Abdullah Akl
Abdullah Akl’s Leading Chants at a Protest in Support of the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia), Support for Terrorists, Calling for Intifada and for Israel’s Destruction
In June 2021, Akl wrote on Facebook that he would be serving as vice president of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Long Island University (LIU) Brooklyn (LIU Brooklyn) for the 2021-2022 academic year.
As of January 2024, Akl’s LinkedIn profile said he had been serving as “Director of Advocacy & Civil Engagement” for the Muslim American Society (MAS) since May 2021.
Also as of January 2024, Akl’s LinkedIn said he had been doing contract work as a “Field & Digital Organizer,” since February 2020, for MPower Change, a “Muslim digital advocacy organization” founded by anti-Israel agitator Linda Sarsour.
On May 18, 2023, Akl posted on Instagram a photo of himself from his college graduation. He wrote that he “graduated from @liuniversity! With a Bachelors Degree in Political Science & Government and the other in International Relations & Diplomacy.”
As of December 2023, Akl’s LinkedIn said he was studying for a master’s degree at Harvard University (Harvard) in government, slated to graduate in June 2024. Harvard is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Supporting Terrorists
On March 30, 2024, Akl was featured in a pro-Hamas WOL Twitter video, posted during Israel’s war against Hamas. Israel launched the war against Hamas after the October 7, 2023 terror attacks.In the video, Akl led [00:00:03] a crowd in a chant featuring a line from an anti-Semitic song calling for rocket attacks on Israeli communities.
Akl led [00:00:03] the chant: “Odrob, Odrob, Tel Aviv! Abu Obeida ya habib! [Strike, strike, Tel Aviv! Abu Obeida, my love!]”
Abu Obeida is the official spokesperson for the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades — the armed wing of Hamas.
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.
On January 25, 2023, Akl posted a picture of himself on his Instagram page from January 21, leading a WOL demonstration at Grand Central Terminal. Samidoun activists stood in the background holding a banner calling for “FREEDOM FOR ALL PALESTINIAN PRISONERS.” Pictured on the banner were Ahmed Saadat, Georges Aballah, and Khalida Jarrar.
Ahmad Sa’adat, Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), is in an Israeli prison for terror activities, including his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi.
Georges Abdallah is a convicted Lebanese terrorist, reportedly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and co-founder of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF). He murdered an American military attaché and an Israeli diplomat in 1982.
On January 9, 2022, Akl featured in a photo on the WOL Instagram page holding a sign that said: “FREEDOM FOR HISHAM ABU HAWASH,” a reference to a Palestinian terrorist on hunger strike.
In October 2021, six prisoners affiliated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)'s armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigades, chose to prolong their hunger strike in protest of their administrative detention by Israel. The six men were Kayed al-Fasfus, Miqdad al-Qawasmeh, Alaa Aaraj, Hisham Abu Hawwash, Shadi Abu-Akr and Ayyad Hureimi.
On October 3, 2021, Akl featured [00:20:06] in multiple YouTube videos leading [00:00:48] chants at a WOL rally held on September 17, 2021. The WOL Instagram page said that it organized the rally “For zakaria zubaidi, for the gilboa 6 for all our prisoners and especially the hunger strikers.”
Zakaria Zubeidi was the former Jenin commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is listed as a foreign terror organization (FTO) by the U.S. government. Zubeidi was involved in several terror attacks on Israeli civilians. On September 6, 2021, Zubeidi was one of six prisoners who escaped from Israel’s Gilboa prison. They were all recaptured by September 19, 2021.
Later in the same September 17, 2021 protest, Nerdeen Kiswani, WOL chairperson and co-founder, spoke [00:38:24] in support of Zubeidi and the “Gilboa Six.” She later quoted a PIJ member who was one of the escapees from Gilboa, saying [00:40:05]: “And we end with a quote from one of the liberated prisoners, Mahmoud al-Arida, who said ‘God will not ask you why you did not win or why you did not succeed, but God will ask you why you did not try.”
Mahmoud al-Arida was a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). He was one of six terrorists who escaped from Israel’s Gilboa prison on September 6, 2021. Israeli police recaptured him four days later. He was first imprisoned in the early 1990’s but was released after the Oslo Accords. In 1996, he received a life sentence for his role in PIJ terror attacks.
Calling for Intifada
On October 3, 2021, Akl featured [00:08:15] in a YouTube video taken at a September WOL protest where he led the chant: “There is only one solution! Intifada, Revolution! Intifada, Intifada! Globalize the Intifada!”Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.
At the same rally, Akl led [00:21:21] protesters in the chant: “From New York to Gaza! Globalize the Intifada! From NYU [New York University] to Gaza! Globalize the Intifada! … From NYU to CUNY [City University of New York]! Globalize the Intifada!”
The protest where Akl led his chants was on September 17, 2021 and it was organized by WOL as part of its “Globalize the Intifada” campaign. The protest flyer was publicized on WOL’s Instagram page on September 15, 2021 and was titled: “Until All Lands are Free Globalize the Intifada!”
“Globalize the Intifada” is an anti-Israel campaign launched by Within Our Lifetime (WOL) in the summer of 2021, intended as an “ongoing strike at the heart of empire with Palestine as its compass.” The movement seeks to “break free from the genocidal grip of U.S. imperialism and Zionism” and advocates “liberation by any means necessary.”
On June 31, 2021, Akl featured [00:00:01] in a video on WOL’s Instagram page leading protesters in the chant: “Globalize the Intifada!”
On June 15, 2021, Akl featured [00:04:02] in a video on WOL’s Instagram page where he led a crowd of protesters in chanting: “Intifada, Intifada! Long Live the Intifada!”
Akl went on to lead [00:07:17] the chant: “There is only one solution! Intifada, Revolution!”
Akl then led [00:07:52] the chant: “From New York to Gaza! Globalize the Intifada!” He later led [00:10:00] the chant: “Resistance is justified when people are colonized!”
Hatred of Israel and Zionism
As of June 2023, Akl’s background photo on his Twitter page was from a WOL rally on Nakaba Day 2022. In the photo where he is standing facing the crowd, leading them with an outstretched hand, the front row of people are holding a banner that says: “HONOR THE MARTYRS, RESISTANCE UNTIL RETURN.”The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
On February 3, 2023, Akl posted a video of himself being interviewed at a January 29, 2023 WOL rally in New York on his Instagram page. In the post he wrote: “Spoke to @middleeasteye on Sunday at the @wolpalestine Rally & Vigil. The demand is clear and we won’t be silent, The Genocide, Apartheid, and the Ethnic Cleansing of the Palestinian people by isr*el will be called out as it is
.” In the video Akl said: “We want to come out, support those thave have passed away in Jenin. But we also want to ask for so much more. We want, and are demanding for the Palestinian liberation cause. And so we’re calling for an end of the killing but we’re also calling for a liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.”On January 26, 2023, nine Palestinians were killed in a shootout after IDF soldiers entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a cell of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists, who were reportedly planning a terror attack. During the attempted arrests, members of the cell as well as other Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the soldiers.
On October 3, 2021, Akl featured [00:20:29] in a YouTube video taken at a September 17, 2021, WOL rally where he led a march through the streets, chanting: “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes!” He also led [00:20:06] the chant: “If we don’t get no justice, then they don’t get no peace!”
On October 1, 2021, Akl featured [00:00:48] in a YouTube video from a September WOL protest, where he led the chant: “From the River to the Sea! Palestine Will be Free!” He also led [00:20:08] the chant: “We don’t want no two states! We want all of it!”
The two-state solution envisions a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by dividing the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea into an Israeli Jewish state and a Palestinian Arab state.
On September 3, 2021, Akl featured [00:41:14] in a YouTube video from August 29, WOL protest in Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan, where he led the chant: “It is right to rebel! Israel go to hell!”
Akl continued to lead[00:42:52] the chants:“From the River to the Sea! Palestine will be Free!” and [00:43:26] “Smash the Settler Zionist State!”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
Akl went on to lead [00:43:42] the chant: “Hey Hey! Ho Ho! Zionism has got to go!”
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Zionism is a core part of the identity of most Jews.
In the same video, Akl joined [00:39:37] Kiswani, in the chant: “Israel, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”
On August 4, 2021, Akl featured [00:42:00] in a YouTube video from a WOL march through the streets of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn four days earlier, where he and other WOL leaders led chants from the back of a truck.
In the video, which was filmed on July 31, 2021, Akl led [00:30:00] anti-Israel protesters marching with banners that read: “ZIONISM IS TERRORISM” and “GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA.” He led [00:30:04] the chant: “Judaism yes, Zionism no! The state of Israel must go!”
At the same rally, Akl also led [00:45:14] protesters in chanting: “لا الله الا الله والشهيد حبيب الله [There is no God but Allah and the Martyr is Allah’s beloved]!” He also led [00:46:01] the chants: “From the River to the Sea! Palestine will be Free!” and [00:46:54] “From New York to Gaza! Globalize the Intifada!”
During the same protest, Husam Kaid, another WOL activist, sparked [01:02:29] some fireworks, while Akl stood on a platform chanting with WOL leader Nerdeen Kiswani. Kiswani yelled [01:02:43] before the crowd: “I hope that a pop-pop is the last noise that some Zionists hear in their lifetime!” The crowd responded [01:02:49] with cheering and applause.
On June 11, 2021, Akl appeared [00:02:21] in a YouTube video participating in a WOL rally outside of the Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. At the rally, WOL activists burned an Israeli flag and Kiswani said [00:00:13]: “You know how amazing it is, burning this Zionist flag that is responsible, that it symbolizes, the ethnic cleansing and the genocide of Palestinians?”
On May 19, 2021, Akl tweeted: “We will free Palestine, Within Our Lifetime
.” He also tweeted two photos of himself at the event, one of which showed him speaking to the crowd.On May 30, 2021, Akl posted a picture of himself on his Instagram page from an event held two days prior, speaking through a megaphone at an anti-Israel rally at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Abdullah wrote: “Students, Faculty, and Community Organizations are sending a clear message to CUNY: Zionism out of CUNY!”
Spreading Hatred of America
On July 4, 2021, Akl featured [00:00:01] in an Instagram video where he led chants at a rally that WOL co-organized in Brooklyn intended to “redirect the false pride of American Independence Day to pride in our resistance…”On July 5, 2021, a Twitter video from the rally showed [00:00:01] protesters burning American and Israeli [00:00:20] flags, while Akl could be heard [00:00:03] leading the crowd in several chants.
In the same July 4, 2021, Instagram video, Akl led [00:00:01] the crowd in chanting: “From the River to the Sea! All our lands will be free!” His chant was a variation of a similar chant calling for Israel’s destruction.
The rally was co-organized by WOL and Decolonize This Place (DTP), an activist group in New York City that has collaborated [00:27:26] with WOL on multiple occasions [00:01:39].
Leading Chants at the Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia
On April 18, 2024, Akl was featured [00:00:21] in a video posted on Instagram on April 19, 2024. The video showed Akl leading chants at an April 18, 2024 protest held outside the gates of Columbia on the second day of the encampment.Akl led protesters in chanting [00:00:52]: “We don’t want no Zionists here!…” and [00:00:01] “...till Palestine is free, from the River to the Sea within our lifetime…”
Akl was featured in a video posted on YouTube on April 19, 2024 where he led [00:24:44] protesters in chanting: “One, two, three, four, Israel no more…”
On May 10, 2024, Akl posted a video on Instagram of himself speaking at the encampment on April 19, 2024, the third day of the encampment.
Akl said: “We are ready to sacrifice everything…we are calling for divestment, we are calling for disclosement…we are calling for a free Palestine, from the River to the Sea, within our lifetime and we are ready to accept nothing less…”
On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Many participants were arrested and the encampment featured multiple violent incidents, including taking over a campus building and taking a university worker hostage.
Activists protested Israel’s war against Hamas and demanded that Columbia “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation…”
WOL
Within Our Lifetime (WOL) is a pro-terror activist group in New York City dedicated to Israel’s destruction within the lifetime of its members.Acts of violence and physical confrontations with police have frequently occurred at WOL protests and marches. WOL uses harassment campaigns to target pro-Israel organizations or companies that do business with Israel, making it a part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Multiple activists who have either burned Israeli flags or led chants at WOL rallies were later jailed for violent anti-Semitic hate crimes, including Saadah Masoud and Waseem Awawdeh. In Masoud’s case, he received 18 months in jail for an anti-Semitic assault at an April 2022 WOL rally and two other anti-Semitic assaults in 2021.
WOL promotes “resistance” against Israel “by any means necessary,” calls to “Globalize the Intifada,” spreads incitement and idolizes [00:34:06] Palestinian terrorists like Leila Khaled and others at rallies and online events.
WOL was founded by Nerdeen Kiswani and Dan Cione in 2015. Kiswani is a frequent speaker at WOL rallies where she has promoted terrorism against Israelis and called for the death of Zionists. She has also provided support for Masoud and other activists following their arrests.
WOL began as the New York City chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), going by NYC SJP, but changed its name in 2018. The group is not found to be registered in any U.S. state as a nonprofit organization under its official name. Nor is there any listing for WOL under its name on the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website for tax-exempt organizations.
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.
MSA
The Muslim Student Association (MSA) was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."
The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.
The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.
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_203x172_IG3Fqz.jpg "Abdullah Akl")
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