Chris Gazaleh
Overview
Chris Gazaleh [Christopher Frank Kazaleh] has spread anti-Semitism, glorified terrorists and promoted violence. He has also spread anti-Israel conspiracy theories and hatred of Israel.Gazaleh has also endorsed violent protests and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Gazaleh has painted anti-Israel murals across San Francisco. In 2019, Gazaleh solicited funds for and traveled on a junket for musicians and artists with Eyewitness Palestine, where he painted anti-Israel murals in Arab villages across Israel.
Formerly known as Interfaith Peace-Builders (IFPB), Eye Witness Palestine is an anti-Israel NGO that organizes activist delegations to Israel and the West Bank featuring lectures by representatives of anti-Israel groups that openly call for the end of Israel.
Gazaleh performed at the 2019 National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) Conference.National SJP held their conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (UMN), from November 1-3, 2019. The conference was themed: “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.”
Gazaleh was an activist with the anti-Israel organization General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) in 2017 and a committee member of GUPS at San Francisco State University (SFSU) in 2008.
Gazaleh was affiliated with the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) in 2017, 2018 and 2020, as well as with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) in 2018.
As of November 2022, Gazaleh’s website said he was a “visual artist, musician, writer, organizer and educator… on his mission dedicated to promoting cultural, political, and social awareness about the history, people and struggle for freedom in Palestine.”
Also as of the same date, Gazaleh was listed as an Advisory Board Member at the Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP).
Gazaleh’s LinkedIn said he graduated from SFSU with a bachelor’s degree in “Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities” in 2005. As of November 2022, Gazaleh’s LinkedIn indicated he was located in San Francisco, California. As of the same date, Gazaleh’s Facebook said he was a “former substitute teacher at San Francisco Unified School District.”
Gazaleh has spelled his last name “Kazaleh" on Soundcloud and variously on Instagram as "Ghazaleh" in 2018 and “Gazaleh”in 2021.
Spreading Anti-Semitism
In 2016, Fiasco reportedly came under heavy criticism after he released a track using the lyrics “Artists getting robbed for their publishing/ By dirty Jewish execs who think that it’s alms from the covenant.”
Gazaleh posted: “If you don't know Jewish politics you will never understand American Politics. Your [sic] damned if you criticize the influence of sharks in the music industry and media many of whom happen to be a long family line of Jewish corporate owners and you are damned if you don't question it.”
Gazaleh also claimed “the hi jacking of hip hop” by “greedy American Business men, yes many of these sharks happened to be Jewish.” Gazaleh went on to say: “... we must be honest transparent and say things how they Are if we can ever understand them correctly.”
Glorifying Terrorists
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 September 24, 2021, referring to six Palestinians who temporarily escaped from Israel’s Gilboa prison, Gazaleh posted on Instagram a photo of a mural that said: “We will remain.” He wrote: “An addition to the ‘We will remain’ mural in Silwan, Jerusalem, Palestine dedicated to the 6 freedom fighters who escaped the clutches of the illegal Israeli occupation, may their efforts and dedication to their people never be forgotten or disrespected #freepalestine…”
On September 6, 2021, six Palestinian prisoners escaped from the maximum-security Gilboa Prison in Israel. The escaped prisoners were convicted members of the terror organizations Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who were jailed for their involvement in attacks carried out during the second intifada. All were recaptured by September 19, 2021, by Israeli authorities.
On July 9, 2021, Gazaleh posted on Instagram: “ ‘Do not believe that man grows. No: he is born suddenly-a word, in a moment, penetrates his heart to a new throb. One scene can hurl him down from the ceiling of childhood on to the ruggedness of the road’ Ghassan Kanafani. A leader, freedom fighter, poet and much more, Kanafani’s words and message mean a lot to me…”
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
On August 5, 2020, Gazaleh posted on Instagram an image that featured Rasmea Odeh and other anti-Israel activists titled: “Save Arab American Studies.” In the post, Gazaleh wrote: “... #savearabamericanstudies #arabstudiesisethnicstudies #whodefinesethnicstudies #freepalestine #edwardsaid #rashidatlaib #nagidaifullah #rasmeaodeh #arabamerican.”
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 16, 2018, Gazaleh posted to Facebook a photo of a poster he designed, demanding “Justice for Israa [Jaabis].”
In October 2015, during the “Knife Intifada,” Israa Jaabis attempted but failed to detonate a car bomb at a military checkpoint after proclaiming: “Allahu Akbar [Allah is the Greatest].”
In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.
On October 29, 2015, Gazaleh shared to his Facebook a video titled “George Habash PFLP ‘We Are Not terrorists’.” Gazaleh added: “RIP [Rest in Peace] to a real leader!”
George Habash, who has been called “the godfather of Middle East terrorism,” was the founder of the PFLP terrorist organization.
Promoting Violence
On September 28, 2020, Gazaleh posted on Instagram a photo of a mural that glorified Palestinian stone-throwing. The mural depicted Israel’s security fence as a large concrete wall that transformed into a snake.
Gazaleh added to the post: “… Rest In Peace to all the martyrs back home, and also here in the US, all the people fighting for a goal I take my hat off to you and say thank you for being human! #freepalestine #intifada #freedom #throwrocks #divestfromwhitesupremacy.”
Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
On September 4, 2019, Gazaleh posted to Instagram a series of photos of murals he painted in Palestinian villages. One featured [slide 3] an illustration of akeffiyeh-masked man with a machine gun, flashing a “victory” sign.
Gazaleh added: “I am so grateful to be able to travel to my homeland, and contribute to my people’s struggle, whether it is violent resistance or resistance through art ...”
Anti-Israel Conspiracy Theories
On July 2, 2020, Gazaleh posted to Instagram: “Defend Palestine!! … No more theft of land and life by the greedy Zionist hands in bed with every major corporation in the US!! This is a war on a people!”On February 19, 2015, Gazaleh posted to Facebook: “ISIS, fools the world that it is Muslim, to get more average euro/americans to hate Muslim people. While claiming to be Muslim?? But really seems to be doing the dirty work the U.S and Israel need to be done...continue chaos in middle east, for further western expansion...hmmm.”
Gazaleh went on to say: “lets see who's really behind this ISIS fella. If it isn't that young punk ISRAEL, his old sidekick the US, and his sell out b**ch (m) Saudi Arabia.”
On March 17, 2015, Gazaleh posted to Facebook: “Israeli elections what doom the future of Israel holds OMG can the world be any more blind? Are Americans even paying attention? To their master state?”
The assertion that Jews secretly control the Western governments through banking and finance is traced to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a fabricated anti-Semitic text that portrays wealthy Jews as conspiring to take over the world. This anti-Semitic conspiracy theory has often employed the imagery from Nazi cartoons that depict Jews as octopuses encircling the globe.
Hatred of Israel
On April 20, 2022, Gazaleh posted on Instagram: “ … Israel which has 120 nukes but won’t admit it, is in its nature an aggressive tyrant in the region. It’s language is violence, since it’s inception driving fear into civilian populations to achieve its goals…”On June 19, 2020, Gazaleh posted on Instagram a photo that said “Zionism is racism since 1948” and added: “...Zionism is an ideology one that people took part in learning, it is the reason for a lot of islamophobia in our media, movies etc...”
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.
On May 13, 2020, Gazaleh posted to Instagram: “The Nakba has not ended, it’s an on going pandemic called colonialism.” Gazaleh added: “#resist,” and “#shaheed #gaza #whostheterrorist.”
The term “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.
Gazaleh commented that as part of the delegation, “artists will be traveling to multiple villages currently under attack by intrusive, racist, and discriminatory policies of the State of Israel, artists will learn from artists and people living under occupation how they use art and music as a form of resistance to the occupation.”
On June 22, 2018, Gazaleh posted to Instagram: “Right now millions of Palestinian youth in historic Palestine are subject to persecution by the systematically racist apartheid system of the Zionist State of Israel.“
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle 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.
Endorsing Violent Protests
On August 29, 2018, Gazaleh posted to Instagram: “FREE PALESTINE AND NOTHING LESS. I support all my brothers and sisters in Gaza flying kites lit with flames to raise [sic] stolen lands … #greatreturnmarch #palestine #neverforget…”
GUPS SFSU Activism
On November 3, 2016, Gazaleh posted to Instagram: “Tomorrow @sfsugups is celebrating a day of resistance commemorating the late Scholar, Educator and Humanist Dr. Edward Said and also the fact that we have a Mural reppin Palestines culture in our very own SF State campus that we fought very hard to put up back in 2008.”Gazaleh added: “It was an honor to have been on the mural committee with my other GUPS folks.” Gazaleh also attached an SFSU GUPS poster promoting a “9th Annual Edward Said Mural Celebration.”
On October 15, 2015, Gazaleh posted to Instagram: “Free Palestine stop lynching our youth! Our right to resist is out fight to exist. [sic].we must assert our identity! Through writing, drawing, painting, singing, film, any artistic way of self expression. #gups #pym #aroc #ayo #freepalestine protest today on California and Montgomery in front of Israeli consulate.”
Performing at National SJP 2019
The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/chris.gazalehInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.gazaleh/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-gazaleh-795932219/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzN6-iY8doQR9tVreGpqlqA
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
