International Solidarity Movement

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The ISM (International Solidarity Movement) is a subversive organization out to destroy western-style democracies for Yasser Arafat’s PLO and its affiliated Palestinian terrorist groups, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine PFLP and Hamas. It works in conjunction with the Palestinian Authority's propaganda ministries by Saudi funding through the Muslim Student Association MSA on U.S. and Canadian campuses . Their purpose is to deceive western democracies that it is “peace group,” while aiding in the terrorist attacks and efforts of the PLO/Fatah/Palestinian Authority and Hamas to destroy Israel. Working under pseudonyms such as Al Awda, Palsolidarity, SUSTAIN, Wheels of Justice Tour, Middle East Children’s Alliance and other names it serves to interfere with Israel’s attempts to fight terrorism in the Middle East . In America, the ISM raises money and promulgates propaganda for Arafat.[1]

The ISM was co-founded by George Rishmawi, Huwaida Arraf, Adam Shapiro, Neta Golan under the supervision of a PFLP leader and Physics Professor at Bir Zeit University named Ghassan Andoni. It's purpose is to act as human shields for terrorist groups battling Israel and to interfere with anti-terror operations of the IDF.

NOTE: There will be additional information provided in this section as well as editing done in others so this should not be treated as a final version of this page.

ISM Early Days

From the Guardian UK article "A Love Under Fire" In their own words:, [2]

Huwaida Arraf had founded the previous summer, alongside members of two Palestinian foundations with strong international ties, the Holy Land Trust and the Rapprochement Centre, one Christian, the other secular. The inaugural meeting also included an Israeli woman named Neta Golan who already campaigned under the name ISM. As Neta Golan's group comprised only three women, it was felt the new movement could adopt her name.

Adam Shapiro was working for an American foundation named Seeds Of Peace which required him to keep out of politics, so in the beginning his role in ISM was, he says, "logistic". "I typed press releases and I helped with funding." Fundraising? As I ask, he laughs. "No. From my own pocket. I was the only one with a job."

The ISM was founded with the aim of strengthening peaceful protests against the Israeli occupation. The feeling, back in 2001, was that the presence of foreigners would deter the Israeli army from using lethal force and give ordinary Palestinians the confidence to take part in protests, a confidence that had been lost since the early days of the first intifada. A year later, as we reflect on that Easter, Huwaida says, "We had planned all kinds of direct action. We were going to be proactive, highlighting closures and planning on marches and dismantling roadblocks. And then the invasion happened. Even the international agencies were stopped cold." The ISM's work became chiefly humanitarian. "That's when we started putting people into ambulances and calling up the army directly to say, listen, there are foreign volunteers inside those ambulances," she says.

April 2003

In April 2003, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that "ISM members take an active part in illegal and violent actions against IDF soldiers. At times, their activity in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip is under the auspices of Palestinian terrorist organizations." The ISM always tries to maintain the veneer of a “peace group”; however, ISM founders Adam Shapiro and his wife, Huwaida Arraf, and Northern California International Solidarity Movement leader Paul Larudee, a man who Stop the ISM recently succeeded in getting deported from Israel as a security threat, began revealing their true colors recently by going to Lebanon to act as “human shields” for the Hezbollah.[3]

The Divestment Conference at Georgetown, February 2006

Undercover investigative reporter Lee Kaplan wrote a major expose' article in the March 17, 2006 edition of the online news magazine, "FrontPageMagazine" entitled "The Divestment Conference at Georgetown" (February 2006), (http://archive.frontpagemag.com/Printable.aspx?Artld=5159) (www.frontpagemagazine.com). In it he not only provided some history of the ISM, but he also provided names, dates, conferences, etc. of the ISM, including the Duke University conference of 2004.

[Other ISM conferences were held at Ohio State, 2003; a scheduled one for the University of Wisconsiin, Madison, was cancelled; conference was held at Duke University, 2004, and no conference in 2005].

Rather than present a condensed review of both the Duke and Georgetown University "divestment" conferences here, an attempt will be made to identify ISM leaders, members, and outside supporters mentioned in this eight page article by Kaplan. KW readers are encouraged to look up the original FrontPageMagazine article for themselves and read it because of its length and indepth view of the ISM.

Those mentioned as potentially being participants in the cancelled Un. of Wisconsin conference were:

[Kaplan identified Sbaihat's brother Laith Sbaihat and Mohammed Sbaihat as "known terrorists in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) (Page 5 of 8 of the FPM printout).

Those mentioned at the Duke University 2004 ISM Divestment Conference:

  • Rann Bar-On - ISM leader and activist at Duke, self-proclaimed leader of the Palestine Solidarity Movement (PSM).
  • Mazen Qumsiyeh - "a speaker at the conference". Called Jews living in Israel "a disease".
  • Abe Greenhouse - "an anarchist of Jewish descent". "Taught a seminar outlining every Jewish organization in America to infiltrate or boycott." "An ISM leader at the Duke University conference." American Anarchist Movement
  • Ora Wise - "another anarchist of Jewish descent". "Taught how to get into inner city classrooms with black and Latino children to teach them how to hate Israel's Jews."

Those mentioned at the Georgetown University 2006 Fifth Annual Divestment Conference:

Georgetown University officials who did not seem to be friendly to anti-ISM audience participants:

[Because one questioner, Bill Maniaci, was allegedly injured by GTU campus police (photos attached to article), and a multi-million dollar lawsuit has been filed against GTU for this reported action (also filmed), nothing else can be written for the moment until more if learned about this event].

ISM Support Groups

Known Members

LaRudee was addressed as a member of The Free Gaza Movement FGM, El Cerrito, CA, in a letter of invitation inviting him and other participants in the FGM to come to Gaza, signed by Bassam Naim, Palestinian National Authority, Minister of Youth and Sports. Naim whom Kaplan described as a "Hamas terror leader," was "later killed by IDF in Operation Cast Lead in 2009" (KR, Page 23). LaRudee was also shown in a photograph with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah on Page 24 of the Kaplan Report, as well as in another photo on the same page with the captioning that said:"ISM activists being awarded gold medals from Hamas. LaRudee and Greta Berlin are seated on each side of Hamas leader Haniyah."

  • Greta Berlin - identified as an ISM member in the above cited photo, Kaplan Report, page 24. From Los Angeles, P. 28.
  • Jess Ghannam - "another ISM leader in San Francisco", who helped to co-found Al-Awda, which Kaplan described as "an ISM affiliate that considers all of Israel where Jews live as 'occupied.'" KR, Page 18. Ghannam is also a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco Medical School.
  • Scott Kennedy - former mayor of Santa Cruz, CA., and a longtime leader of the leftist Resource center for Non-Violence RCNV, Santa Cruz, since at least 1980. he appeared in a photo with Hamas leader Ismael Haniyah on Page 20 of the Kaplan Report KRpt. Kaplan wrote this of Kennedy: "The RCNV is led by former Mayor Scott Kennedy, who became an active participant at ISM functions. It existed before the founding of ISM, but later became a local headquarters for ISM functions." KRpt, Page 20.
  • Matan Cohen - described by Kaplan as "an ISM activist anarchist leader ... from an ISM affiliate in Israel, Anarchists Against the Wall AAW. He attended a meeting with the Mexican "Marxist terrorist group" known as the "Zapatistas" while an exchange student at Hampshire College in the U.S (and "leading divestment actions against Israel"). KR, Page 26.
  • Joseph Carr - "an ISM activist from Christian Peacemaker Teams, part of the American Friends Service Committee AFSC, was quoted as saying that Rachel Corrie's death was "worth the price of the revolution." (FtNt, 64, 65), KR, Page 26.
  • Barbara Lubin - ran the Middle East Children's Alliance MECA "prior to the founding of the ISM, but has since become part of it" (FtNt 66), KR, Page 26. Lubin's record of association with various communist and socialist front groups is documented in Keywiki.
  • Medea Benjamin - Code Pink leader, has also associated herself and her Global Exchange organization has supported both the communist dictatorships of Hugh Chavez in Venezuela and Fidel Castro in Cuba. Benjamin "has joined land tours like Viva Palestina to aid Hamas" (FtNt 67). "Benjamin named her group Gaza Freedom March to retain control but was part of the same Viva Palestina Tour." (KR, Page 27.
  • Rachel Corrie - a leftist member of the ISM, she was accidentally killed "when she plunked herself down in front of an IDF bulldozer clearing weapons smuggling tunnels near the Rafah border with Egypt in Gaza" (FtNt 88), KPR, Page 31.
  • Tom Hurndall - a British ISM member "was shot by an IDF sniper" while acting as a human shield (details not provided on Page 31).
  • Brian Avery - an ISM member and human shield was wounded while violating "a curfew in Jenin when he was hit by ricocheting bullets that were never determined to be from the IDF". KR, Page 31.
  • Fayyad Ayub - a student leader at Ohio State University, 2003, "Third National Palestine Solidarity Conference" (a group of marxists, anarchists and Palestinian terrorist supports). Page 30. "An ISM activist for many years, Ayub had majored in International Relations at Johns Hopkins University and now is on the Board of Human Rights Watch HRW (a mixed group of liberals, communists, and Islamic/Palestinian extremists supporters).
  • Josh Ruebner - became a short-term leader of a new ISM entity, "The U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation]] USCEIO in Washington, D.C. KR, Page 32
  • Anna Baltzer - replaced Ruebner as the head of the USCEIO. KR,P. 32.
  • Mitchell Plitnick - "an ISM activist", KR, Page 34. Also in the extremee-left group Jewish Voices for Peace JVFP and associated with the marxist-created United for Peace and Justice UP&J protest organization.
  • Noura Erekat - "an ISM activist", KR, Page 34, and formerly "from Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley. Op. Cit. 34. She "is a niece of PLO negotiator and Arafat's former second-in-command, Saeb Erekat. KR, Page. 34.
  • Connie Hackbarth - "an American ISM activist, is currently Executive Director of the Alternative Information Center, Jerusalem is, according to Kaplan, its management is "led by American anarchist-communists, and in some cases members of Israel's communist party elite from Israeli universities who travel back and forth between the two countries (i.e. US) and Britain." KR, page 35.
  • Naim Frangieh - San Francisco ISM member, interviewed by Kaplan (Pages 37-38), who "has stated that the ISM and flotilla groups have 'an excellent relationship with the U.S. State Department.'"
  • Vittorio Arrigoni - Italian ISM member, killed in the Al Karama area of Gaza City by Palestinian militants opposed to Hamas and for a even stricter version than Islam
  • - Participated in or with ISM Activists or Affiliated Organizations
  • Rep. Dennis Kucinich - D-Ohio, "At one point, various leaders of disparate ISM groups were allowed to testify with Rep. Dennis Kucinich" (D-Ohi), in an attempt to get a resolution to condemn the Jewish state for its incursion into Gaza in 2009," re {Congressional Briefing on Operation Cast Lead]], Footnote 98 in the Kaplan Report.
  • Eric Holder - U.S. Attorney General - "Incredibly, Attorney General Eric Holder spoke at a conference organized in Washington, D.C. by ISM SAn Francisco leader Jess Ghannam of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee AAADC ADC. Holder delivered the keynot remarks at the Annual Civil Rights Luncheon during ADC's "30th Anniversary National Convention in 2010." FtNt 103. (KW: the ADC was organized in the early 1980's as a propaganda arm of the PLO, and was the second major convergence of the Arabs/Pro-PLO groups and the Communist Party, USA, led by identified CPUSA operative [[[Jack O'Dell]] of Martin Luther King Jr/SCLC, Operation PUSH and later the Rainbow Coalition of Jesse Jackson.)

The killing of ISM Member Vittorio Arrigoni April 2011

Vittorio Arrigoni ISM member was found hanged in an abandoned house in the Gaza Strip just hours after he was paraded on YouTube by his abductors on April 15, 2011.Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, was blindfolded and had been badly beaten before the broadcast. A hand was seen pulling his head up by his hair to face the camera.

Arrigoni, an Italian, was found lying in a corridor in the deserted house. He was dressed in black, in the same clothes he had been wearing in the video.

It was hard to see him unless someone told you he was there because he was laid against the wall on the floor,' a witness who had been at the scene said.

There was no sign he was shot. It is believed he was either hanged then laid down, or strangled on the ground.

Mr Arrigoni had lived in Gaza since August 2008 after arriving on a boat bringing humanitarian supplies. He was abducted by an Al Qaeda-linked Jihadist group, who were attempting to put pressure on Hamas, which runs the enclave, to release its leader Hesham al-Sa'eedni.

In the Arabic text that accompanied the YouTube video, his kidnappers described Italy as 'the infidel state' and said that Mr Arrigoni had 'entered our land only to spread corruption.'

Even though they demanded the release of their al-Sa'eedni, the group - who call themselves Monotheism and Holy War - gave Hamas no time to hand him over. Instead, they executed their hostage, who helped Gaza fishermen deal with Israel's tight maritime blockade, and left his body for the security forces to find.

Two men have been arrested and others are being sought. Arrigoni was killed in Gaza's Sheikh Rudawan neighbourhood. He used to work with farmers when they used to go to cultivate their lands near the buffer zone with Israel, the scene of many shooting incidents over the past four years. [6]

Another article by Reuters left out a lot about Arigoni (spelling) and his far-left, anti-Israel past, which was provided by ISM research Lee Kaplan. {Citation to be provided}. However, they did identify the group who claimed that they kidnapped and killed Arrigoni as "A Jihadist Salafi group in the Gaza Strip aligned with al-Qaida"[7].

ISM Affiliated/Support Groups cited in the Kaplan Report

ISM-Affiliated Groups From Various News Sources

The online newspaper "FrontPageMagazine.com" carried a story on April 11, 2011, "A Chapter That Should Be Expelled from Hillel", posted by Nichole Hungerford, that provided some details about how a Jewish organization's chapter was helping an ISM-affiliated group in their anti-Israel operations. The articles started out with the following paragraph:

"It is an open secret that university Hillel chapters often find themselves on the side of campus constituencies that support the agenda of Israel's most vicious enemies. One particularly appalling example of this alliance comes to us from the University of California, Irvine (UCI), whose Hillel chapter has formed an incestuous association with the Olive Tree Initiative (OTI), a controversial student program that emulates the model of the terrorist front group, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and indeed, even works with ISM leadership. In its most scandalous episode yet, the OTI has been exposed for arranging a meeting between students and a prominent leader of the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas. UCI Hillel'a ongoing alliance with such an organization and its record of deceit demand that drastic measures be taken."

Details of the OTI program featuring a Palestinian speaker included the biographical information that George Rishmawi was:

The sponsors of the talk said that the speaker was actually George S. Rishmawi, not a relative and colleague of a similar name, George N. Rishmawi, a cofounder of ISM. A dispute about who was actually the speaker continued, as explained in the article, but it seems that the "good" George was identified as a "cofounder" of ISM by his own Siraj Center.

KW readers are encouraged to read the whole article because of the interlocking relationships of the various groups, including the Hillel chapter and the Jewish Federation of Orange County and its Rose Project "which funds the OTI."

Individuals Affiliated with ISM

  • William Ayers - former SDS leader, and leader of the marxist terrorist group, the WUO. Ayers was a neighbor and professional friend of Illinois politician Barack Hussein Obama Obama in Chicago, and helped to launch his political career in the Ayers' house. Dohrn and Ayers were involved in the pro-Palestinian "Gaza Flotilla" in 2010 and 2011. These were part of the Viva Palestina Tour and ISM Flotilla Tour to Gaza "in support of Hamas (Kaplan Report), (KR) Page 16.
  • Ali Abuminah - "a U.S. born Arab pro-PLO organizer ... who traveled internationally between Ramallah, Europe and Chicago organizing anti-Israel events and publicity in aasociation with ISM affiliated groups" (KR, Page 17). Abunimah is best known to the news media for setting up the website Electronic Intifada, " a propaganda website promoting the Palestinian revolution run by the former webmaster for Bir Zeit University, a Scotsman named Nigel Parrty." (KR, Page 18)


References

  1. ↑ Stop the ISM group (accessed on April 7, 2011)
  2. ↑ Guardian UK Article: A Love Under Fire (accessed on April 8, 2011)
  3. ↑ The ISM-Terror Connection By: Lee Kaplan FrontPageMagazine.com Wednesday, September 13, 2006 (accessed on March 23, 2010)
  4. ↑ About ISM (accessed on April 8, 2011)
  5. ↑ The International Solidarity Movement: Threat to America, Israel and the World", Lee Kaplan, April 4, 2011, as printed by America's Survival, inc., and online at www.usasurvival.org
  6. ↑ Daily Mail: Bloodied, bound and paraded on YouTube... then hanged hours later: Horrific fate of peace activist kidnapped in Gaza (accessed April 16, 2011)]
  7. ↑ Jerusalem Post, Reuters, "Hamas: Kidnapped Italian activist found dead in Gaza", 4/14/2011 (4/15/2011 due to time zone differences)
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