Dina Hamadi

Overview

Dina Hamadi has glorified terrorists, supported the disruption of two campus events and endorsed the violent March of Return. Hamadi was reportedly the 2018 Outreach Chair with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Houston (UH).

Hamadi is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Hamadi attended the 2018 National SJP Conference.

The 2018 National SJP conference was held on November 16-18, 2018 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The conference was themed “Radical Hope: Resistance in the Face of Adversity.” The conference website stated: “[t]he reason we can have hope is that Zionism...can be destroyed.”

Hamadi was also an organizer of the 2017 National SJP Conference at UH.

As of March 2019, Hamadi was listed as a member of the Muslim Students Association (MSA) at UH (UH MSA) Facebook group, since August 2016. Hamadi was also a member of the “CODEPINK DC” Facebook group since April 2018.

As of July 2019, Hamadi’s Instagram and Twitter indicated that she was slated to graduate UH in 2019.

Also as of July 2019, Hamadi said on Twitter that she had “just turned in her last undergraduate essay. I AM OFFICIALLY D.O.N.E.”

As of July 2019, Hamadi used the name “Dina Mohammad” on Facebook.

Glorifying Terrorists

On April 16, 2018, Hamadi wrote an article in UH’s student newspaper, The Daily Cougar, titled: “Palestinian women are suffering under Israeli occupation.”

In the piece, Hamadi called Leila Khaled: “Palestine’s most famous icon of resistance.” Hamadi idealized Khaled's hijacking of a plane so she "could see her hometown" and said that Khaled’s “attacks received international recognition and revitalized the question of Palestine internationally.”

Khaled is a leader 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 for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister.

Hamadi also characterized female terrorists as “ready for an intifada and their organizing acted as the backbone of the resistance.”

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.

Hamadi also called Israel an “apartheid state” and accused it of “crimes against humanity.”

Supported Disruptions on Campus

On May 18, 2018, in anticipation of a presentation by then-US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, Hamadi tweeted: “#NotOurCampus #CancelNikkiatUH.”

On May 22, 2018, Mohamad Fattouh, an SJP UH student officer, disrupted Haley’s on-campus presentation. Fattouh shouted [00:00:11] that Haley was “continuing to sign off on the genocide of a native people. You are an accomplice to terrorists and colonizers!”

Another SJP UH activist led protestors in chanting [00:00:25] “Nikki Nikki can’t you see? You allowed a killing spree” as well as [00:00:33] “Haley Haley you can’t hide, you signed off on genocide!”

After police escorted them out of the auditorium, the SJP UH protestors chanted [00:01:55] “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!” as they exited the building.

Following the disruption that was led by SJP UH against Haley, Hamadi joined [00:02:41] activists who continued the protest outside the event.

The day of the disruption, Hamadi tweeted: “#NikkiSidesWithGenocide” and attached a series of photos of the demonstrators published by UH student newspaper, The Daily Cougar. Hamadi appeared in some of the published photos.

On May 24, 2018, Hamadi tweeted: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. We have nothing to lose but our chains. #NikkiSidesWithGenocide #FreePalestine”

That day Hamadi also tweeted: “University of MF HOUSTON

mama we made it #NikkiSidesWithGenocide #FreePalestine.”

On September 6, 2018, Hamadi tweeted: “Last time @SJPHouston was at Cullen Perfomance Hall, we walked out on Nikki Haley for supporting the genocide of Palestinians.”

In 2017, Hamadi spoke before a crowd of SJP activists who disrupted a lecture at the University of Houston given by David Horowitz. Hamadi referred to Horowitz as “Horsewitz” and shouted: “it’s important that people like David Horsewitz, who spew hatred and target us personally, are not allowed on our campus.”

On November 3, 2017, SJP activists disrupted [00:06:52] a talk by Horowitz at UH. During his presentation, when Horowitz stated [00:06:52] that SJP was “created by Hamas,” some students began snapping their fingers. Activists then stood up, holding Palestinian and a Pan African/Black Liberation flag and yelled [00:07:04] at Horowitz.

The protesters began shouting: “Zionists! Off our campus! Racists! Off our campus! Islamophobes! Off our campus!” The protesters then walked out [00:07:59] of the lecture hall, where they continued to chant [00:00:05].

The disrupters included members of other campus organizations that were part of the Cougar Voice Coalition (CVC): the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Muslim Students Association (MSA), United Muslim Relief (UMR) Houston and Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) Houston.

Endorsing the Violent March of Return

On November 2, 2018, Hamadi tweeted: “32 weeks strong. Palestinians are resilient, persistent, and enduring. #GreatReturnMarch.”

On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The March of Return was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.

March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Participants also attempted to breach the border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.

Agitators threw Molotov cocktails, firebombs, shot firearms and threw rocks under the cover of smoke from burning tires.

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

On April 11, 2018, Hamadi co-wrote an opinion piece for The Daily Cougar with fellow SJP UH activists Brant Roberts and Sarah Tawashy, titled: “Roundtable: How is the US involved in Palestinian ethnic cleansing?”

In the piece, Hamadi and her fellow activists called the Great March of Return “a peaceful rally” that was “met with severe violence.” The trio also accused Israel of “shooting unarmed civilians.”

Most of the Gazans who died between March 30, 2018 and April 11, 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.

Hamadi, Roberts and Tawashy also claimed: “Ethnic cleansing and genocide are at the root of Israel’s mission.”

SJP Activism

On September 12, 2018, Hamadi posted to Facebook: “I can't wait for tonight! I learn something new at every Palestine 101 ❤️” on the Facebook event page of a SJP UH’s “Palestine 101.”

On May 8, 2017, Hamadi participated in Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) organized by SJP at UH. Hamadi was one of several student activists representing SJP UH who held a sign that read: “Ask me about Palestine.”

Israel 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.

The event featured a mock version of Israel’s security barrier on campus. Text on the barrier read: “If you want to find a safe place in Gaza, do not stand beside a child.”

Another piece of text read: “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques and slums to attack a population that has no airforce, no navy, army and calls it a war. It is not war, it is murder.”

Supporting BDS

As of March 2019, Hamadi had “#FreePalestine #BDS” on her Twitter bio.
On December 7, 2018, Hamadi tweeted: “Viva Palestina!” Her tweet embedded a tweet by the BDS movement.

The BDS movement tweet that said: “The City Council of Valencia (in the Spanish state) & the Spanish Network Against the Occupation of Palestine held a conference on how councils across the country can apply #BDS to support Palestinian rights & create #ApartheidFreeZones.”

Attending the 2018 National SJP Conference

On September 24, 2018, Hamadi tweeted: “Students and organizers across the nation will be gathering this November to build power in the pursuit of Palestinian liberation. Consider supporting NSJP today with a donation! @NationalSJP http://tinyurl.com/y9cr34f5 #NSJP2018.”

On November 22, 2018, Hamadi was featured in a Facebook photo of the 2018 National SJP Steering Committee members.

2018 National SJP - Celebrating Violence

During the 2018 National SJP conference, anti-Israel activist Mohammed Nabulsi led the attendees in the chant [00:00:52] “Long Live the Intifada! Intifada! Intifada!”

Since the early 2000’s, the term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence. The second intifada was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.

Anti-Israel activist Omar Zahzah also reportedly [00:00:07] led National SJP attendees in chanting, in Arabic, “With our bodies and our blood, we will free Palestine.”

As of November 2018, the 2018 National SJP website glorified “radical hope and upfront defiance of Zionism,” citing as examples the “early revolts through the Intifadas to the Great Return March.”

The Great Return March of 2018 was organized and funded by the terror group Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.

Tens of thousands of rioters gathered on Israel’s Gaza border, attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with leaders andparticipants declaring their intention to harm Jews.

National SJP originally promoted a conference logo featuring a keffiyeh-wearing bear, looking toward a kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag.

On October 27, 2018, National SJP said the kite signified “the power in the Gaza March of Return.”

Since March 2018, March of Return participants and Hamas’s “Kite Unit” have sent hundreds of kites bearing incendiary devices and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) across the border into Israel to terrorize Israelis. The kites are often marked with swastikas.

By the time National SJP produced its 2018 conference logo highlighting the kites in October 2018, Gazan terror kites and balloons had ignited more than 1,300 fires in Israel, over seven months.

2018 National SJP - Undermining U.S. Support for Israel

On November 18, 2018, the US Palestine Community Network (USPCN) posted on Facebook the 2018 National SJP keynote speech by Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN’s co-founder.

Abudayyeh has supported [00:08:45] convicted terrorists, praised terror organizations, called for Israel’s destruction and is an activist in theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In his 2018 National SJP Keynote, Abudayyeh said [00:53:01] that the “specific role” of Palestinian and Arab students was to organize [00:53:42] in order to weaken “Zionist Israel” and force [00:54:23] the U.S. to “no longer provide it with diplomatic, political, financial and military cover and support.”

Abudayyeh predicted [00:55:37] that once U.S. support to Israel ends, National SJP attendees would return to Palestine as “conquering heroes,” end [00:54:38] the “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands including the Golan Heights” and replace “Zionist Israel” with a Palestinian state.

2018 National SJP - Whitewashing Terror Organizations

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh also painted [00:14:01] terrorist organizations as “liberation movements” and “resistance organizations,” stating [00:14:21] “what we also know is that the majority of the resistance organizations in Palestine are on the U.S. state department list of foreign terrorist organizations.”

Abudayyeh also celebrated [00:52:00] that all of the “armed resistance” organizations in Gaza are part [00:52:14] of a “unified resistance in Gaza, that includes all of the resistance organizations, working together under a unified military command.”

2018 National SJP - Defending Terrorist Rasmea Odeh

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh claimed [00:08:28] that pro-Israel organizations “go after students like you,” adding [00:08:20] “just like they went after my friend and colleague, Rasmea Odeh.”

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.

Abudayyeh added that he was asked [00:08:45] to talk about Odeh’s case, and praised SJP and SDS students who organized [00:09:15] “absolutely valuable” events on behalf [00:9:11] of Odeh, “as she was fighting to stay in the U.S.”

2018 National SJP - Demonizing Israel and Jews

During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh defended [00:27:25] the “Irvine 11” — eleven Muslim Student Union (MSA) members who were arrested in 2010 for repeatedly shouting down former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren during an address at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine).

Abudayyeh referred [00:27:37] to Oren as a “racist fascist speaker, representative of a racist, fascist country.”

Abudayyeh went on to claim [00:29:48] that “today, even in the United States, Israel is finally being seen as the criminal, apartheid, racist state that it is.”

Abudayyeh also called for increased action in the face of President U.S. Donald Trump, and referred [00:48:41] to Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior advisor, as “that pig son-in-law of his.”

2018 National SJP - Excluding Students

The 2018 National SJP Conference welcomed only students who were verified and vouched for by an SJP (or otherwise named campus Palestine solidarity group). Media requests needed to be “approved by the NSJP press team” prior to the conference.

A November 7, 2018 Columbus Jewish News article reported that the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on UCLA to cancel the 2018 NSJP conference, stating that a “public university should not allow any group to implement a litmus test for event participation on their campus.”

On November 12, 2018, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that criticized National SJP’s exclusion of members of pro-Israel student groups.

SJP UH - Spreading Anti-Israel Propaganda

UH’s IAW featured a mock apartheid wall, erected on campus. Text on the wall read: “If you want to find a safe place in Gaza, do not stand beside a child.” Another piece of text read: “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques and slums to attack a population that has no airforce, no navy, army and calls it a war. It is not war, it is murder.”

SJP UH - Supporting Violence

On November 1, 2015, SJP UH shared a post on Facebook promoting demonstrations supporting anti-Israel violence. The rallies, held in both Houston and Austin, were co-organized by SJP UH and the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at Austin, TX (PSCAT) and urged: “…Long Live the Resistance! Long Live the Intifada!”

October 2015 saw an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” saw young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab scores of Israeli civilians.

On August 18, 2014, SJP UH and UH MSA co-organized an event featuring Sheikh Omar Suleiman. SJP UH’s Facebook announcement billed Suleiman as a “vocal human rights supporter.”

In 2014, Imam Omar Suleiman called on Twitter for a “Third Intifada” to destroy Israel. His tweet perpetuated the incendiary claim that Israel intended to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

SJP UH - Pushing BDS

On November 1, 2015, SJP UH shared an event on Facebook announcing plans for a UH Divest campaign and new Facebook page. The event aimed to discuss “all potential strategies” to bring BDS to UH. Proposed strategies included:

Revamped tabling and silent demonstrations

Discussing BDS and ways to succeed/make an impact with friends from other campuses

BDS Workshops to teach the student body what BDS is and why we support it

Connecting with and helping other minority organizations on campus

SJP UH - Spreading Propaganda

On October 1, 2017, SJP UH shared a Facebook post that read: “17 years ago today, 12yr old Muhammad Al-Durra was shot dead on LIVE TV in his father's arms.
#Coogs4Palestine #FreePalestine.”

The Al-Durah hoax is an iconic piece of anti-Israel propaganda, fabricated on September 30, 2000 at the start of the Second Intifada by a France 2 reporter.

On May 8, 2017, SJP UH organized Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) on UH’s campus. One IAW event featured a mock “apartheid wall” erected on campus. Text on the wall read: “If you want to find a safe place in Gaza, do not stand beside a child.” Other text read: “Israel uses sophisticated attack jets to bomb densely crowded refugee camps, schools, apartment blocks, mosques and slums to attack a population that has no airforce, no navy, army and calls it a war. It is not war, it is murder.”

Throughout the summer of 2014 — during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) — Hamas’ continued deployment of human shields was extensively documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged gazans to act as human shields, to specifically frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel commenced OPEin July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

SJP UH - Supporting Terrorists

On September 5, 2017, SJP UH shared a graphic on Facebook of an image and quote by Leila Khaled.

Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.

On May 25, 2017, SJP UH rallied behind convicted Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails on hunger strike, by organizing a “symbolic hunger strike” and participating in a Saltwater Challenge. The event organizers wrote on the Facebook event page: “we demand that Israel end its policies of apartheid, colonization, military occupation, displacement, dispossession, and mass incarceration.”

The hunger strike was initiated by Marwan Barghouti, who was serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings — and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second Intifada. Barghouti led the the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Barghouti also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.

More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike — most of whom were also convicted for acts of terrorism.

According to CNN , the “Saltwater Challenge” appears to have been started by Aarab Marwan Barghouti, the son of Marwan Barghouti.

On May 26, 2017, SJP UH joined protesters outside the Israeli consulate chanting (1:46): “1234, open up the prison doors… We will fight day and night… to support the hunger strike…”

On March 28, 2016, SJP UH shared a post on Facebook supporting terrorist Rasmea Odeh.

Odeh was a key military operative [00:02:08]with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket. Odeh also attempted to bomb the British consulate.

Odeh confessed, in a highly detailed account, the day following her arrest. In a 2004 documentary, one of Odeh’s co-conspirators directly implicated [00:10:53] Odeh as the mastermind.

In 1970, an Israeli court tried and convicted Odeh for her involvement in both bombings and sentenced her to life imprisonment. However, Odeh was released 10 years later, in a prisoner swap and emigrated to the United States.

On November 10, 2014, a Michigan federal jury convicted Odeh for immigration fraud because she failed to disclose her prior conviction and life sentence on her immigration application. On March 12, 2015, she was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

In 2017, after an appeal and a lengthy court battle, Odeh admitted to immigration fraud, was stripped of her U.S. citizenship, deported to Jordan and banned from re-entering the U.S.

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.

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.

Code Pink

CODEPINK is a U.S.-based activist group founded in 2002 by Jodie Evans, Medea Benjamin and other activists to oppose the American invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The group actively opposes “U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine” and has been criticized for maintaining close ties to Hamas. CODEPINK also promotes the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

CODEPINK has led a number of solidarity delegations to Gaza under Hamas protection. In March 2014, CODEPINK also helped organize an “International Women's Day” delegation to Gaza. However, upon arriving at the Cairo airport on March 3, 2014, Benjamin was detained by Egyptian authorities and refused entry into Gaza. She was then forcibly deported to Turkey.

CODEPINKBDS campaigns have targeted RE/MAX, Ahava, SodaStream, Hewlett Packard and Airbnb. On November 20, 2016, CODEPINK leader Ariel Gold disrupted a speech given by the actor Ashton Kutcher, an Airbnb investor who defended the company. Gold was escorted off the stage by security.

In September 2008, a number of CODEPINK leaders met with former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a notorious anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. CODEPINK reportedly initiated its anti-Israel campaign followeding meeting. In November 2008, Jodie Evans and a CODEPINK contingent visited Iran at the personal invitation of Ahmadinejad.