Shame on SJP for inviting murderer to SDSU

By Sara Schoonmaker
SAN DIEGO — StandWithUs condemns Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) for hosting Rasmeah Odeh as a keynote speaker during its national conference at San Diego State University (SDSU) on October 11, 2015. Odeh received a life sentence for involvement in the murder of two Israeli civilians, but was released by Israel along with 76 others in exchange for an Israeli soldier who was being held captive in Lebanon. She was also convicted of immigration fraud in the United States and is facing deportation for concealing her criminal history when she came to this country.

Odeh was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which is designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. In 1969 she was directly involved in the bombing of a supermarket in Jerusalem. 150 people, mostly women and children, were shopping there at the time and two – Leon Kaner (age 21) and Edward Jaffe (age 22) – were killed. According to a news report on the incident the victims were, “friends, room-mates and students together at Hebrew University. They had been buying canned food for a botanical field trip when they were blown to bits”.

Odeh’s supporters falsely claim that she was wrongfully imprisoned by Israel. In fact, her relative stated in an interview that, “Rasmeah Odeh was more involved than I was [in the grocery store bombing] … I only got involved during the preparation of explosives.”

SJP has the right to free speech but they should be widely condemned for bringing violent racists to campus as role models for their members. SDSU’s facilities should be used to further academic discourse about complex issues, not to glorify and give a platform to someone who murdered innocent Israeli civilians in cold blood.

We are proud to collaborate with Hillel, the Israel on Campus Coalition, and Students Supporting Israel in letting our elected officials know about the violent extremism SJP is bringing to campuses in San Diego and elsewhere.

We urge community members to contact their elected officials and SDSU administration.

Below is a sample letter. Add your own comments and mail it or deliver it in person to:

Your local elected officials: San Diego Elected Officials

SDSU Administration: Contact Information

Sample Letter

Dear (Position/Title Last Name),

I am writing to bring your attention to an extremely concerning, anti-Israel event, which just took place in our area.

From October 9-11, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) hosted a national training conference for over five hundred students at San Diego State University. One of the keynote speakers was Rasmeah Odeh, murderer, convicted terrorist and immigration fraud felon. To host such a speaker from an academic platform is appalling and should be strongly denounced.

SJP is the primary organizer of anti-Israel events on U.S. college campuses and the group most responsible for promoting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.  BDS seeks to delegitimize and isolate Israel by calling on universities to cut off ties with the world’s only Jewish state.

Not surprisingly, SJP refuses to disclose its staff and financing.  Instead, it relies on third party groups to support its activities, including American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) – a sponsor of SJP’s upcoming conference.  One of AMP’s past keynote speakers publicly defended the terrorist attacks on 9/11.  Similarly, a speaker at SJP’s 2012 conference previously incited suicide bombings against Israelis.  The fact that SJP is backed by, and entwined with, these extremist organizations is of great concern.

I understand that universities are, and should be, a marketplace for the free flow of ideas and different viewpoints.  But the BDS movement seeks to undermine these concepts by sowing division and hate between Israelis and Palestinians – with the stated goal of ending relations between the two peoples.

Thankfully, leaders across the political spectrum are speaking out against this movement.  Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently stated, “We need to engage all people of good faith, regardless of their political persuasion or their views on policy specifics, in explaining why the BDS campaign is counterproductive to the pursuit of peace and harmful to Israelis and Palestinians alike.”  And Senator Ted Cruz has said, “BDS is premised on a lie and it is anti-Semitism plain and simple.”

In light of SJP’s SDSU conference, I ask you to issue a strong, public statement supporting dialogue and peaceful solutions between Israelis and Palestinians, while condemning hateful, divisive approaches like the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement on our campuses.

Sincerely,

(Name)

 

(Additional Contact Information)

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StandWithUs (SWU) is a fourteen year-old, international, non-profit Israel education organization that supports people around the world who want to educate their campuses and communities about Israel.

Based in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters throughout the U.S., in Israel, the UK and Canada, including San Diego, CA.  https://www.facebook.com/StandWithUsSanDiego

www.standwithus.com and www.standwithus.co.il.

http://www.twitter.com/StandWithUs and http://www.facebook.com/StandWithUs

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Schoonmaker is associate director of StandWithUs.  She is based in San Diego.