Zia Mian
Overview
Zia Mian promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at Princeton University (Princeton), where he is the co-director of the Program in Science and Global Security, and a research scientist.Mian sat on the advisory board of the United States chapter of Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP), which works towards “an end to the occupation in Israel/Palestine” and supports BDS.
Appropriating Jewish Holidays to Promote BDS
In the spring of 2002, Mian chose to launch a divestment campaign at Princeton on the Jewish holiday of Passover because “Passover was a particularly appropriate time for the Jewish community on campus to remember Palestinian suffering — and take action in the form of supporting divestment.” (p. 115)Princeton Divests Campaign
In April of 2015, Mian was part of Princeton Divests — a coalition of Princeton students and faculty “committed to divesting from companies committing human rights violations in occupied Palestine” — that initiated a BDS referendum at Princeton. The referendum, voted on by Princeton students, was narrowly defeated.On April 22, 2015, Mian promoted BDS to students during the Princeton Divests “Divest Fest.”
Faculty Divestment Petition
On November 5, 2014, Mian signed a petition entitled “An Invitation to the Tenured Faculty at Princeton” that was featured in Princeton’s student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. The petition invited tenured faculty to support divestment from companies “that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank until the State of Israel complies with UN Resolution 242, ends its military occupation of the West Bank and lifts its siege of Gaza.”The faculty petition was rejected by the Resources Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community, because it did not meet guidelines for consideration. It was reported that organizers of the faculty petition “plan to press on.”
According to Professor Max Weiss, a co-founder of the faculty divestment initiative, the “faculty petition urging divestment set the stage for the student referendum.”
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.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/zia.mian.90University Website:https://spia.princeton.edu/faculty/zia
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Princeton
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- SJP
- Related Profiles:
- Michael Wood,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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