Shahla Razavi
Overview
Shahla Razavi has promoted anti-Israel agitators and supported campus anti-Israel activists. Razavi is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Mt. San Jacinto College (Mt. San Jacinto).Promoting Anti-Israel Agitators
In 2015, Razavi led a campaign at Mt. San Jacinto College (Mt. San Jacinto) to host anti-Israel speaker and activist, Miko Peled.Peled’s proposed appearance and speech at the college sparked widespread controversy.
According to an article published in the student newspaper in September 2015, opponents of the event “described Peled as an anti-Semite who is ‘filled with hatred.’” The article went on to describe how students characterized Peled’s views: “Peled believes Israelis deserve to be the target of terrorist attacks and they should expect it.”
When the Chair of the Sociology Department, Dr. Denise Dalaimo Nussbaum, opposed the choice of Peled as a speaker, Razavi reportedly launched a campaign against her accusing her of stifling free speech.
In his Peled’s address, he claimed [00:30:25] that “Israel murdered over 2,000 people in Gaza in cold blood” and went on to state [00:30:46] that “they took pride in the fact that in the first...five minutes...they killed over 500 people.”
Peled also went on to claim [00:35:25] that “Every little bit of support that we give to Israel goes to make [Gaza] worse.”
On February 26, 2015, anti-Israel professors Dennis Kortheuer and Lisa Rofel, as well as Katherine King, writing on behalf of the California Scholars for Academic Freedom, circulated a letter to “support Professor Razavi’s efforts to bring intellectual stimulation to MSJC, and to fund her speaking event of author Miko Peled.”
On September 29, 2015, Razavi appeared in a photo on Facebook, posing alongside anti-Israel agitator, Bassam Tamimi.
Bassem Tamimi has exploited young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers. In 2011, he was jailed for organizing violent rallies and inciting minors to commit violent crimes such as rock-throwing.
Tamimi’s United States visa was revoked in 2015, for his failure to disclose his prior arrest and conviction. Prior to the revocation of his U.S. visa, Tamimi delivered a controversial presentation to third-graders in Ithaca, New York. The presentation was geared to foster hatred of Israel and Tamimi concluded by encouraging [00:11:29] the children to become “freedom fighters for Palestine.”
Supporting Campus Anti-Israel Activists
Razavi signed a 2017 letter, authored by the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization, condemning a decision by Fordham University (Fordham)’s dean 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.”
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.
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/shahla.razavi /1725722277University Website: http://www1.msjc.edu/apps/comm.asp?Q=247
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahla-razavi-2505b749/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Mount-San-Jacinto
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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