Ribhi Daoud

Promoting Anti-Israel Student Activity

Daoud signed a letter, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and published on January 25, 2017, condemning Fordham University’s decision to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at Fordham. 

In 2016, Fordham reportedly blocked the formation of a Fordham SJP chapter “based on the reported behavior of other [SJP] chapters on other campuses,” indicating that “the establishment of a local branch could be ‘polarizing’ and pose a safety concern to students and faculty.”

Signatories demanded that Fordham “immediately rescind the rejection of SJP as a student group on campus, apologize to the students affected by this harmful decision, and reaffirm Fordham’s commitment to free speech and academic freedom.”

The petitioners also highlighted SJP’s BDS activity, characterizing SJP’s efforts to promote anti-Israel boycott as part of “a time-honored non-violent mode of political expression.”  The petition accused Fordham’s administration of a “fundamental misunderstanding of what boycotts are, the purpose of a university, and the goals of SJP.”

Demonizing Israel

On July 15, 2014, Daoud published a comment on an article published by Electronic Intifada (EI), in which he stated that “Zionists/ Israelis and their supporters need to know that using air force and advanced weapons to kill innocent civilian people is a ruthless, barbaric, and cowardly act.”

Daoud continued: “Israel/zionist circles of evil are put on notice as they are being challenged by forces and voices of good, justice, and peace such as the ‘US campaign to End the Occupation’, ‘Jewish Voice for Peace’, Presbyterian Church.”

Daoud created a fundraiser page to solicit donations, raising money for scholarships to attend the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) National Conference.  According to USPCR’s Mission Statement, USCPR works “stop US support for Israel until it ends its denial of Palestinian rights.”

Daoud also wrote a comment on an open letter petition to John Kerry, published by Code Pink, claiming that the people of Gaza had “been repeatedly subjected to brutal Israeli military assaults and reside in what can only be described as an open-air prison.”

In his comment, Daoud wrote: “Palestine will be free when America changes its foreign policy and stop financing Israeli occupation, Apartheid, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This change will happen when Americans get the truth; Americans will get the truth when they free themselves from the Israeli Zionist dominance and control of all aspects of American living. Zionist dominance over congress (AIPAC), foreign policy, banks, corporations, pentagon, media, academia, and religious institutions (Christian Zionist evangelical denominations).”

Supporting BDS

Daoud wrote a letter to Indiana State Representative Tim Brown (R), urging him to support BDS. In his letter, Daoud wrote that “Since 1948, Israel has subjected the Palestinian people to ethnic cleansing (Extrajudicial killings, tortures, deportations, land confiscation, crop and farm destruction, brutal military check points, racism, discrimination, home demolishing, curfew, high unemployment and poverty).”

Daoud went on to state that “I believe without exerting economic and political pressure on Israel, Israel will continue the occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people. If Palestinians will have no freedom with no peace, then Israel will have no freedom and no peace... BDS is one effort on the right path to pressure Israel to come to terms with justice and peace.”

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

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ribhi-daoud-3258565/