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Dayana Khatib

Overview

Dayana Khatib has demonized Israel and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. Khatib was a founding member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Columbia University. 

As of July 2019, Khatib’s LinkedIn page said she was Editor, Publications and Branding Coordinator at United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) Headquarters, based in Jerusalem. 

She also served as Religious Life Chair of the Columbia Muslim Students Association (MSA) during the 2010 - 2011 academic year.

As of July 2019, Khatib was listed as having volunteered with Learning for the Empowerment and Advancement of Palestinians (LEAP) “since its inaugural cycle of the SHINE Project in 2010.” 

As of the same date, Khatib was an active member of the LEAP Advisory Board and the lead coordinator at LEAP’s Summer Help In English (SHINE) program, since 2012.

Khatib’s LinkedIn page also said she graduated from Columbia University in the City of New York (CUNY) with a master’s degree in International Affairs in 2016 and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science in 2011.

Demonizing Israel

Khatib co-authored an article on behalf of SJP, originally published on April 12, 2010, updated on March 29, 2013, titled: “The Palestinian Gandhis,” that claimed Palestinians are “enclosed in ghettos” and referred to Israel’s security barrier as “the Apartheid Wall.”

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.


The article also claimed that Palestinians are “held in prison only for political reasons.”

Khatib co-authored an article, originally published on March 2, 2013, updated on March 27, 2013, in the Columbia Daily Spectator on behalf of SJP, titled: “Israel, peace not apartheid,” explaining why Israeli Apartheid Week members chose to erect a wall on campus “rather than engage in dialogue toward ‘peace.’"   

The article said the opinion that Israel’s security barrier “is necessary in order to ensure Israel's security” it was a “completely unacceptable” one.

It also criticized the coinciding Israel Peace Week, saying that people: “[r]emaining ignorant of the wall or writing it off as a mere security apparatus is offensive…”

The article also insistedthat all the stated grievances under the various iterations of the Palestinian call to boycott Israel, including“the right of return for Palestinian refugees under UN Resolution 194” were “issues that must be resolved before Palestinians and Israelis can truly discuss peace.

Promoting BDS

On March 27, 2013, Khatib co-authored an SJP article,titled: “Israeli Apartheid Week: A call for action,” which promoted BDS and Israel Apartheid Week. The article suggested that boycotting Israel was akin to boycotting Apartheid South Africa. 

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

The article accused Israel of “three systems of oppression” including a “system of racial discrimination against Palestinian citizens of Israel” and “the persistent denial of the U.N.-sanctioned rights of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Employment at UNRWA

As of July 2019, Khatib’s LinkedIn page said she worked for UNRWA, based in Jerusalem, in three different roles since 2012. 

The United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) has been accused of hiring militants and providing armsto Hamas terrorists. Hamas rockets have been found in UNRWA schools on numerous occasions.
 
In 2015, the U.S. Congress found that "[t]he curriculum of UNRWA schools, which use the textbooks of their respective host governments or authorities, has long contained materials that are anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and supportive of violent extremism.” 
 
UNRWA school teachers have reportedly carried terrorist acts while working at UNRWA and frequently posted anti-Semitic cartoons and texts.  


According to her LinkedIn page, from July 2012 to 2014 Khatib was Communications, Branding and Visibility Coordinator at UNRWA in the West Bank and from April 2017 to January 2018, she was Communications Specialist at UNRWA West Bank. 

Also as of July 2019, Khatib’s LinkedIn page said she was Editor, Publications and Branding Coordinator at UNRWA Headquarters starting in April 2018.

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.


MSA

The MSA was  established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations." 


The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.


The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.  

Social Media and Weblinks

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100018164944349 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dayana_khatib [Private]

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dayanakhatib/ [Private]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dayana-khatib-5222a311b/
Dayana Khatib
Status:
Professional
University:
Columbia
Organizations:
BDS,
MSA,
more...
SJP

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Last Modified:
06/23/2025

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