Saree Makdisi

Overview

Saree Makdisi is a leader within the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and advocates for a one-state solution, which has been exposed as a strategy to eliminate Israel as a Jewish state.

During a May 2017 BDS debate at UCLA, Makdisi suggested that Jews should become a minority in Israel by conceding the “right of return” to millions of Palestinians.  

Makdisi has published a number of articles for sites that spread Israel-hating propaganda, such as Mondoweiss, Salon, and Electronic Intifada (EI). Makdisi has also written a number of anti-Israel op-eds for the Los Angeles Times.

Makdisi is very active on social media and frequently uses his Twitteraccount to spread anti-Israel invective. Makdisi often refers to his political opponents as "Ziotrolls" — a derogatory reference to Zionists.

Makdisi often disparages the Jews’ historical connection to the Land of Israel. On September 28, 2011 Makdisi tweeted: "I just heard Israel's UN ambassador say that Jerusalem was the capital of the Jewish people when London was still a swamp." Israel’s first President, Chaim Weizmann, made the same statement in 1906 to Britain's Lord Balfour, while explaining the unique historical importance of Jerusalem to the Jewish People.

One month later, on October 28, 2011, Makdisi mocked Jewish fears that Palestinians would foist its anti-Israel agenda — including Temple Denial — on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and tweeted “What a joke: Simon Wiesenthal Center opposes Palestinian UNESCO membership for fear it will ‘erase history of Jewish ppl in Eretz Israel’!”

However, on April 15, 2016, UNESCO passed a resolution that erased millennia-old Jewish ties to the holy religious site of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City.

Makdisi often lies, in articles and on social media, that Israel is an "apartheid" state. Ignoring evidence that contradicts his allegations, Makdisi persists in such fraudulent mischaracterizations. In a January 2016 Los Angeles Times article, where he advocated for an academic boycott of Israel, Makdisi showcased the use of debunked statistics that he uses to bolster his claims.

Makdisi is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is the nephew of Edward Said.

Spreading Anti-Semitic Blood Libels

At a January 21, 2009 UCLA event called "Human Rights and Gaza," Makdisi spread a libel that it was "deliberate premeditated, totally thought through [Israeli] state policy” to starve, kill, and stunt the growth of the Gazan children (7:45).

During his speech, Makdisi repeated a number of other debunked libels — that Israel targets Gazans using white phosphorous (4:40) and uranium (12:00).

In a February 16, 2010 blog post, Makdisi propagated another libel — that an Israeli museum was being built on top of a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem.

Defending an Anti-Israel Agitator

In a September 23, 2015 article Makdisi wrote for Salon, he glorified a video that depicted the attempted arrest of a Palestinian youngster — Mohammed Tamimi — by an Israeli soldier, for rock throwing. The headline of Makdisi’s article stated that the video "should change the Israel/Palestine debate forever."

The event was later revealed to be a staged incident — one of many orchestrated by the boy’s father, Bassem Tamimi and the boy’s older sister.

Bassem Tamimi — who Makdisi misleadingly referred to as a “community organizer” — is notorious for exploiting young children as political props. Tamimi regularly manufactures confrontations with Israeli soldiers, who respond to the rioting that Tamimi instigates. In 2011, Tamimi was jailed for organizing violent rallies and inciting minors to commit violent crimes, such as rock-throwing

Tamimi’s U.S. visa was revoked in 2015, after a U.S. tour when Tamimi encouraged 3rd graders in Ithaca New York to become “freedom fighters for Palestine.”

Makdisi’s article claimed that “Bassem and his fellow villagers choose to resist nonviolently, by protesting and by documenting the nature of their everyday lives to a world.” The Tamimis persist in promoting violence and incendiary anti-Semitism.

Tamimi’s village, Nabi Saleh, is dominated by the extended Tamimi clan and it’s media propaganda enterprise. Nabi Saleh is notorious as a place where photographers are assembled nearly every Friday to document scenes of Palestinian residents and international activists clashing with Israeli soldiers.

Bassem is a proud relative of Ahlum Tamimi, the unrepentant mastermind of the Sbarro Cafe Bombing of 2001. Tamimi delivered the bomber who perpetrated the suicide bomb attack at the downtown Jerusalem cafe, murdering 16 people — including 8 children and a pregnant woman — and wounding 130. The injured also included a young mother, who was left in a permanent vegetative state. As of 2016, the Tamimi family continues to celebrate terror attacks.

Promoting BDS

On January 8, 2016, Makdisi wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times titled “Why Israel's schools merit a U.S. boycott.” Makdisi’s piece contained a number of falsehoods and misrepresentations, some of which the LA Times was later forced to correct.

Makdisi has endorsed the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). In September 2009, Makdisi reportedly signed a letter in September 2009 calling on the TIAA-CREF (Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, College Retirement Equities Fund) to divest from its holdings in Israel.

In April 2005, Makdisi signed a letter chastising the Palestinian Al-Quds University for refusing to boycott Israeli academics.

Demonizing Israel

In a January 7, 2009 article titled: “What Kind of Security Will This Barbarism Bring Israel?” Makdisi made light of Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israeli cities and condemned Israel’s defense against them: “All this death and destruction comes supposedly in retaliation for rocket attacks that had not inflicted a single fatality inside Israel in over a year. What happened to “an eye for an eye?”

Makdisi claimed that "the slaughter in Gaza today has nothing to do with rockets or with Hamas." Makdisi claimed that Israel used Hamas rockets as a pretext for initiating Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. Makdisi then went on to mischaracterize the Operation as “the slaughter of innocents in Gaza.”

On August 1, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, Makdisi denied on Twitter that Hamas used Palestinian civilians as human shields — despite Hamas openly admitting to the practice several weeks earlier. (0:18)

On November 25, 2011 and April 20, 2012, Makdisi misleadingly presented the lawful eviction of Palestinian squatters — who often illegally inhabit the ruins of decimated Jewish communities in East Jerusalem — as the work of “Jewish colonists.”

Defending the “Irvine 11” and Anti-Semitic Professor Steven Salaita

In September, 2011, Makdisi testified in defense of a group of UC Irvine students dubbed the “Irvine 11,” who were arrested for repeatedly disrupting former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren’s talk at the university on February 8, 2010.

Makdisi has tweeted multiple times in support of disgraced former-professor Steven Salaita.

In 2014, The University of Illinois withdrew an offer of employment to Salaita after becoming aware of his anti-Semitic tweets. One tweet, posted shortly after Hamas kidnapped three teenage Israeli high school students, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I’m not: I wish all the f**king West Bank settlers would go missing.” In 2017, Salaita posted to Facebook: “People ask if I would go back in time and change anything. I would not…I will die unapologetic.” In February 2019, Salaita stated that he had become a school bus driver in the Washington, D.C., area.

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/saree.makdisi

Twitter:https://twitter.com/sareemakdisi

Wikipedia:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saree_Makdisi

Website:https://sareemakdisi.net/

Blog:http://sareemakdisi.blogspot.com/