Anti-Semite Announces Participation In 2019 NSJP Conference

Racist bigot Ala’a Salem recently announced on Instagram that she would again be speaking at the National Students for Justice in Palestine’s (NSJP) annual conference. NSJP will host its ninth annual conference at the University of Minnesota next month from November 1–3.

NSJP is fraught with anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias. This national organization deploys professional activists to gain a foothold on college campuses and launch incendiary astroturf campaigns against Israel. Given these facts, it’s not surprising that they would allow speakers at their annual conference like Salem, whose history of anti-Semitic comments is well documented.

Salem is not a student — she is a professional organizer and an active proponent of the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to destroy Israel through economic warfare targeted at Jewish people and businesses. In addition to her affiliation with these groups, her comments online make her views all the more clear.

For example, she tweeted, “Why did Hitler commit suicide?…….. He saw the gas bill. Pahhahaha.” Another time she complained about having to learn about the Holocaust in school, saying “I could be outside enjoying the weather. But instead I have to hear about how millions of jews died #ohgoody.” Holocaust jokes have nothing to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or seeking social justice. It has to do with making light of the systematic murder of 6 million innocent Jews.

She also traffics in harmful anti-Jewish tropes like when she posted, “I always do it big, likee [sic] a jewish nose! Haha,” and “I have never met someone more jewish than my sister. She is legit crying over $1.50 #cheapass.”

In another instance, she used being a “Jew” as an insult. “If you piss me off, you are automatically counted as a #jew in my book.”

Once, she simply said, “Read talk. Fuck Israel.”

Besides spewing anti-Semitic hate on her social media pages, Salem also glorifies terrorists. In 2017, Salem appeared in a photo with terrorist Rasmea Odeh, a known member of the militant terror group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Odeh was convicted for her part in the 1969 Jerusalem supermarket bombing that killed two innocent students. The same day she appeared in the photo with Odeh, Salem posted to her Instagram: “‘Carry on the fight’ is what she asked of the crowd as we chanted her name. God bless you Rasmea Odeh, in a perfect world there would be no borders or deportation. We will carry on the fight to see that perfect world. #HonorRasmea#RasmeaOdeh.” The thinly veiled message here is that the “perfect world” she speaks of is one where Israel no longer exists.

These are just a few examples of the abhorrent anti-Jewish comments Ala’a Salem has made and there is no doubt that she will use her platform at NSJP’s Conference this year to further disseminate hate and intolerance. We cannot allow NSJP’s acceptance of these views to be met with silence. Contact the University of Minnesota to let them know that they are giving a platform to anti-Semitism by allowing NSJP to hold its event on campus. Tell President Joan Gabel to cancel this hateful event by emailing upres@umn.edu.