Arkan Dawoud

Overview

Arkan Dawoud [Arkan Mghani] has spread anti-Semitism, expressed support for terrorists and demonized Israel.

Dawoud was the leader of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in New York City (NYC SJP) and an activist with SJP at New York University (NYU). In 2018, NYC SJP was renamed Within Our Lifetime (WOL).

Dawoud is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Dawoud has received training from American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) in 2017 and 2018. He was an activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) as early as February 2016.

As of December 2018, Dawoud’s LinkedIn page said that he worked as a marketing agent and graphic designer at Global Diversity Marketing and also as a freelance architect.

Dawoud’s LinkedIn also said he graduated with a master’s degree in Architecture and Urban Planning from NYU in 2016 and was an Assistant Professor at NYU from May 2014 to September 2015. He graduated from the University of Palestine (UP) in Gaza in 2015, with a bachelor’s degree in Architectural Engineering.

As of October 2019, Dawoud used the name “Arkan HD” on Facebook.

Anti-Semitism

On November 24, 2016, as forest fires raged across Israel, Dawoud posted pictures of the fires on Facebook, with a comment that read, in part: “الله لا يردهم ويحرقهم بنار جهنم.. و حيطلعوا من ارضنا بنار ولادنا. [May Allah not help them and burn them in the hell fire … and they will leave our land with the fire of our children] and دعهم يحترقون بصمت [Let them (the Jews) burn silently].

In November 2016, more than 1,770 fires engulfed Israel over a period of eight days, requiring the evacuation of over 60,000 people from the port city Haifa. A large portion of the fires were set by arsonists and described as an act of terrorism.

On May 14, 2016, Dawoud wrote about Israel on Facebook, stating: “Nothing to ‘celebrate’ about a modern-day Holocaust committed by an identical entity to Nazi Germany with just a different name.”

Supporting Terrorists

On May 2, 2017, Dawoud posted on Facebook promoting Hamas’s new charter. In his post, he praised Hamas’s strategy of supporting Israel’s destruction and not recognizing Israel, all while supporting the formation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza.

On February 1, 2016, Dawoud shared a Facebook photo where he held a sign displaying a likeness of terrorist Leila Khaled.

Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

On August 24, 2016, Dawoud updated his Facebook status to “feeling proud” and shared an image praising PFLP terrorist Bilal Kayed. The image also had a PFLP logo on it.

PFLP terrorist Bilal Kayed was incarcerated for 14 years for terror attacks and attempted terror attacks committed during the second intifada, in 2002.

On July 14, 2017, Dawoud featured in an Instagram photo with other NYC SJP members, supporting PFLP leader Khalida Jarrar.

Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.

On August 20, 2017, Dawoud posted to Facebook: “Rasmyeh's powerful statement

” along with a post with the text of Rasmea Odeh’s full statement she reportedly intended to make in court at the close of her immigration fraud trial in U.S. Federal court.

Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.

On January 2, 2016, Dawoud posted two Facebook photos of himself and other PYM activists around a sign showing a likeness of Odeh.

On April 6, 2018, Dawoud posted to Facebook a poster commemorating “8 myrters [sic]” who were shot while participating in “The Great March of Return.” Among them were reported Hamas members Majdi Shabat and Osama Qadih.

On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The March of Return was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.

Agitators threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.

On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during a May 14 protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.

Demonizing Israel

On August 26, 2017, Dawoud shared a WOL post on Facebook that labeled Israel a “settler zionist state” and Gaza as the “world's largest open air prison.”

On July 21, 2017, Dawoud updated his Facebook profile picture with a Facebook frame of The Dome of The Rock, overlaid with a row of black metal detectors. Dawoud commented: “لن يغلق باب مدينتنا وانا ذاهبة لأصلي! (Our city doors will not be closed (Jerusalem.”

On July 14, 2017, terrorists murdered two Israeli police officers outside the entrance to the Al-Aqsa compound, reportedly following claims that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger. In response to the terror attack, Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras at the entrance to the holy site, which the authorities later removed, after further rioting and escalation in violence.

On July 14, 2017, Dawoud wrote on Facebook, alleging that the previous three Israeli wars against Hamas had “converted” Gaza into a “weapons rats lab!”

Israel commenced Operations Cast Lead (OCL), Pillar of Defense (OPD) and Protective Edge (OPE) in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014, respectively, in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians.

Anti-Israel Activism

On May 12, 2018, Dawoud was listed on Facebook as a panelist at WOL’s “1st Annual Palestine Lives Conference.” The Facebook event page said Dawoud he would discuss his “journey to the U.S.” and suggested Israel committed “3 massacres” in Gaza.

The 2018 “Palestine Lives” conference was held on May 12, 2018 at Hunter College (Hunter), part of City University of New York (CUNY). The official conference poster featured a photo montage of armed men in Keffiyehs, with the caption: “Resisting Settler Colonialism Since 1948.”

The conference was co-hosted by Within Our Lifetime (WOL), formerly known as New York City Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), as well as the anti-Israel groups Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Existence Is Resistance.

On April 19, 2018, Dawoud appeared in a published photo from AMP’s 2018 Palestine Advocacy Day & Training sessions in Washington, D.C.

On November 2, 2017, Dawoud featured in a Facebook photo from the 2017 National SJP (NSJP) Conference. He also supported BDS at NSJP 2017.

NSJP 2017 was held October 27-29, 2017 at the University of Houston (UH). The conference was themed “A Reimagined World: Dismantling Walls from Palestine to the Rio Grande.” Per the 2017 National SJP Conference website, the conference aimed to strengthen “collaborative efforts within all regions to pass BDS” and envision “pathways to achieving sanctions in the future.”

On May 9, 2017, Dawoud appeared in a Facebook photo from the third annual AMP Palestine Advocacy Day & Training, held from April 29-May 1, 2017 in Washington, D.C.

On May 2, 2017, one day after the end of the 2017 AMP session, Dawoud wrote on Facebook that he met with “congressmen and representatives from the highest level.”

On November 6, 2016, Dawoud posted a Facebook photo from the 2016 National SJP conference, which was held at George Mason University. Dawoud wrote: “#UntiltheLiberationOfPalestine.”

On May 16, 2016, Dawoud featured in a Facebook photo from a rally co-sponsored by NYC SJP. He held the NYC SJP banner, as well as a sign that read: “END RACIST OCCUPATION FROM NYC TO PALESTINE.”

At the rally, Dawoud led [00:02:42] a chant, in Arabic: “You are the land of glory, Palestine don’t be shaken.” He also called [00:04:31] for Israel’s destruction, chanting: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” and “We don’t want no two states, we want ‘48!”

Activists at the rally chanted [00:00:20] “There is only one solution! Intifada Revolution!”

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.

Dawoud featured in another Facebook photo from the rally, holding a sign that read, “RESISTANCE - Until Return & Liberation.”

SJP

SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.

The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.

SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.

SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.

SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.

Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.

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.

AMP

American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was founded by UC Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian as a vehicle to generate mainstream support in the United States for the Palestinian national cause.

On its website, the organization lists Bazian as the chairman of its national board and describes itself as “a national education and grassroots-based organization, dedicated to educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage.”

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused AMP of promoting “extreme anti-Israel views and has at times provided a platform for anti-Semitism under the guise of educating Americans” about Palestinians. The ADL further stated that AMP is directly involved in campus-based anti-Israel activity through Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

Prior to founding the AMP in 2006, Dr. Bazian created SJP together with fellow UC Berkeley Professor Snehal Shingavi in 2001. The close working relationship between AMP and SJP has been documented several times over the years by several organizations, including NGO Monitor and StandWithUs.

In addition to providing financial, public relations and legal assistance to SJP, AMP has also been accused of having connections to Hamas. The AMP national board includes former members of both the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) and Holy Land Foundation (HLF), both of which were found liable for aiding and abetting Hamas. The IAP was founded by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas.

PYM

In 2012, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM USA) released a statement saying: “Our liberation...will be gained with the path that was written with the blood of our martyrs. We reaffirm that the only path that we are concerned with is the path that explicitly heads towards the liberation of our land and the return of our people to Palestine.”

PYM organized rallies demonizing Israel where it displays propaganda posters supporting the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.

On October 25, 2015, PYM called to support “intifada” during a period when Palestinian radicals across Israel stabbed and hacked to death scores of Israeli civilians. PYM alleged that “Al-Aqsa Mosque has been the target of particularly brutal assaults” and that “... arbitrary killings are committed daily by the Zionist military and settlers.”

On November 10, 2015, the PYM Facebook page displayed a photo of masked Palestinian radicals throwing rocks and firing rocks from slingshots. That photo was used to promote at least 25 anti-Israel rallies across the globe on or around November 29, 2015 under the banner of “Transnational mobilization for Palestinian resistance.”

On November 30, 2015, PYM displayed a photo on Facebook from one of the rallies showing a sign in support of PFLP member Khalida Jarrar, who confessed to inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.

Another sign showed support for PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sadat, who was convicted for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.