Olivia Wood

As of April 2023, Wood used the handle “@bi_rhetorics” on Twitter.

Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)

Wood signed an April 15, 2022 CUNY community statement demonizing Israel, titled: “Support Our Palestinian Colleagues, Reject Israeli Measures Against Academic Freedom.”

The statement accused Israel of “the settler colonial drive of Indigenous erasure” and called on CUNY to “suspend all study abroad programs in Israel and other forms of institutional collaboration with Israeli institutions, as well as divest from contracts with all companies that aid in or profit from Israeli colonization, occupation, and war crimes.”

Wood signed [p. 7] a May 2021 statement titled: “CUNY Community Statement of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.”

The petition read [p. 1]: “We condemn the brutal bombing of Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, by Israeli forces. This represents the latest chapter of a nearly-fifteen-year illegal blockade that has transformed the territory into a prison…”  

Israel and Egypt implemented a United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.

The statement further said [p. 1]: “We condemn the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah…designed to advance the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem. We oppose the raiding of the al-Aqsa mosque, and the de facto annexation of East Jerusalem, which is illegally occupied territory.”

In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. 

Incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers from May 10 to 21, 2021. In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.

The statement also included [p. 2] a BDS clause which read: “...we pledge to: • Initiate, support, and amplify campaigns in solidarity with Palestinian calls for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, at CUNY and in our wider communities.”

  

On June 8, 2021, Wood co-authored an article published in Left Voice titled: “Why We Are Voting Yes on the PSC [Professional Staff Congress union] CUNY’s ‘Resolution in Support of the Palestinian People.’” 

The resolution accused Israel of “massacres in Palestine,” called for “CUNY divestment from firms that support the occupation” and urged “to end U.S. aid to Israel and the occupation of Palestine.”

The article promoted PSC CUNY’s anti-Israel resolution that said: “We urge our fellow Delegate Assembly members, our co-workers and union brothers and sisters, to support and vote in favor of this resolution and our amendment on Thursday.”

Demonizing Israel

On May 1, 2022, Wood published an article in Left Voice titled: “CUNY Students and Workers Protest Administration Visit to Israel.” Wood’s article quoted an anti-Israel CUNY group accusing Israel of “apartheid and colonial rule.”

In the article, she wrote: “Earlier this week, CUNY’s Chancellor, Félix Matos Rodríguez, flew to Israel with nine other CUNY executives on a trip organized by the Jewish Community Relations Board of New York…The official statement from the Chancellor whitewashes Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people and the Israeli academy’s role in that oppression…”

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/jalawood 

Twitter:https://twitter.com/bi_rhetorics 

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/olivia.a.wood/ 

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-wood-aa6b5711/ 

University Website:https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/profiles/olivia-wood 

Personal Website:https://www.olivia-a-wood.com/ 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bi_rhetorics