Daoud Al-Akhras
Overview
Daoud Al-Akhras was the co-president of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter that expressed support for terrorists and spread incitement in 2022-2023. Al-Akhras has also promoted hatred of Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism.In 2022, Al-Akhras introduced a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement resolution on campus and served as the “Treasurer Leader” of OSU’s Arab Student Union.
In September 2023, Al-Akhras received a “Hero Award” as one of the “Champions of the Divestment Resolution at The Ohio State University” from the Ohio Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Ohio)’s Annual Banquet.
As of May 2024, Al-Akhras’s LinkedIn profile said he had worked as a “Mergers and Acquisition Intern” at Worthington Enterprises since December 2023.
Al-Akhras, who also goes by Daoud Ahmed Al-Akhras, graduated [p. 18] from OSU in December 2023. As of May 2024, Al-Akhras’ LinkedIn said he received his bachelor’s degree in economics.
As of the same date, Al-Akhras’s LinkedIn said he was located in Dublin, Ohio.
Support for Terrorists
On August 12, 2022, while Al-Akhras served as co-president of SJP OSU, he was quoted in an article promoting an SJP OSU event titled: “EMERGENCY RALLY & CANDLELIGHT VIGIL In Honor of our Martyrs” to be held the same evening. One of the martyrs to be honored was Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi.Ibrahim Al-Nabulsi, a “commander” of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, was known as “the lion of Nablus.” On August 9, 2022, he was killed [p. 5] in a gun battle with Israeli forces. The Brigade is listed as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) by the U.S. State Department.
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.
Spreading Incitement
On April 20, 2022, SJP OSU promoted an April 22, 2022 event on Instagram titled: “COLUMBUS PROTEST.” The post’s description said: “We must stand in solidarity with all Palestinians as this occupational settler colonial violence escalates during the holy month [of Ramadan]…”The post continued: “HANDS OFF AL AQSA! WE NEED EVERYONE THERE. Bring your signs, flags and Kuffiyehs!...
FREE PALESTINE #HandsoffAlAqsa#FreePalestine.”The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
Incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers from May 10 to 21, 2021. In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel launched “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.
Also at the event, one of the protesters held [slide 3] a sign that said: “We talk about the holocaust that happened 80 years ago / But not the one that’s happening TODAY.”
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.
On May 12, 2021, SJP OSU posted on Facebook a flyer for an anti-Israel rally titled: “DEFEND PALESTINE!” The flyer read: “SUPPORT PALESTINIANS RESISTING IN SHEIKH JARRAH.”
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 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.
Hatred of Israel
On May 15, 2021, during OGW, Al-Akhras was featured [slide 5] in an Instagram Stories Highlights posted by SJP OSU titled: “FromCbus2
.” Al-Akhras held a sign that read: “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.”“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.
On May 1, 2022, Al-Akhras was featured [slide 8] in an SJP OSU Instagram video. In the video, Al-Akhras was seen sitting on top of a moving vehicle while chanting: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”
On March 3, 2023, SJP OSU group publicized a series of events for “Israel Apartheid Week.” They wrote: “During Israeli Apartheid Week, we hope to raise awareness of Israel’s brutal system of apartheid, settler-colonialism, and ethnic cleansing.”
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Another session called: “BDS: No Appetite for Apartheid,” aimed to discuss “food and beverage companies that are directly and implicitly involved in violating Palestinian rights…”
SJP OSU also promoted on the same Facebook post: “...see our display of a mock Israeli Apartheid Wall, a reflection of the existing Apartheid Wall in Palestine.”
Leading a BDS Campus Initiative
On March 23, 2022, Al-Akhras’s chapter of SJP at OSU released on Instagram a “Statement by the SJP Executive Board” demanding that OSU “immediately cut ties with companies that are complicit in ongoing human rights violations in Palestine…”On March 30, 2022, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at OSU held a General Assembly meeting where SJP OSU brought an “emergency resolution” based on their demands stated in the March 23, 2024, Instagram post.
On April 6, 2022, SJP OSU posted the resolution on Instagram. The resolution was reportedly co-sponsored by Rama Naboulsi, who served in the General Assembly of OSU USG and was the external outreach director of SJP OSU.
The BDS resolution, also known as 54-R-39, called on OSU to divest from Caterpillar Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, claiming [slide 1] these companies “aid in upholding a system of apartheid and oppression within the Occupied Palestinian Territory…”
On April 6, 2022, the resolution was reportedly voted on “by secret ballot” and passed “with 14 votes in support, eight votes against and two abstentions.”
On April 13, 2022, Al-Akhras’s chapter of SJP at OSU posted on Instagram that Resolution 54-R-39 “has been officially adopted into University Student Government (USG) legislation in accordance with the USG Constitution.”
However, according to an April 13, 2022 article published by OSU student publication The Lantern, the resolution was reportedly left unsigned by the former USG president, and therefore “not enacted…”
Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack against Israel, Al-Akhras signed [no. 100] a pro-BDS “Statement in Solidarity with Palestine: A Letter to Our University Community.”
The letter, which was published on November 1, 2023 by “faculty at The Ohio State University in solidarity with Palestine,” said: “We must not lose sight of the fact that the root cause of this cycle of violence is Israeli settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid.” The statement also called on the university to support the BDS movement.
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.
Anti-Israel Activism (CAIR)
On December 11, 2023, Al-Akhras reportedly spoke at a CAIR-Ohio press conference titled: “CAIR-Ohio Addresses the Crisis, U.S. Involvement in Gaza Genocide and Its Impact on Ohio Muslims.”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.
CAIR
CAIR describes itself as a “grassroots civil rights and advocacy group” and “America's largest Muslim civil liberties organization, with regional offices nationwide.” Its official mission is “enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.”
CAIR reportedly has “significant ties” to the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as Hamas. A number of former CAIR employees have been convicted on fraud and terrorism-related charges that resulted monetary fines, jail terms and, sometimes, deportation.
CAIR was founded in 1994 and opened its first office in Washington, DC, with the help of a $5,000 donation from the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), a charity founded by Mousa Abu Marzook.
Marzook, who was listed as a "Specially Designated Terrorist" by the U.S. Treasury Department in 1995, is reportedly a senior member of Hamas.
In May 2007, CAIR was listed as an “unindicted co-conspirator” in a U.S.-filed action against the HLF for providing funds to Hamas.
CAIR was also listed as a terrorist entity by the United Arab Emirates, in 2014.
