disregard Israeli directives prohibiting access to closed military zones.
That policy resulted in the death of Rachel Corrie, who was accidentally killed while interfering with an Israeli military operation in 2003. A wrongful death suit brought by Corrie’s family was dismissed, because the judge ruled that Corrie unreasonably chose to put her own life in danger.
The HLF5 were five individuals associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) indicted for funnelling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid.
The men were were all convicted and sentenced in 2009 to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.
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.
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish value.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
