Tom Pessah
Overview
Tom Pessah co-authored an anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution at the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) in 2010.Pessah is a long-time anti-Israel activist and has expressed support for terrorists on social media.
As of August 2018, Pessah was a postdoctoral fellow at TAU and Hebrew University (HUJI) in Jerusalem.
BDS Activism
In the spring of 2010, Pessah co-authored a BDS resolution calling on UC Berkeley to divest “FROM WAR CRIMES.”The resolution Pessah co-authored accused Israel of war crimes and called on the UC Regents and student government to divest from General Electric and United Technologies, as well as any “American companies materially and militarily supporting the Israeli government's occupation of the Palestinian territories.”
The resolution also called on the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) to “engage in education campaigns to publicize the divestment efforts and violation of international human rights law” and “advocate that the UC not make further investments, in any companies materially supporting or profiting from Israel's occupation.”
The resolution passed with a 16-4 senate majority, before being vetoed by the president of the student senate, Will Smelko. In a May 2010 interview, Smelko said he vetoed the bill because it “was a one-sided attack on Israel” and that the bill proponents “got well-meaning students to vote against war crimes without realizing that they were singling out Israel in a harmful way.”
In a November 2012 article, however, Pessah was quoted claiming that Smelko’s veto “came about because of pressure by nonuniversity organizations, including the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.”
He also claimed that ASUC “senators who’ve been sent on trips to Israel continue to oppose the passing of such a resolution on our campus, despite students’ strong support for it.”
On April 29, 2006, Pessah posted on Facebook a photo of himself speaking on a megaphone at an SJP Deir Yassin rally at UC Berkeley, where he wrote that he was “calling on people to divest.”
Pessah also shared a link to a 2006 BDS initiative launched by faculty at UC Berkeley.
Expressing Support for Terrorists
On April 16, 2017, Pessah posted on Facebook a press release announcing a Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike to protest Israeli prison conditions. Pessah also asked his Facebook followers to “please share, post to groups, and consider joining” the hunger strike.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
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- California-Berkeley
- Organizations:
- SJP
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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