Randa Jarrar

Overview

Randa Jarrar was denied entry into Israel after lying to Israeli airport security about her identity. She was the center of major controversy when she called former American First Lady Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” following the news of Bush’s death and then taunted the university that she could “never be fired.”

She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and an English professor at Fresno State University (Fresno State).

Denied Entry into Israel

In 2012, Jarrar attempted to travel to Israel but was detained at Ben Gurion airport and, after a security check, was denied entry into the state.

On May 14, 2012, Jarrar published an account of her experience, describing her various attempts to hide her background and identity in order to elude Israeli security personnel.

In her article, Jarrar wrote how she “deleted anything on my website critical of Israel, which amounted to about 160 posts” and “deleted the section in my Wikipedia entry that said that I was a Palestinian writer.” Jarrar went on to write that she had been told that the Israeli officers might confiscate my phone and read my Facebook posts and Twitter feed, so I temporarily deactivated my Facebook account and locked my tweets.”

Despite her attempts to conceal her identity, Israeli security discovered the existence of a Palestinian identification card in her name and deported her back to the U.S.

Demonizing Barbara Bush

Immediately following the death of former American First Lady Barbara Bush in April 2018, Jarrar published a slew of tweets, sparking major controversy.

Jarrar tweeted that “Barbara Bush was a generous and smart and amazing racist who, along with her husband, raised a war criminal. F**k outta here with your nice words”

In a later tweet, Jarrar wrote “I’m happy the witch is dead. can’t wait for the rest of her family to fall to their demise the way 1.5 million iraqis have. Byyyeeeeeee.”

Jarrar’s tweets sparked major controversy, prompting her to change her twitter settings to private.

In response to the outrage ignited by her remarks, it was reported that “The professor taunted those attacking her, sharing a contact number that was that of Arizona State University’s suicide hotline, and said she was a tenured professor who makes $100,000 a year. ‘I will never be fired,” she tweeted.’”

Fresno State President Joseph Castro responded to the controversy with a statement in which he wrote “We share the deep concerns expressed by others over the personal comments made today by Professor Randa Jarrar, a professor in the English Department at Fresno State. Her statements were made as a private citizen, not as a representative of Fresno State.”

Supporting BDS

In 2016, Jarrar signed a letter authored by Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, calling on the PEN American Center “to reject support from the Embassy of Israel” for their upcoming panel event.

The letter alleged “a broader pattern of Israel’s systematic repression of Palestinian artists and cultural workers as well as the suppression of voices supportive of Palestinian rights” and demanded that the PEN American Center “honor this boycott call and refuse sponsorship by the Israeli embassy or any complicit Israeli institution.”

The  director and the chair of the PEN program responded jointly to Adalah-NY’s letter,  answering that “PEN does not and cannot subscribe to cultural boycotts of any kind—which impede individual free expression—no matter the cause.”

Jarrar reacted by publishing an open letter directly to the organization’s leaders, voicing her outrage at their refusal to join the boycott. In her letter, Jarrar described Israel as a state that “incarcerates and kills children” and “tortures prisoners.”

Jarrar also signed an open letter to California State University (CSU) Chancellor Charles Reed, opposing the reinstatement of a CSU-Israel study abroad program.  

Signatories of the letter argued that “CSU participation with the government of Israel in the proposed study abroad program could be interpreted as an endorsement of the international crime of apartheid.”

Jarrar signed an open letter, published on February 2, 2009, that accused Israel of carrying out a “longtime racist jurisprudence against its indigenous Palestinian population, during which the Israeli state has systematically dispossessed, starved, tortured, and economically exploited the Palestinian people.”

Signatories of the letter went on to “reject as untrue”  that Hamas “is an irredeemable terrorist organization” and to “call on all people of conscience to join us in boycotting Israeli products and institutions.”

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

Personal Website:https://randajarrar.com/

University Website: https://cah.fresnostate.edu/about/directory/english/jarrar-randa.html

Twitter: https://twitter.com/randajarrar?lang=en [Private]