Aditi Rao

On October 25, 2023, a few weeks after Hamas's terror attacks against Israel, Rao reportedly co-organized an anti-Israel walkout at Princeton and led chants demonizing Israel. Rao also promoted incitement to violence at the event while speaking to a Princeton student newspaper reporter.

At the protest, Rao reportedly led chants that accused Israel of “slaughter” and “apartheid.” Another chant blamed America for “committing genocide.”

Speaking with a reporter for the student-run Daily Princetonian during the walkout, Rao said that the terms “intifada” and “revolution” were “synonymous with one another,” and that “the revolution of Palestine is about the liberation of Palestine.”

The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.

At the walkout, event organizers reportedly led the chant: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!” The crowd also chanted: “Intifada! Intifada!

“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.

In one speech, a walkout organizer reportedly said: “on behalf of a concerned and agitated group of graduate students…we condemn the ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.”

The walkout was reportedly organized by Princeton graduate students.

On October 25, 2023, Rao tweeted photos of the walkout and wrote that it was “an honor to march in solidarity with hundreds across the campus and wider Princeton community…for a free Palestine.” Rao appeared [photo 1] holding a bullhorn and wearing a yellow vest and a keffiyeh.

On October 11, 2023, four days after Hamas terrorists attacked Israel, Rao referred to Hamas’s war crimes against Israel as “resistance” on Twitter. Her tweet included a flyer promoting a “Rally Against Philly Media Suppression of Palestinian Resistance” that would be taking place the next day.

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 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.

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.

A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.

For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

On November 4, 2023, Rao tweeted photos of the White House taken during an anti-Israel rally in Washington, D.C. She wrote: “Idk may this empire fall so swiftly, so so swiftly.”

On October 27, 2023, Rao tweeted: “If you have been waiting for some discrete moment of gore and evil before letting the word ‘genocide’ leave your lips…that moment must…finally be here.”

Rao was the first to sign an October 20, 2023 “Letter of Solidarity with the people of Palestine.” The letter justified the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023, and said that Hamas’s attack on Israel was “not unprovoked, but rather caused by an increasingly violent and nationalistic Israeli government” that “seeks the total annihilation of the Palestinian people.”

On October 20, 2023, Rao tweeted: “Classicists/Ancient Historians pls consider adding your name to this letter in solidarity with the people of Palestine! Our disciplines are directly implicated (ethically and intellectually) with the liberation of Palestine; we must, finally, act like it.”

The tweet included a link to the October 20, 2023 letter that Reo was the first to sign. The letter, which was titled: “Classicists and Ancient Historians in Solidarity with the people of Palestine,” defended the Palestinian “right of return” and claimed the creation of the “Israeli state” in 1948 was “unlawful.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

On October 15, 2023, Rao referred to Israel on Twitter as a “settler state.”

The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.

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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.

10/25/2023 - Organizing an Anti-Israel Walkout

Support for the Hamas Terror Group

Hatred of America and Israel during the Israel-Hamas War

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

Social Media and Weblinks