Randa Farah

Overview

Randa Farah has published articles and led events demonizing Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Farah is a professor of Anthropology at Western University, Canada (Western University).

Demonizing Israel

In June of 2015, Farah published her opinion to a roundtable discussion of Palestinian citizenship. In her post, Farah claimed that “Israel continues to swallow the land and ethnically cleanse the population.”

On May 6, 2014, Farah published an article in which she characterize Israel as a “flagrantly illegal colonization project” and its “existence as an imperial outpost.”

In the same article, Farah went on to describe “Israeli bulldozers’ ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem” and claim that Israel is “a predatory state that colonizes Arab land and poses a threat to the Arab world as a whole.”

In November of 2013, Farah was featured at two events, as part of Western University’s “Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Week.” First, Farah spoke at the event, “Disappearing Culture.” Later, she spoke at an event “Disappearing Palestine,” at which she charged that Israel was committing “ethnic cleansing.”

In February of 2013, Farah led a discussion and Q&A session about “the popular educational film Roadmap to Apartheid,” as part of an annual Israel Apartheid Week program in Canada.

In 2012, Farah published an article in which she described “the ethnic cleansing of 1948” and called for the so-called Right of Return for Palestinians.

Farah is a member of the Advisory Board of “al-Majdal,” a quarterly magazine which aims to spread awareness of Palestinian refugees, which it describes as “victims of colonialism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing.”

On November 30, 2010, Farah published an article in which she described how “leaders of the Zionist movement...justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.”

Supporting BDS

On May 15, 2015, Farah contributed an article to the campaign “Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions.”

In her article, Farah charged Israel with “the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948” and claimed that “Zionist militias carried out several massacres especially in rural areas.”

Farah was also featured in a series of publications whose purpose was to commemorate “Nakba Day.” Farah’s contribution to the commemoration was a piece in which she argued “that taking a stand against colonialism is a central anthropological responsibility, and that the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel is one way to do this.”

On January 14, 2015, Farah signed the petition “Say No to Faithwashing,” whose purpose was “to call on the Muslim community in North America to eschew any and all participation, facilitation, or any form of legitimization for the Muslim Leadership Initiative of the Shalom Hartman Institute.”

The petition stated: “We pledge to engage with Palestinians in our communities and support delegations to Palestine that are meant to highlight the reality on the ground of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.”

On April 29, 2014 Farah signed a petition to “Boycott Israeli Cinema and TV Studies Conference at Tel Aviv University.”

The petition called upon scholars to boycott an upcoming conference at Tel Aviv University (TAU) and provided a link to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).

On August 12, 2013, Farah signed an open letter titled “Call to Boycott the Oral History Conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.” The letter charged that “While all Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is particularly noteworthy.”

In March of 2013, Farah presented a “key workshop on advocacy, dealing with opposition, and building alliances with broad social justice movements,” at a cross-campus Canadian conference, designed to promote BDS activities.  

On May 21, 2007, Farah signed a petition calling on the Rolling Stones and other artists to join the cultural boycott of Israel.

The petition claimed that “Performing in Israel at this time is morally equivalent to performing in South Africa during the apartheid era” and went on to argue that “Israel has created a worse system of apartheid than anything that ever existed in South Africa.”

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:http://anthropology.uwo.ca/faculty/farah/index.asp