James Zogby
Overview
James Zogby [James Joseph Zogby] has expressed support for terrorists, spread hatred of Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.Zogby co-founded the Arab American Institute (AAI) in 1985 and has served as its president since the organization’s inception. AAI is based in Washington, D.C.
As of June 2023, Zogby was also the Managing Director of Zogby Research Services (ZRS).
As of the same date, Zogby was listed as a fellow at the Sanders Institute.
As of June 2023, Zogby’s personal website said he “currently serves” in the Democratic National Committee (DNC) as the Chair of the Ethnic Council. He also served on the DNC’s Executive Committee from 2000-2017 and was the Co-Chair of the party's Resolutions Committee for “more than a decade.”
Zogby’s personal website said he was appointed in 2013 by then-President Barack Obama to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. He was reappointed for a second term in 2015. Zogby also served as an advisor to the Al Gore, Obama and Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns in 2000, 2008 and 2016.
As of July 2023, Zogby’s personal website said he had been a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) post-doctoral fellow at Princeton University (Princeton) in 1976, and that he received a PhD in Islamic studies from Temple University (Temple) in 1975.
As of June 2023, Zogby’s Twitter bio indicated that he was located in Washington, D.C.
As of the same date, Zogby used the handle “@jjz1600” on Twitter.
Support for Terrorism
On July 18, 2022, Zogby tweeted: “ … I made this poster 30 years ago about [Nelson Mandela’s] support for Palestinians. And I was able to get it signed both by him and Yasser Arafat. It hangs in my office.”Marwan Barghouti is currently 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 Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
Most of the Gazans who died between March 30 and April 6, 2018, were identified as terror operatives who were killed while carrying out terrorist attacks, rioting against IDF forces or attempting to breach the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip.
On April 22, 2017, Zogby tweeted: “#palestinianprisoners demands - just, #Israeli prison policy - deplorable. #HungerStrike cuz #barghouti ‘no choice but to resist this abuse.’”
The “Dignity Strike” was a hunger strike initiated on April 16, 2017, by Marwan Barghouti, the terrorist who financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike, most of whom were also incarcerated for acts of terrorism.
Hatred of Israel
Palestinians are human beings, not sheep to be herded. / By making the US the enforcer of [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu’s genocide, Trump puts the US at risk.”
The “Lions’ Den” [عرين الأسود]is an independent “armed group” with operatives hailing from various other Palestinian terrorist organizations. The group reportedly emerged from Nablus in August 2022. The Lions’ Den has claimed responsibility for the death of Israeli soldiers. They also targeted Israeli civilians in multiple terror attacks in October and November 2022.
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 and encourage 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.
On September 26, 2022, Zogby tweeted: “I’m still steaming mad at this vicious, dishonest, ganging up against @RashidaTlaib. Israel apologists know they’re losing the debate & so they’re abusing antiSemitism to silence Palestinian voices. Calling Israel an Apartheid state isn’t antiSemitism, it’s speaking the truth.”
On August 18, 2022, Zogby tweeted: “Overnight, Israeli forces raided offices of the 6 Palestinian human rights groups they falsely accused of being ‘terror fronts’ & tried to get Europeans to w/draw [withdraw] support from the groups. After Europeans rejected the charges, Israel raided & shut them down. #ApartheidIsrael.”
In October 2021, Israel’s minister of defense declared six Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be “terror organizations” operating “as an arm” for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The groups were accused of funneling donor aid to militants and employing senior PFLP members, “including activists involved in terror activity.” PFLP is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States, the EU, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Australia and Israel.
On August 7, 2022, Zogby tweeted: “It’s outrageous that the Biden Ad. gave Israel ‘full-throated support’ for its murderous ‘preemptive’ assault on Palestinians in Gaza. Israel started it, egged it on, & Palestinians were sitting ducks. US denounces Russia for crimes but absolves Israeli crimes. Double standard.”
In August 2022, terror organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) threatened attacks on Israeli civilians. Israel preemptively launched Operation Breaking Dawn (OBD). Both PIJ’s northern and southern senior commanders in Gaza, Tayseer al-Jabari and Khaled Mansour, were killed in targeted Israeli airstrikes. PIJ responded by launching more than 1,000 rockets toward Israeli cities.
On May 15, 2022, Zogby tweeted: “...we remember the bitter price paid by Palestinians. They lost their country, homes, & properties. They were forced into harsh exile as refugees. & yet still Palestinians remember & resolved to regaining their rights. Remember the Nakba!”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”
On November 9, 2019, Zogby tweeted: “30 yrs after the #BerlinWall came down, Israel’s oppressive wall continues to deny Palestinian freedom. Israelis won’t let you call it a ‘wall’ - they insist on ‘barrier’ or ‘fence.’ But it’s a damn wall. It steals Palestinian land & denies them movement. It must come down.”
On November 10, 2017, Zogby tweeted: “#Israel’s ethnic cleansing of #Palestinians is a never-ending horror.”
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/profile.php?id=110541715664100Twitter:https://twitter.com/jjz1600
Clubhouse:https://www.clubhouse.com/@jameszogby
Personal Website/Blog:https://jameszogby.com/
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- Organizations:
- AAI,
- BDS
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
