American Muslims for Palestine Takes Aim at High Schools

The virulently anti-Israel organization, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), held its first high school educational training session of 2012 at the Islamic Foundation School in Villa Park, Illinois.

The training session was attended by some 200 students from grades 10 to 12 and consisted of a half-day workshop on a variety of topics, including the Islamic significance of Palestine, according to AMP’s Web site. One session was led by AMP Director of Media and Communications Kristin Szremski on steps students can take to utilize the media in their activism. Szremski was a featured speaker at the University of Pennsylvania BDS conference earlier this month.

AMP promotes its extreme anti-Israel views through various public events designed for students and non-students alike. For example, during its session at the December 2009 MAS-ICNA convention, speakers called on “all Muslims to liberate all of Palestine from the North to the South from Al Quds to the sea” and described Jews as “the worst kind of people.” 

AMP has announced that it will embark on similar events for high schools in Chicago and Milwaukee. Facilitating student activism was the central theme of AMP’s 2011 national conference, where a number of sessions were dedicated to ways students can discuss the issue of Palestine in schools.

AMP has also made a concerted effort to engage in advocacy on college campuses and facilitate increased collaboration among anti-Israel students, in particular the activity of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a student organization that’s a primary organizer of anti-Israel events on campus.

Three Days to the Penn BDS Conference

In advance of this weekend’s BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania, we are highlighting five of the most anti-Israel individuals scheduled to speak at the conference.

Today we profile Kristin Szremski, the media director of American Muslims for Palestine, an extreme anti-Israel group based in Chicago that spends significant resources on organizing and coordinating anti-Israel activity on college campuses.

Szremski will speak on the topic of “Talking to Beginners about BDS, Israel and Zionism.”

During a presentation in Washington DC in September 2011 with a fellow activist from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Szremski spoke about “legal and popular approaches to challenging Zionist organizations” and advocated against interfaith dialogue with Jewish groups because it leads to “creeping normalcy” with Jews who may be Zionists.

On her Twitter page, Szremski has described Illinois Senator Mark Kirk as an “Israel-firster,” alleging that he has more loyalty to Israel than the United States.

She has also stated that Israel controls the American media, a typical anti-Israel conspiracy theory. Speaking at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign several years ago about the Gaza War, Szremski cryptically alleged: “The media that is supposed to be in the position of power is [subjecting] itself to censorship…It’s impossible to get fair coverage from one source who controls all that power.”  

Number 5: J Kehaulani Kauanui

Number 4: Helena Cobban