Aziza Chaouni
Overview
Aziza Chaouni has justified the Hamas terrorism of October 7, 2023, and spread hatred of Israel. She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists murdered over 1,200 Israeli Jews, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
As of May 2024, Chaouni served on the Programmatic Board of the “Hearing Palestine” initiative at the University of Toronto (U of T), which states its mission is to “Provide an intellectual hub for the study of Palestine.”
As of the same date, Chaouni was listed as an associate professor of architecture at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at U of T in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, since 2008.
As of the same date, Chaouni’s LinkedIn profile said she was the principal of Aziza Chaouni Projects which has offices in Fez, Morocco and Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
As of May 2024, Chaouni’s LinkedIn said she graduated from the Harvard University (Harvard) Graduate School of Design (Harvard GSD) with a master’s degree in architecture in 2005. She graduated from Columbia University (Columbia) with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 2000.
In December 2021, Chaouni was listed as a speaker for WISE-Qatar.org at its 2021 WISE Summit in Doha, Qatar titled: “Generation Unmute: Reclaiming Our Future Through Education” sponsored by the Qatar Foundation.
As of May 2024, Chaouni went by the username “AzizaChaouniProjects” and used the handle “@azizachaounipr” on her professional Twitter account. As of the same date, Chaouni went by the username “azizachaouniprojects” and had the handle “Aziza Chaouni Projects” on her professional Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Justifying the Hamas Terrorism of October 7, 2023
On October 21, 2023, just two weeks after Hamas murdered 1,200 Israeli Jews, Chaouni posted on Facebook a statement that she signed titled: “No Peace Without Decolonization.”The statement said: “Colonial forces always want history to begin with the moment their allies are attacked, thus erasing the accumulated effects of oppression, humiliation and perpetual aggression produced by apartheid policies. / We would like to stress that the history of this murderous madness did not begin on October 7, 2023.”
The same statement also alleged that “humanity witnessed the live announcement of a planned genocide.” The statement further claimed: “the State of Israel has been officially arming settlers and encouraging them to murder any and all Palestinians.”
The statement also said: “These state crimes are being committed with impunity. Western media propaganda justifies them – the most appalling example being the allegation that Hamas slit the throats of forty Israeli babies.”
Hamas terrorists murdered at least 40 Israeli Jewish babies during its October 7, 2023, terror attacks. Some of the babies were beheaded and some were murdered in front of their parents.
Hatred of Israel
On October 22, 2023, Chaouni posted on her Aziza Chaouni Projects Facebook page a letter accusing Israel of “the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people.”On October 18, 2023, Chaouni wrote on Instagram: “There can be no collective responsibility of Palestinians for the actions of Hamas…there is no excuse for ruthlessly killing Palestinian civilians as a retaliation measure.”
Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks. In several cases, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike. In a March 2024 poll, 71% of Gazans supported the terror attacks, up from 57% in December 2023. Among the Palestinian respondents in the West Bank, 71% supported the attacks, down from 82% in December 2023.
Chaouni signed a May 24, 2021 statement titled: “Architecture and Urban Planning Organizations Stand in Solidarity for Palestine.” The statement said: “We recognise that architecture and urban planning are both the means and the ends of Israeli settler colonialism and state terror.”
The statement further said: “We have seen soldiers and settlers ethnically cleanse neighbourhoods of Palestinian residents in Sheikh Jarrah.”
In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
“The statement continued: “In Gaza an entire population is incarcerated in an open-air prison…” and also said:“In Jerusalem, state-sponsored apartheid planning aims to expel the remaining Palestinian residents from the city.”
Referring to Gaza as an "open-air prison" is a way to delegitimize the United Nations-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.
The statement said: “We join the Palestinian people…and stand alongside of them in their struggle against apartheid, colonization and state oppression. We support the right to resist ongoing Israeli settler colonial occupation and its destruction of indigenous Palestinian lands.”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
The statement concluded: “We recognize that architecture and planning continue to be used by Israel to…extend its illegal occupation of Palestinian land through…the state-sanctioned execution of Palestinian people…[and] the siege, indiscriminate destruction and massacres in Gaza.”
In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
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
University Webpage: https://www.daniels.utoronto.ca/people/core-faculty/aziza-chaouniFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/aziza.chaouni
Facebook 2:https://www.facebook.com/azizachaouniprojects/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/aziza_chaouni
Twitter 2:https://twitter.com/AzizaChaouniPr
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/azizachaouniprojects/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/azizachaouni/
Personal Website/Blog:https://www.azizachaouniprojects.com/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Toronto
- Organizations:
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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