Meredith AbyKeirstead / Professional / 2016
Meredith AbyKeirstead Occupation: Professional University: Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota Organization(s): AWC , BDS Close Connection(s): Melissa Rowan , Sophia HansenDay , Jordan Scott Kushner , Sabry Wazwaz , Karmel Sabri Overview Meredith AbyKeirstead is a teacher at Jefferson High School, Bloomington, Minnesota. AbyKeirstead graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, with a Bachelor’s degree in History, Women's Studies and Spanish. She holds a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction, from the College of St. Scholastica. AbyKeirstead is a spokesperson for the AntiWar Committee (AWC) , an organization that “works against direct US intervention around the world.” AWC’s website states : “ending US aid to Israel is at the top of our agenda.” AbyKeirstead supports the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. AbyKeirstead’s Facebook account is replete with antiIsrael posts with links to sites that spread Israelhating propaganda, such as Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada . On December 23, 2013, AbyKeirstead reported that, on September 24, 2010, the FBI raided her and other AWC members’ homes “looking for evidence of ‘material support for terrorism’.” Disguising AntiSemitism as AntiZionism On March 27, 2016 AbyKeirstead shared a Facebook post linking to an article titled: “Hillary's Latest Bow to AIPAC” that claimed both Democrats and Republicans supposedly “pander to [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] AIPAC to...depths of similar obeisance.” The article referenced israellobbyus.org , which fields speakers claiming that U.S. Middle East Policy is “determined by the highest bidder — AIPAC,” that “Democracy in America is a myth” and that congress people who have crossed the Lobby have been summoned before the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington — referred to as “the local branch of the Lobby.” Some on israellobbyus.org’s speaker’s bureau dispense with the euphemism “Israel Lobby,” and make clear that what they object to is the “Jewish Lobby.” This,”Jewish www.canarymission.org 1/6
Meredith AbyKeirstead / Professional / 2016
Lobby” is described as “massive” and “allinclusive,” requiring registration as a “foreign agent” because it advocates for interests inimical to the United States. Spreading Disinformation to Demonize Israel On April 29, 2016 AbyKeirstead shared an article on Facebook , originally appearing in Electronic Intifada, with the leadin: “US has made habit of adopting Israeli policies as its own, with dreadful consequences.” The article insinuated that Israeli advance warnings to Gazan civilians of impending air strikes on Hamas targets were cynical, cruel and deadly. The article went on to fraudulently allege that Israel employed the warnings “to absolve itself of liability for killing civilians in Gaza.” On March 27, 2016, AbyKeirstead shared another misleading article on Facebook, titled: “Israel Approves Bill To Deport Families of Palestinian Martyrs.” The article purported that a bill suggested/passed in the Israeli parliament was “to deport the families of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and accused of carrying out attacks against Israelis.” However, in truth, the bill allowed deportation— specifically— of terrorists’ family members or accomplices once the terrorsupporters were themselves adjudged by the courts to be actively involved in terror. On July 14, 2014, AbyKeirstead was interviewed by Ahmed Tharwa t , host and producer of the Arab/Muslim American TV show “BelAhdan”. AbyKeirstead described I srael’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — launched to stop Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza, targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels — as a “massacre.” (2:23) AbyKeirstead also denied that OPE was a defensive war —and misleadingly pointed to the raw number of casualties on either side as determinative of moral fault. AbyKeirstead also lied that unaffiliated “rogue Palestinians” were responsible for the kidnapmurder of three Israeli highschoolers — which AbyKeirstead inaccurately labeled “settler kids”) Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel. Her account was debunked when the Hamas terrorist who masterminded the operation confessed to planning the kidnap and murder. Later in the interview, AbyKeirstead falsely accused Israel of “Apartheid” (7:00) and criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for standing by Israel during OPE. AbyKeirstead also propagated an antiSemitic blood libel that Israel’s wars with Hamas in Gaza are merely a testing ground for the weapons industry, claiming “the people of Gaza have been the guinea pigs for drone warfare for years.” She also slanderously claimed that Israel “terrorizes” Gaza and then uses its operations as a means of marketing and exporting its technology and weapons abroad, including to the U.S. www.canarymission.org 2/6
Meredith AbyKeirstead / Professional / 2016
Denying Israel’s Right to Defend to Defend its Citizens In January 2009, AbyKeirstead promoted a “call in day” misleadingly called “The U.S.funded War on Gaza” to “call on congress to condemn these attacks and cut U.S. aid to Israel” during Operation Cast Lead (OCL). Israel fought OCL in an effort to stop — Hamas rocket fire into Israel, targeting civilians and weapons smuggling into the Gaza strip. On July 18, 2014, AbyKeirstead promoted — and played a leading role in — an antiIsrael protest that called on the U.S. to end aid to Israel. Promoting the Shut Down of Free Speech — In Favor of Hate Speech On November 3, 2015, AbyKeirstead wrote an article strongly in favor of an AWCorganized protest that attempted to shutdown a talk on ethics and the law of war by Israeli law professor, Moshe Halbertal. AbyKeirstead called Halbertal an “apologist for Zionist war crimes” and labeled his talk “antiPalestinian hate speech.” The protest — endorsed by SJP UMN — prevented Halbertal from speaking for more than 30 minutes by constantly interrupting his attempts to begin. One young woman — following her ejection by campus security — came screaming back into the lecture hall. She and three other protesters were eventually arrested and incarcerated. Outside the lecture hall, other protesters — members of the AWC, Students for a Democratic Society and SJP UMN — chanted “ Free, free Palestine ,” so loudly that it was difficult for attendees to hear Halbertal. Praising a TerroristMurderer as a “Hero” On December 23, 2013, in an article, AbyKeirstead — on behalf of the AWC— pledged support for unrepentant terroristmurderer Rasmea Odeh. On September 11, 2015, AbyKeirstead wrote , in an article that “[b]y defending Rasmea – not only are we defending a hero of Palestine – but we are defending our own movement.” Odeh was a k ey military operative with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) . In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.
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Meredith AbyKeirstead / Professional / 2016
Odeh confessed , i n a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. One of Odeh’s coconspirators also directly implicated Odeh as the mastermind, in a 2004 documentary. An Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the U.S. In November 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence, on her immigration application. Odeh was then sentenced to 18 months in federal prison, fined and ordered to be deported following her prison term. In February of 2016, Odeh’s immigration fraud case was sent back to the district court, to examine whether traumarelated, repressed memories, contributed to Odeh’s failure to disclose her prior conviction. Spreading IsraelHatred on Facebook On February 13, 2016, AbyKeirstead shared an article on Facebook by Steven Salaita . In the article Salaita claimed that “ sucking up to Israel is a compulsion for politicians.” Salaita is the Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut (AUB). He began working at AUB after the University of Illinois (U of I) withdrew its offer of employment for the position of professor of American Indian Studies to Salaita in 2014. U of I decided not to hire Salaita after becoming aware of his antiSemitic tweets from the Summer of 2014. One tweet posted shortly after the kidnapping of three teenage Israeli students — later found murdered, 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.” A month later, Salaita tweeted , "Zionists: transforming "antisemitism" from something horrible into something honorable since 1948." On July 8, 2015, he tweeted : "There's something profoundly sexual to the Zionist pleasure w/#Israel's aggression. Sublimation through bloodletting, a common perversion." U of I defended its decision to withdraw the job offer to Salaita on in a January 29, 2015, saying in a press release, “These statements [his tweets] and many more like them demonstrate that Dr. Salaita lacks the judgment, temperament and thoughtfulness to serve as a member of our faculty in any capacity, but particularly to teach courses related to the Middle East.” Supporting BDS On November 18, 2013, AbyKeirstead promoted and signed a petition on Facebook calling for a Boycott of the Israeli company Sodastream. 500 Palestinians eventually lost www.canarymission.org 4/6
Meredith AbyKeirstead / Professional / 2016
their jobs when Sodastream moved its factory from Judea and Samaria to southern Israel. Although the company denied that BDS had an impact on the decision, the BDS movement took credit for the factory’s closure and the large job losses for Palestinians. BDS The BDS movement was cofounded in 2005 by Omar Barghouti . The movement is selfdescribed as "a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.” Campaigns include compelling institutions and individuals to divest from Israeliaffiliated companies, academic boycotts , antiIsrael rallies and protests . The group’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for "BDS resolutions." In these cases, backed by university antiIsrael affiliates, the university student government has been brought to vote on some sort of boycott of and divestment from Israel and Israeliaffiliated organizations. These resolutions, although nonbinding, have been passed by student governments o n numerous North American campuses. BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive . It is documented that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in antiSemitism on campus. In 2013, the student government of the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) debated a BDS resolution. Reports emerged of threats of violence, the spitting on a female student senator, and theft of the personal property of antiBDS activists. As a result, the student government chose to vote via a "secret ballot" in order to ensure their own safety. Barghouti and the BDS movement are proponents of the radical " onestate solution " that has been denounced as a scheme to dissolve Israel as the Jewish State. B arghouti has been quoted as saying, "Good riddance! The twostate solution for the PalestinianIsraeli conflict is finally dead”, and that in a onestate “by definition, Jews will be a minority.” The organization is affiliated with numerous antiIsrael groups worldwide, including ones that have been labeled terrorist organizations . T he Jerusalem Post claims the BDS movement receives directives from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and the movement is considered extreme even by Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, who stated his opposition to a BDS boycott of Israel in 2013. Social media and Web Links Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meredith.aby Google +1 : https://plus.google.com/116501330710662599821/posts www.canarymission.org 5/6
Meredith AbyKeirstead / Professional / 2016
Videos: Interview with Meredith AbyKeirstead, Anti War Protest, Gaza
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