Nadia Ben-Youssef
Overview
Nadia Ben-Youssef is the American Representative for Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah).
Ben-Youssef has worked in Israel for Adalah since September 2010. She has also worked as a private consultant since March 2011 and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
It is reported that Adalah receives significant funding from outside of Israel, including European governments and billionaire George Soros. Soros gave Adalah at least $2.68 million since 2001. The New Israel Fund - which is based in New York and is officially opposed to the BDS movement - granted Adalah $2 million between 2008 to 2015.
European organizations, the European Union and several of its member governments also regularly contribute to the NGO.
Defending Islamic Jihad Militants
On August 19, 2015, Ben-Youssef tweeted "for the immediate release" of Mohammad Allan.
Allan is a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a terror group “whose objective is the destruction of the State of Israel and the establishment of a sovereign, Islamic Palestinian state.” Allan was first jailed by Israel in 2006 for trying to recruit a suicide bomber to carry out an attack in Israel. He was detained in 2014 for similar reasons. PIJ is backed by Iran and has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks.
Ben-Youssef has tweeted and retweeted support for Allan in both English and Arabic, claiming that "there is no legal justification for his continued detention, even for 1 moment."
On June 24, 2015, Ben-Youssef retweeted a tweet that read: "Free Khader Adnan, 'no vitamins, minerals or medical examinations until I am free'...free all Palestinian prisoners."
Khader Adnan was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” In May 2023, Adnan died in prison after refusing medical treatment during a hunger strike.
Defending Militants
On April 7, 2015, Ben-Youssef tweeted for the release of Khalida Jarrar.
Jarrar is a senior member of the the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP),a designatedterrorist organizationby the European Union, Canada, the United States and Israel.
Jarrar was arrested in April 2015 on charges including PFLP membership, inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers. Jarrar was later sentenced to 15 months in jail as part of a plea deal when she confessed to all of the charges leveled against her. She was released early in June 2016.
On January 27, 2016, Ben-Youssef retweeted a tweet in support of PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]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.
Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.
In 1970, 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 United States.
On November 10, 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. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.
Vilifying Israel
On September 27, 2015, Ben-Youssef retweeted a tweet quoting Majd Kayyal.
Kayyal, the web editor of Adalah, claimed: "Israel does not have racist policies; Israel is a racist state from its conception."
Kayyal, himself from Israel, was arrested in 2014 for attending a 40th anniversary conference for a Lebanese newspaper linked to Hezbollah. He also participated in a 2011 flotilla designed to breach the joint Israeli and Egyptian naval blockade of Gaza.
On September 27, 2015, Ben-Youssef, while live-tweeting the anti-Israel event where Kayyal spoke, tweeted: "We don't want rights from the state, we want to own the state @Majdkayyal #ETO2015." Ben-Youssef also spoke at the event.
In 2016, Ben-Youssef co-authored the statement on Israel appearing in the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) Platform — which promotes BDS.
On August 2, 2016, M4BL released its Platform, claiming that: "The US justifies and advances the global war on terror via its alliance withIsrael and is complicit in the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people."
On August 10, 2016, Rachel Gilmer, who co-authored the M4BL statement on Israel, stated: "Using the word genocide wasn't a haphazard piece of work." Gilmer claimed that she coordinated the language of the statement with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and If Not Now.
The M4BL Platform further claimed that "Israel is an apartheid state" and insinuated that U.S. aid to Israel is the cause of underfunded "domestic education and social programs" in the United States.
Promoting a "Day of Rage" Against Israel
On July 31, 2013, Ben-Youssef calledon Facebook for a "Day of Rage" against Israel on August 1, 2013 to protest a proposed Israeli government plan (the Begin-Prawer Plan) to officially recognize and register the vast majority of Bedouin settlements throughout southern Israel and to compensate and relocate the residents of 35 unrecognized villages. The protests turned violent in at least one location as protesters shot firecrackers at Jerusalem police.
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
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/nadia.benyoussef.9 [Deactivated]
Twitter:https://twitter.com/nadiaby
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-ben-youssef-59555b20
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nadiasby/ [Deleted]
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- Adalah
- Organizations:
- Adalah,
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 01/06/2025