Ron Smith
Overview
Ron Smith [Ron J. Smith] has praised the Hamas terror organization, defended campus anti-Israel activists, endorsed an anti-Israel agitator and demonized Israel.Smith is an assistant professor of International Relations at Bucknell University (Bucknell).
Praising Hamas
In an article published on August 8, 2014, Smith described Hamas as “a pragmatic organization that has captured a small majority of Palestinian support for its public refusal to accept the most heinous proposals offered by the Israeli occupation in the interminable peace process.”Smith then described Hamas and Gazans as “a resourceful group, by necessity,” based on his observation that “In the face of the international siege, Gazans moved underground, and created a tunnel economy that by some accounts included as many as 3000 tunnels. ”
Hamas terror tunnels are intended for mass murders and hostage-taking scenarios against Israeli civiliansand soldiers. They stretch from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Defending Campus Anti-Israel Activists
Smith signed a 2017 letter, condemning a decision by Fordham’s dean to block the establishment of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter on campus. The letter was authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization.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.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in cooperation with Palestine Legal (PL), and civil rights attorney Alan Levine sued Fordham on behalf of four students in April 2017. A New York court annulled Fordham’s decision in August 2019, mandating that the university recognize SJP as an official club.
Fordham appealed the ruling to the NY State Supreme Court Appellate Division in January 2020. On July 24, 2020, Fordham SJP students filed a brief asking the appellate court to deny Fordham’s appeal of the lower court’s decision.
As of October 2020, a variety of groups, not directly involved in the case, filed amicus briefs with the Appellate Division for the court's consideration including JVP.
Endorsing Anti-Israel Agitators
Smith signed a March 2019 open letter titled: “We are Jews Who Stand with Representative Ilhan Omar.”On March 6, 2019, Omar’s supporters released “An Open Letter,” claiming there was “absolutely nothing anti-Semitic” about Omar’s attack on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). The letter also applauded Omar for her support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, concluding: “#WeStandWithIlhan.”
Demonizing Israel
Smith was a contributor to a book, published in 2018, titled “Why Palestine Matters: The Struggle to End Colonialism”On the contributors’ page of the book’s website, Smith is featured and described as a professor whose “research has focused on the impact of occupation on daily life of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza.”
In February 2018, Smith published a research article in The Lancet titled “The effects of the Israeli siege on health provision in the Gaza Strip: a qualitative and theoretical analysis.”
According to the abstract of the article, Smith’s research indicated that Israel is to blame for healthcare issues in Gaza, because “The elimination of political sovereignty through the twin processes of occupation and siege are the primary impediments to the successful promotion of public health in the Gaza Strip”
On August 15, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Smith published an article in which he wrote that “To suggest that the most important demand is to protect the ‘security needs of Israel’ is at best hypocritical, and perhaps sociopathic. As I write this essay, Israel has resumed its massive aerial onslaught on the civilians of Gaza.”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Smith went on to write that “The vastly disproportionate numbers of each side are a clear indication that Israel is indeed targeting civilians. The safety of 1.8 million Gazan civilians from the violence of the seemingly unstoppable Israeli war machine is the only concern for people of conscience the world over.”
Smith then concluded that “No amount of rockets from the besieged Gaza Strip can begin to justify these acts of wholesale murder of Palestinians.”
In July of 2014, Smith signed an open letter to Israeli academics, blaming Israel for the upsurge in violence that preceded OPE.
The letter, addressed to Israeli academics, claimed “The government of Israel, having provoked the firing of rockets by its rampage through the West Bank, is now using that response as the pretext for an aerial assault on Gaza which has already cost scores of lives.”
Signatories of the letter went on to claim: “An atmosphere of hysteria is being deliberately provoked in Israel, and whole communities are being subject to collective punishment, a war crime.”
The letter was created in response to Operation Protective Edge (OPE), which Israel commenced in July of 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
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: https://www.bucknell.edu/fac-staff/ron-smith
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Bucknell
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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