Lisa Kahaleole Hall

According to Kahaleole Hall’s UVic profile, Kahaleole Hall received a PhD and master’s degree in Ethnic Studies from the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley). 

Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)

On September 11, 2014, Kahaleole Hall wrote a Facebook post soliciting funds for anti-Israel activist Steven Salaita. The post read: “Time to get serious with the fundraising. Please contribute what you can — money, strategies and good wishes!”

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.

On August 25, 2014, Jadaliyya published an article stating that Kahaleole Hall was one of several professors who refused invitations to The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) “until the decision regarding Salaita’s firing is reversed.”

On August 9, 2014, Kahaleole Hall signed a statement of solidarity titled: “End the Gaza Massacre, Boycott Israel.” The statement claimed: “...the connections between the movement for a free Palestine and anti-colonial struggles for self-determination throughout the world are inextricable.” 

The statement endorsed the BDS movement and described Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas as a “massacre of the Palestinians of Gaza” who it described as “living in ghetto-like conditions in Gaza.”

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

In April 2013, Kahaleole Hall was one of several “Indigenous Scholars” who authored a letter to then-Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, condemning his decision to build relations with Israel. 

In the letter, Kahaleole Hall and fellow scholars wrote: “Your public and political engagement with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials sends a message that you endorse the continued occupation of the West Bank... as well as the ongoing settler colonial situation.”

The letter said: “Your collusion with the Israeli government is a betrayal of that shared history and of the wisdom that has helped all Indigenous Peoples survive for centuries.”

On May 3, 2012, Kahaleole Hall signed “An Open Letter from Native American and Indigenous Studies Scholars in defense of UCLA Professor David Shorter and other scholars who support the academic and cultural boycott of Israel.” 

The letter was published by Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and expressed support for professors who advocate boycotting Israel.

On January 12, 2009, Kahaleole Hall signed an open letter organized by the anti-Israel organization US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) which accused Israel of “war crimes” and “acts of terror.”

The USACBI letter accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and compared Israel to Apartheid South Africa and concluded that “Israel too maintains an apartheid regime.”

After charging Israel with inflicting “one of the most massive, ethnocidal atrocities of modern times,” the signatories called upon Obama to join in the BDS movement. 

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

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/lisa.k.hall.7

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-kahaleole-hall-5aa3b723/