Valentina Capurri
Overview
Valentina Capurri has promoted anti-Semitic rhetoric, spread anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and supported a terrorist. She has also demonized Israel and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.Capurri has also signed a letter defending Alison Weir, the founder and executive director of the anti-Semitic organization If Americans Knew (IAK). Weir has propagated numerous anti-Semitic and anti-Israel conspiracy theories.
Capurri is a contract lecturer of Geography & Environmental Studies at Ryerson University (Ryerson).
Anti-Semitic Rhetoric
In an August 2017 article titled “Ryerson Students Looking for Answers over Prof’s ‘Anti-Semitic’ tweets,” it was reported that Ryerson students discovered Capurri’s Twitter account was “littered with references to ‘zio,” a short pejorative for ‘Zionist.’”The term "Zio" is a commonly used derogatory reference to Zionists and an often-used anti-Semitic slur.
According to the article, Capurri tweeted that she does “not engage in conversation with zio trolls,” that there is a “zio-fanatic PM here in Canada” and that “the day will come when the zio-murderer will have to pay a price for this. #GenocideInGaza.”
The report noted that the Ryerson administration had not followed up with the students who submitted a complaint about Capurri’s tweets in December of 2016.
Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories
The August 2017 article also reported that Capurri tweeted that ISIS and Israel “are in bed together” and that she also tweeted a link to an article “by the notorious U.S. conspiracy theorist Kevin Barrett, who fulminated about the Rothschild banking family and its plans for global domination.”On March 1, 2015, after a motion condemning anti-Semitism was passed in the Canadian Parliament, Capurri posted on Facebook “Could we go any lower in Canada? Here they come we [sic] another motion whose only goal is to criminalize dissent and criticism of a settler colonial state built on the oppression of the Palestinian people.”
On September 14, 2013, Capurri posted on Facebook that “We must recognize that, if nothing else, Israel has been and continues to be quite successful in pushing the USG to fight Israeli wars with US money and soldiers!”
Supporting a Terrorist
Capurri signed an August 2014 letter supporting Khalida Jarrar, a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),a designatedterrorist organizationby the European Union, Canada, the United States and Israel.
Jarrar was arrested in April 2015 on charges including PFLP membership, inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. Jarrar was sentenced to 15 months in jail as part of a plea deal when she confessed to all of the charges leveled against her. She was released early in June 2016.
Demonizing Israel
Capurri has claimed on Facebook that Israel practices “apartheid,” “genocide” and the “slaughtering” of Palestinians.In July 2014, Capurri signed a letter condemning the Canadian government for focusing “exclusively” on denouncing Hamas’s rocket strikes and “uncritically proclaiming Israel’s right to self-defence.” The letter was written during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE).
Promoting BDS
Capurri is a member of “Faculty for Palestine” (F4P), which is part of the broader Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA). F4P meets on a monthly basis to “organize around” BDS and propagate allegations that Israel practices “apartheid.”Capurri has signed a F4P petition calling on Universities Canada to cancel an agreement with the Israeli Association of University Heads to foster institutional ties between Canadian and Israeli universities.
On July 27, 2014, Capurri posted on Facebook “Reminder: we stop Israel the day we crash its economy. So let's get to work on it!”
In 2014 and 2015, Capurri signed and shared petitions on Facebook calling on Justin Bieber, The Backstreet Boys, Bon Jovi and Martin Short to cancel performances in Israel, or performances at events associated with Israel.
Capurri has also signed a petition calling on FIFA to suspend the Israeli Football Association, as well as another petition calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross to cancel a joint conference with an Israeli research institute.
Defending Alison Weir
Capurri has signed a letter to the “U.S. Campaign and other Activists for Justice in Palestine.” The letter was written as a response to attacks on Alison Weir, the founder and executive director of the anti-Semitic organization If Americans Knew (IAK).The letter called for “an end to internal attacks on fellow activists and organizations” after the anti-Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) organization and the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation released separate statements that condemned Weir and IAK.
Weir has propagated numerous anti-Semitic and anti-Israel conspiracy theories, and has been accused of “pursuing airtime on white supremacist radio shows and other such outlets without refuting, debating, or otherwise decrying their racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic beliefs.”
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/valentina.capurriTwitter:https://twitter.com/vcapurri
University Website: http://www.ryerson.ca/geography/profile/capurri_valentina/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Toronto Metropolitan
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Nayrouz Abu Hatoum,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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