Campus Craziness: U.S. Taxpayers fund Palestinians who ‘use it to indoctrinate students’

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.

On November 17, 2023, Alatout tweeted: “Deniers of the ongoing #Genocide_of_Palestinians should be ashamed. They are made of the same moral depravity of which Holocaust deniers are made of.”

Hatred of Israel and America

On November 25, 2023, Alatout tweeted: “Educational Note (2) a reminder of days past: Is Zionism a form of racism and racial discrimination?… Remember when the UN General Assembly issued its Resolution 3379 in 1975? It said: ‘The General Assembly….Determines that zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.’ / Seeing the way #Israel commits a #genocidal war against Palestinians and the way so many #Zionists… seem to affirm their obvious repugnance towards all non-whites (within Israel or outside, against non-Jews as well as against Jews of color) leads me to wonder about the wisdom of revoking that resolution in 1991!!!…”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.

In 1975, an anti-Israel resolution that branded Zionism as a form of racism was proposed to the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN). Although the resolution passed in 1975, it was repealed in 1991, by a much larger majority.

One way that anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is to claim [00:06:46] that Israeli Jews, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, do not descend from the ancient Israelites. This claim alleges that Israeli Jews are white Europeans who lack a connection to the Land of Israel.

On November 23, 2023, Alatout tweeted: “Let’s give thanks on this day by joining and advocating for #indigenous_peoples rights in all #settler_colonial states around the world. Let’s join and advocate for the #LandBack movement in the #US, #Canada, #Australia, #NewZealand, and #Palestine. That’s how we begin to #de_colonise.”

On October 28, 2023, Alatout tweeted in defense of an anti-Israel protest, calling it a response against Israel’s “genocidal war ongoing since 1948.” Israel was founded in 1948.

On October 13, 2023, a week after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, Alatout tweeted: “…It is not about Hamas, not about Gaza, and not about the recent attack by Hamas. Israel has been targeting Palestinians within Israel, in Gaza, in the West Bank, and in the Diaspora. The demand: Die silently, without a whimper.”

On July 17, 2014, Alatout tweeted: “It’s shameful. Liberal for women, GLBT issues, immigration, taxing and poverty, but silent on Israeli ethnic cleansing of Palestine.”

Alatout wrote his tweet during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.

Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

On July 3, 2014, Alatout claimed in a tweet that “Israel apartheid” was “abhorrent.”

Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)

Alatout signed an August 21, 2014 petition in defense of fired professor Steven Salaita. The petition was titled: “A Call to People of Conscience Not to Speak at the University Of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Until Chancellor Wise Honor [sic.] the Contract to Hire 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.

On August 11, 2014, during OPE, Alatout signed the “Open Letter on Gaza and BDS from the Middle East Caucus of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.”

The letter described “indiscriminate and disproportionate violence that has been waged… by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) against the civilian population of Gaza” which it characterized as “the largest ‘open air prison’ in the world.”

The letter went on to endorse the BDS movement and to conclude that “the violence has taken an unprecedented and savage turn, having reached genocidal proportions.”

Alatout also signed his name to a list of endorsers of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI).

On April 17, 2014, Alatout was a featured speaker at an event hosted by the UWM chapter of SJP titled “Academic Freedom and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS).”

On January 28, 2014, Alatout signed a petition titled “BOYCOTT ISRAELI CINEMA AND TV STUDIES CONFERENCE AT TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY.”

The petition called for the “boycott Israeli institutions in protest of the US-supported Israeli occupation of Palestine, settlement expansion, the Israeli Wall, and other violations of international law” and provided a link to the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). The mention of the “Israeli Wall” was a reference to Israel’s security barrier.

Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.

In January 2014, Alatout signed a petition in support of an American Studies Association (ASA) resolution singling out Israel for academic boycott.

The petition accused Israel of “settler-colonialism, occupation, and apartheid” and likened BDS to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.

On December 26, 2013, Alatout signed the “Campaign to Boycott the Oral History Conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.”

Signatories of the campaign charged that “while all Israeli universities are deeply complicit in the occupation, settler-colonialism, and apartheid, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem is particularly noteworthy.”

The petition went on to “call on the international community to honor the 2004 Call of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) to boycott academic and cultural institutions involved in Israel’s system of occupation, colonialism and apartheid.”

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.

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

Twitter:https://twitter.com/sameralatout

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/samer-a-44167810/

ResearchGate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Samer-Alatout

Academia:https://wisc.academia.edu/SamerAlatout

University Website:https://dces.wisc.edu/directory/4514/