Awad Joumaa

In 2013, NU-Q signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MoU) with Al Jazeera Media Network (Al Jazeera) “which deepens ties between the two organizations.” The MoU launched an Al Jazeera speaker series at NU-Q, along with joint research and strategic studies projects, internships, training workshops and scholarships.

As of November 2021, Joumaa’s LinkedIn page said he was an Executive Producer of News at Al Jazeera English (AJ English) in Doha, Qatar, since October 2018. He was also a News editor at AJE since September 2013.

As of the same date, Joumaa’s LinkedIn page said he was a documentary filmmaker at Al Jazeera and a Media Training Consultant at Aljazeera Media Institute, since April 2018.

Also as of November 2021. Joumaa’s LinkedIn page said he received a master’s degree in Sociology and Anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) University of London, in 2010, and a bachelor’s degree in Politics and International Relations from SOAS, in 2006. 

Joumaa listed under “Activities and Societies” that he was affiliated with the SOAS Palestine Society (PalSoc), which as of June 2021 had “liberation from Israeli settler-colonialism” as its “compass and underlying dynamic.”

As of November 2021, Joumaa’s website said he was “AMBASSADOR FOR THE ALJAZEERA MEDIA INSTITUTE” since 2014.

Joumaa’s father was [00:03:00] a “known figure” in the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon and helped set up a PLO office there in 1969. The PLO’s 1968 Charter stated that its goal was the “liberation of Palestine” through “armed struggle.”

Spreading Incitement

Joumaa retweeted a May 8, 2021 tweet that included a tweet with a video of Palestinians outside of the Al Aqsa mosque, chanting “ya hamas ya 7abib udrub udrub Tal-Abib ya Qassami ya 7abib udrub udrub Tal-Abib [Oh dear Hamas bomb bomb Tel Aviv, Oh dear Qassam bomb bomb Tel-Aviv].” 

The tweet said: “HASBUNALLAHU WA NI’MAL WAKEEL [Allah (alone) is sufficient for us, and He is the best Disposer of affairs].” The phrase is a quote from the Quran, declaring faith in Allah, in the face of tragedy. 


On May 9, 2021, Joumaa tweeted: عاجل - الاحتلال الإسرائيل يقتحم الحرم القدسي ويشتبك مع معتصمين فلسطينيين [Urgent - The Israeli occupation storms the Temple Mount and clashes with Palestinian protesters]” and linked to a video by Al Jazeera with the same title. The video showed clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police on the Temple Mount.

On May 10, 2021, Joumaa tweeted: “#AlAqsaUnderAttack.”

On the same date, Joumaa tweeted: “#AlAqsaMosque #AlAqsaUnderAttack #القدس_ينتفض [#al-Quds rises up] #SavePalestine #القدس_تنتفض [#al-Quds rises up] #FreePalestin #المسجدالأقصى #الأقصى_في_خطر # الاقصى_خط_احمر [#al-Aqsa is endangered#al-Aqsa is a red line#al-Aqsa Mosque]”

Joumaa’s tweet included a tweet with a video showing the aftermath of a May 10, 2021 attempted lynching.

On May 10, 2021, Palestinian rioters threw stones at an Israeli vehicle near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, injuring the driver who then lost control of his car and swerved off the road, hitting several pedestrians. The rioters attempted to attack the driver, before a police officer arrived at the scene and fired warning shots to disperse the mob. 

Joumaa also retweeted a May 10, 2021 tweet that claimed: “...Israeli forces again storm Al Aqsa mosque compound today.”



On June 2, 2021, Joumaa shared a June 1, 2021 blog post to Facebook that accused Israel of the “storming of” Al-Aqsa, of “forced expulsion and dispossession of Palestinians” from Sheikh Jarrah… ongoing ethnic cleansing” and of “indiscriminately bombing the Gaza Stripwithout mercy.”

During OGW, Israel used targeted strikes on terrorist targets and did not indiscriminately bomb Gaza. 

Whitewashing Terrorism

On May 20, 2021, Joumaa posted a video to Facebook of an interview with Australian journalist John Pilger on RT (formerly Russia Today). RT has disseminated Russian propaganda and has been accused, by its own reporters, of spreading disinformation. 

In the interview, Pilger criticized [00:02:17] the media’s “attempt to make Hamas the central issue of the reporting… as if Hamas is a peculiar demon.” Pilger continued: [00:02:30] “Hamas and its military wing are part of a resistance... the real demon in this is Israel.” 

Pilger went on to claim [00:05:21] that Palestinian rocket attacks were “indiscriminate” because they were [00:05:25] “crude” whereas Israel [00:05:31] was doing “discriminate targeting… deliberately attacking, as it’s always done, civilian targets.”

On July 16, 2017, Joumaa wrote on Facebook: “Metal detectors would anywhere else in the world seem a rational move to any security incident...The Palestinians view these metal doors at the entrances as a change to the status quo of the holy sites.” 

Joumaa’s reference to a “security incident” referred to a Palestinian terror attack.

Whitewashing Violent Protests

On May 14, 2018, Joumaa posted on Instagram: “A deadly day in Gaza. Aje teams were cross the story. Colleagues got hurt. Some tear gassed. Others wounded. They braved on and continued to bring the world the latest on the sad events in Gaza and WB [West Bank] as well as the embassy move.”



Joumaa also retweeted a May 14, 2018 tweet from then-U.S. senator Bernie Sanders, which read: “Over 50 killed in Gaza today and 2,000 wounded, on top of the 41 killed and more than 9,000 wounded over the past weeks. This is a staggering toll. Hamas violence does not justify Israel firing on unarmed protesters.”

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

Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] the March of Return protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of Israel’s border fence, some by armed Palestinians. One Hamas leader declared [00:00:30]: “We will take down the border [with Israel] and we will tear out their hearts from their bodies.”

On April 6, 2018, Joumaa posted on Instagram: “20 people killed and over a thousand wounded since last week in Gaza. 70 years Gaza’s refugees and residents still suffer from the military occupation and blockade. AJE reporter on the Border. #Gaza#occupation#Hoda Hamid”

Most of the Gazans who died between March 30, 2018 and April 6, 2018 were identified as terror operatives who were killed while rioting against IDF forces, carrying out terrorist attacks, or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Joumaa’s Instagram post included photos of AJ headlines that read: “Israeli soldiers open fire on Palestinian protestors near border” and “Tens of Thousands Hold Six Week Protest in Tent Camps Near Border.”

On July 18, 2017, Joumaa tweeted that Israeli forces tried to repress “the civil resistance to the occupational reality” at Al-Aqsa.On that day, Palestinian protesters on the Temple Mount reportedly threw stones and bottles at Israeli police officers and chanted "we will sacrifice our lives for al-Aqsa," "we will die as martyrs," "there will be an intifada," and "there's nothing like killing soldiers.”

Demonizing Israel

On May 15, 2019, Joumaa published on Aljazeera.com an article about a documentary he produced and directed for AJ+ titled: “Sons of Jerusalem.”

The documentary’s description on Facebook read: “It’s 71 years since the Nakba, when at least 750,000 Palestinians were forced out of their homes during the creation of the state of Israel. Palestinians are still being expelled to this day.”

Nakba is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe. 

On April 18, 2019, Joumaa posted on Facebook a “**press release**” foran AJ documentary film he produced and directed, titled: “Jerusalem: A Rock and a Hard Place.”

Joumaa wrote: “The stark, every-day challenges of life in a city shaped by 70 years of Israeli occupation – with its oppressive discrimination, security walls and endless petty restrictions – aren’t always fully understood by outsiders…”

Joumaa continued:“These two insightful episodes go beyond some of the common misconceptions, tracing the roots of the occupation” and “explain how the Zionist project to establish a Jewish homeland in the territory continues to reinforce inequality and prejudice in Jerusalem today.”

In his Facebook post, Joumaa included a video of the documentary, featuring Omar Harami, a Christian Palestinian researcher with the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Centre. In Jerusalem”

Sabeel is supported by Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA) and promotes BDS.

In the video, Harami said [00:15:57]:“We read the bible through Palestinian eyes and we read it within the context of living under Occupation.”

Harami was quoted in an AJ article on the film as saying: "The Romans came and went. So did the British and French. And so will the Zionists… Israel is not going to think, one day I need to leave Jerusalem to end occupation; they will not have this conscious moment, this ethical moment. We have to force them to get out."

Joumaa retweeted a May 14, 2018 tweet that read: “Entering Gaza from Israel. Palestinians on golf carts ferry visitors along about a mile long wired in walkway, after exiting a steel gate in Israel’s wall. The biggest open prison in the world? Feels like it.”

Joumaa retweeted a July 18, 2017 tweet which read: “Electricity crisis in Gaza, major clashes in Jerusalem... Israel's structural violence and oppression of Palestinians is grotesque.”

On July 21, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Joumaa tweeted: “War crimes? Anyone suing Israeli generals ?” and included a link to an article by the PLO’s Hanan Ashrawi, who accused Israel of “war crimes” and the “deliberate massacre” of Palestinian civilians.

Israel commenced OPEin July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Endorsing Anti-Israel Agitators

On May 2, 2019, Joumaa shared an AJ+ video on Facebook which promoted U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks. She has also demonized Israel and endorsed BDS, including introducing a pro-BDS resolution in the U.S. Congress. 

In July 2019, Omar sponsored H.Res. 496, referred to as a “pro-BDS” resolution, which Omar described

On January 6, 2018, Joumaa promoted Palestinian agitator Ahed Tamimi on Facebook and included an opinion piece by her father, Bassem Tamimi, who described Ahed as “a freedom fighter who, in the coming years, will lead the resistance to Israeli rule.”

Ahed Tamimi was detained after she was filmed punching and kicking Israeli soldiers. She has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. 

Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers. In 2011, he was jailed for organizing violent rallies and inciting minors to commit violent crimes such as rock-throwing.

In the opinion piece, Bassem Tamimi reported his trip with Ahed to South Africa during which “we screened for an audience a video documenting the struggle of our village, Nabi Saleh, against Israel’s forced rule.” 
 
The village of Nabi Saleh is a Tamimi family stronghold. It is notorious as a place where photographers gather nearly every Friday to document scenes of Palestinian residents and international activists clashing with Israeli soldiers. Much of this is instigated by the Nabi Saleh Tamimi clan.

On January 6, 2018, Joumaa posted a video on Facebook of Janna Jihad Ayyad who claimed [00:00:13] that Ahed Tamimi was arrested by “the Israeli military occupation soldiers because she didn’t let those soldiers to go in her house and shoot fire from her house on the children that was playing near her house…” 

Ayyad is a relative of Palestinian propagandist Bassem Tamimi, who is notorious for exploiting young children as political props by manufacturing confrontations with Israeli soldiers who respond to the riots that Tamimi organizes. 

In the video, Ayyad alleged [00:01:05]: “The reason that they [IDF] shoot the children isthat because they’re Zionist people that want to kick us out of our land, to be refugees. To take all this land and make it ‘in the name of Israel.’ That will never happen.”

Supporting BDS

Joumaa reportedly co-organized a December 5, 2004 conference at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS titled: “Resisting Israeli Apartheid: Strategies and Principles.” 

The conference program indicated that sessions would promote the BDS movement and featured BDS movement co-founder Omar Barghouti and anti-Israel activist Ilan Pappe.

The conference was co-sponsored by The Palestine Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), The Palestine Right to Return Coalition Al-Awda and reportedly marked the launch of a new boycott organization, the British Committee for Universities in Palestine (BRICUP), which calls for the academic boycott of Israel.

Joumaa retweeted an August 4, 2014 tweet that read: “Big up the NUS [National Union of Students] who've officially heeded the call from Palestinian civil society to boycott Israel. Massive props... BDS until tyranny ends.”

On April 3, 2017, Joumaa shared a post on Facebook which included a “Message from Omar Barghouti,”saying: “We need to expand, mainstream and build on our many inspiring BDS campaigns, academic, cultural and economic, as the most effective way to respond to the new McCarthyism designed by Israel's regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid and exported to states where its lobby groups enjoy massive influence.”

Qatar - Terrorism  

Founded in Egypt 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist organization, listed as a terrorist organization in at least six countries, including Egypt, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Hamas, a terrorist group dedicated to Israel’s destruction, is listed as one of the Brotherhood’s offshoots.
Hamas has been designated aterrorist organizationby the European Union, Canada, Australia, the United States and Israel.The Hamas founding charter has called for the murder of Jews, and Hamas has hosted “summer camps,” that taught children how to wage war.

Qatar Foundation

In 1995, the then-Emir of Qatar and his wife, Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, created the Qatar Foundation (QF) to “advance education, science, and cultural development.” 

In 1995, QF was given two billion dollars in resources by the Qatari Government “to address knowledge and capacity deficits” and transform into a “knowledge-based economy.”

Qatar Foundation - Yusuf al-Qaradawi and the Muslim Brotherhood  

NU-Q - Qatar Foundation  

Qatar Foundation - Anti-Israel Campaign  

In 2009, the Qatar Foundation hired the U.S. public relations firm, Fenton Communications, to develop “a communications action plan for an 18-month campaign,” using Al Fakhoora, a Qatari-based pro-Palestine initiative.

Qatar Foundation -EC Mosque Hosting Anti-Semitic Preachers  

In April 2015, QF opened the Education City (EC) Mosque, located in Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) campus, adjacent to NU-Q.

Since the opening of the mosque, QF’s newspaper has encouraged readers to “join the QF community for prayer” at the EC Mosque, which has hosted 18 preachers and clerics who have variously spread anti-Semitism, expressed support for terror, spread [00:00:20] a conspiracy theory that radicalized Muslims played no part in 9/11 or the Charlie Hebdo attacks and declared that the Jews use pornographic movies to “destroy the world and control it.” 

One preacher, Salman al-Audah, claimed [00:02:48] in a sermon broadcast on a major Gulf media channel in August 2012, that Jews use “human blood” for Passover matzah. 

A cleric, Tareq al-Hawas, stated [00:04:11] about Jews "If only Hitler had finished them off, thus relieving humanity of them." Hawas was reportedly a member of Yusuf al-Qaradawi's International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) in 2013.
 
Another cleric, Mohammed al-Arifi, proclaimed in 2012, that “one’s devotion to jihad for the sake of Allah and one’s will to shed blood, smash skulls, and chop off body parts...constitute an honor.”

NU-Q - Al Jazeera  

NU-Q Joint Advisory Board  

Since NU-Q and Al Jazeera signed their initial MoU in 2013, NU-Q has a Joint Advisory Board (JAB), which consists of ten to eleven people; five or six positions filled by Qatari-connected members and five positions filled by Western members. 

All eleven of the current or previous Qatari-connected JAB members were directly affiliated with QF, Al Jazeera or the Qatari government.

There is little information available about the role of NU-Q’s JAB. The role of the Texas A&M University, Qatar (TAMUQ) JAB was exposed by the Washington Post in a 2016 article, to include general oversight and close monitoring and review of every aspect of TAMUQ, with QF paying the JAB TAMUQ expenses.

NU-Q - Hosting Annual Al Jazeera Speaker Series  

Since the signing of the MoU in 2013, NU-Q has hosted an annual Al Jazeera Speakers Series. Thirteen of the 17 speakers who participated in the series at NU-Q from 2013-2019 have whitewashed terrorism, demonized Israel or expressed supportfor the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

NU-Q - Anti-Israel Middle East Studies Minor  

In 2017, NU-Q launched a Middle East Studies minor in their Liberal Arts program. From 2017-2019, four of the seven members of the NU-Q’s Middle East Studies committee included anti-Israel NU-Q professors Justin Martin, Ibraham Abusharif, Khaled Hroub and Sami Hermez.

Khaled Hroub, a Professor at NU-Q who taught the 2018 and 2019 course “Islamism & Politics in the Middle East,” has reportedly whitewashed the terror group Hamas.

Sami Hermez, an NU-Q Professor who taught the 2018-2019 NU-Q courses “Anthropology of Palestine” and “Advanced Topics: Violence/Power/Resistance,” has promoted a terrorist and demonized Israel.

All of the required reading for Hermez’s “Anthropology of Palestine” course was authored by anti-Israel professors, eight of whom were activists in or supporters of the BDS movement. One of the authors, Edward Said, has advocated for the “right of return,” a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

NU-Q - Student Internships in International Media  

As of January 2020, third-year NU-Q Journalism and Strategic Communication students were required to intern for ten weeks at media or public relations firms, off-campus.