Share:
Ismael Jimenez
Ismael Jimenez is a Philadelphia public school official who expressed support for Hamas terrorism, denied Hamas war crimes and spread hatred of Israel and America. He also glorified a domestic terrorist by placing a poster of her on his office door.
As of August 2024, Jimenez’s LinkedIn profile said he had been working as the director of social studies curriculum for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) since August 2022. He also said that he had been an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) since January 2022.
Jimenez and the SDP were at the center of an anti-Semitism scandal in 2023 and 2024, which included the SDP offering an anti-Israel professional training course to teachers. The full controversy is detailed further below in the profile.
Ismael Jimenez is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of August 2024, Jimenez’s LinkedIn said he had graduated from Temple University (Temple) with a master’s degree in secondary education and teaching in 2009, and that he was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On November 3, 2023, less than a month after Hamas terrorists killed approximately 1200 Israelis, Jimenez participated in the Ed Post podcast on an episode titled: “#FreedomFriday: Islamophobia, Anti-Semitism, and the Middle East.”
During the podcast, Jimenez said [00:31:41]: “When we look at October 7th… this didn't happen out of the blue, right? This is generations, right, of folks who have feel like their voice’s been denied.”
Jimenez then said [00:31:55], referring to the 2018 “March of Return”: “You know, if you actually look at what Gazans have been doing or Palestinians in Gaza have been doing they've been trying to have a right to return march, right? They’ve had ‘freedom rights’ almost. There’s been non-violent protests.”
In May 2018, terror organization Hamas instigated the “March of Return.” Thousands of violent rioters attempted numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence with Gaza, seeking to harm Jews across the border. Media reports confirmed [00:00:20] protesters’ breaches and attempted breaches of the fence, some by armed Palestinians. On May 15, 2018, senior Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar admitted the Gaza protests were only a pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
During the 2018 March of Return, Hamas routinely directed its members to infiltrate the border between Gaza and Israel to train for an attack on Israeli communities in the area, leading to the October 7, 2023 massacre. For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
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.
A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
On August 3, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Jimenez wrote on Facebook: “...if my land was taken by force…I would fight back. Just saying...#istandwithgaza.”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On July 31, 2024, during OPE, Jimenez commented on his post: “...Hamas represents the expression of anger at the apartheid laws and wall while stealing agreed Palestinian land from the 1967 peace agreement.”
In the same post, on August 4, 2024, Jimenez commented: “...Hamas was created after years of Israeli land grabs on agreed borders and repression. I view Israel as an extension of European colonial power and it is the duty of people who are victims of colonialization to resist…Israel has ties to terrorist organizations…”
On July 18, 2014, Jimenez posted on Facebook: “Free Palestine” in response to a screenshot he shared that read: “Blaming Hamas for firing rockets at Israel is like blaming a woman for punching her rapist. #GenocideinGaza#FreePalestine.”
On July 31, 2014, during Israel’s OPE, Jimenez posted on Facebook praising the Bolivian president for standing “against Israeli violence and the Israeli apartheid state.”
A Facebook user commented on Jimenez’s post: “Is he also calling Hamas terrorists?” to which Jimenez answered: “The focus is Israeli state violence…Also, it was proven recently that Hamas had nothing to do with kidnapping that started current invasion of the Gaza strip.”
On November 27, 2020, Jimenez shared on Facebook an image that read: “Israel is a terrorist state
#yeahisaidit.”
In the same post, a Facebook user commented that Israel’s apartheid was worse than the one that South Africa had to which Jimenez replied: “Same level. Only worse due to current recognized legitimization.”
On July 31, 2014, Jimenez wrote on Facebook: “Very few people are aware or even acknowledge the connection of Israel with the system of white supremacy…”
On July 14, 2014, Jimenez wrote on Facebook: “America provides 3.1 billion dollars of aid a year to the racist apartheid theocracy terrorist sponsoring state called Israel. Free Palestine and end minority colonial rule by Zionists!...”
Also on July 14, 2014, Jimenez commented on a Facebook post: “...I view Israel as an extension of western power and a colony regulating the majority Palestinian population behind walls with on and off occupation.”
On July 1, 2024, Jimenez shared on Instagram a screenshot that read: “What gets me about the United States is that it pretends to be honest and therefore has so little room to move toward hope…”
In his post, Jimenez wrote: “Never forget that all American presidents always used immunity for perpetuating systemic racism.”
On December 25, 2023, Jimenez shared on Instagram a screenshot that read: “American theology is racist; it identifies theology as a dispassionate analysis of ‘the tradition’, unrelated to the sufferings of the oppressed…”
On May 31, 2014, Jimenez wrote on Facebook: “...#Amerikkka.”
The term “Amerikkka” uses the initials of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a way to demonize America as “fascist or racist.”
On July 18, 2024, Jimenez posted on Instagram a photo of his office’s door at SDP that read: “ASSATA SHAKUR IS WELCOME HERE!” In the post, Jimenez wrote: “My office door helps to repel the nonsense 
.” Underneath the photo was the caption: “Republic of New Afrika,” the goal of an anti-American separatist movement.
Assata Shakur was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper and wounding another in 1973 while a member of the separatist Black Liberation Army (BLA). She escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba in 1984, where she resided until her death in September 2025. She was listed on the FBI Most Wanted Terror List under her legal name, Joanne Deborah Chesimard.
The BLA was a violent “Nationalist/Separatist” group with the stated goal to “take up arms for the liberation and self-determination of black people in the United States.” They wanted to create a country called the Republic of New Afrika out of five U.S. states in the American South. The group was active from 1970 to 1981 and its members were involved in bank robberies, the murder of police officers and other crimes.
As of August 2024, Jimenez’s LinkedIn profile said he had been working as the director of social studies curriculum for SDP since August 2022. His office was directly involved in an antisemitism scandal detailed below.
In November 2023, after Hamas terrorists murdered nearly 1,200 Israelis on October 7, 2023, SDP offered teachers an anti-Israel professional development course. The curriculum claimed that Israel was carrying out the “colonization of Palestine” and that Israel’s war against Hamas was a “genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.”
The course was titled: “Decolonizing the Curriculum: Brief History of Palestine and the Creation of Israel: Contextualizing the Current Conflict and Genocide.” A summary on the SDP portal said teachers would be “better equipped to have conversations and facilitate lessons with their students” about Israel. The course was listed as "Subject(s): Social Studies/History." After local news sites publicized the course, SDP removed it from the portal.
SDP continued to come under pressure from activist groups to teach anti-Israel material in K-12 classrooms, including groups representing teachers and parents. Two such groups were the Racial Justice Organizing Committee (RJOC) and the Philadelphia Educators for Palestine (PEFP), led by SDP high school teacher Keziah Ridgeway.
RJOC organized anti-Israel “teach-ins” in late 2023 and throughout 2024. RJOC also provided “Educator Lesson Plans” for teachers, listing as a resource the Teach Palestine Project, a pro-terror and anti-Israel teaching resource. In May 2024, PEFP called on SDP to meet six demands. Among them were: “to unequivocally condemn the ongoing genocide waged on the Palestinian people” and “to release a ceasefire resolution [with regard to Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists].”
SDP had been under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights since April 2024. In May 2024, a group of over 200 parents filed a complaint against the district. The complaint alleged there was “persistent harassment and bullying of Jewish students” and “inflammatory anti-Jewish and anti-Israel messages on social media and even in the classroom” by teachers and administrators at schools across Philadelphia.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.
