Jens Hanssen
Overview
Jens Hanssen [Jens-Peter Hanssen] has expressed support for terrorists and spread hatred of Israel. He has also opposed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.Hanssen is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In 2021, Hanssen co-founded the “Hearing Palestine” initiative at the University of Toronto (U of T), which states that its mission is to “Provide an intellectual hub for the study of Palestine.” As of May 2024, Hanssen was listed as a member of its steering committee.
As of May 2024, Hanssen was listed on the U of T website as an associate professor of Arab civilization and Middle Eastern and Mediterranean history in the departments of History and Near and Middle Eastern civilizations.
As of the same date, Hanssen was also listed on the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) website as a professor of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean history in the Department of Historical Studies.
Also as of May 2024, Hanssen was listed as being on leave from the University of Toronto from July 2023 through June 2026.
As of May 2024, Hanssen served as the director of the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB).
Also as of May 2024, Hanssen was listed as having received a PhD in history from Oxford University (Oxford) in 2001. He also graduated from Oxford with a master’s degree in Oriental studies in 1995.
As of the same date, Hanssen’s Facebook About page said he was located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Support for Terrorists
On September 8, 2021, Hanssen shared on Facebook an op-ed titled: “Yes, the Palestinian Prison Escapees Are Freedom Fighters.” The op-ed expressed support for six escaped Palestinian terrorists and celebrated their “right to use violence to resist an [Israeli] occupation that is crueler and more violent than any Palestinian terror.”On September 6, 2021, six Palestinian prisoners escaped from the maximum-security Gilboa Prison in Israel. The escaped prisoners were convicted members of the terror organizations Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, who were jailed for their involvement in attacks carried out during the second intifada. All were recaptured by September 19, 2021, by Israeli authorities.
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti- Semitic violence.
Hatred of Israel
On May 18, 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against terrorists in Gaza, Hanssen co-authored a Hearing Palestine statement expressing “solidarity with the Palestinian people in this time of escalating Israeli bombardment of Gaza, of relentless assaults on Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, in Haifa, Lydd [Lod] and other towns.”In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.
On May 11, 2021, during OGW, violent Arab riots broke out in Israel’s mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod and in other Israeli cities with large Arab populations. The rioters in Lod reportedly raised Hamas and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) flags and attacked Israeli civilians with slabs and rocks, as well as firebombs and metal rods. Rioters also torched synagogues, cars and businesses, and vandalized hospital medical equipment, schools and government buildings.
The statement Hanssen co-authored accused Israel of “apartheid” and characterized the BDS movement as “anti-racist criticism of Israel.”
On December 13, 2017, Hanssen reportedly received an email from a Jewish, pro-Israel student, asking for advice with regard to pursuing a PhD in Middle Eastern studies.
Hansson replied the same day, refusing to meet the student on “ethical and academic grounds.” Hansson accused him of being part of a cohort of “Israeli advocacy activists sent to North American campuses” who had received instruction on “how to approach professors, students and administrators and convince them that legitimate, non-violent criticism of the state of Israel amounts to discrimination against Jews everywhere.”
Hanssen signed a July 26, 2016 anti-Israel statement titled: “Open letter regarding U of T partnerships.” The letter criticized an article about a U of T student visit to Jerusalem on an urban studies field course trip.
The letter claimed that U of T, through a partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, passively reproduced “social violence and inequality.” The statement called on the administration “to clarify its own ethics of engagement for its partnerships in cities characterized by radical inequality…”
Hanssen signed [no. 48] a March 2016 anti-Israel statement titled: “Declaration of Faculty and Librarians in Support of the GSU [Graduate Student Union] Campaign for Divestment from the Israeli Occupation.” The statement called on U of T to “divest its holdings in companies directly profiting from the ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territories.”
In the wake of Israel’s July 2014 Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Hanssen signed an anti-Israel letter condemning the Canadian government for focusing “exclusively on denouncing Hamas’s rocket strikes” and “uncritically proclaiming Israel’s right to self-defence.” It also accused Israel of “Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza.”
Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Also in 2014, Hanssen signed [p. 5] a letter condemning the Ontario Legislature for passing a motion denouncing Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) campus events. The letter framed IAW as “a campaign to reveal the true nature of the Israeli occupation.”
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.
On December 13, 2017, Hanssen reportedly received an email from a Jewish, pro-Israel student, asking for advice with regard to pursuing a PhD in Middle Eastern studies.
Hansson replied the same day, refusing to meet the student on “ethical and academic grounds.” Hansson accused him of being part of a cohort of “Israeli advocacy activists sent to North American campuses” who had received instruction on “how to approach professors, students and administrators and convince them that legitimate, non-violent criticism of the state of Israel amounts to discrimination against Jews everywhere.”
Hanssen signed a July 26, 2016 anti-Israel statement titled: “Open letter regarding U of T partnerships.” The letter criticized an article about a U of T student visit to Jerusalem on an urban studies field course trip.
The letter claimed that U of T, through a partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, passively reproduced “social violence and inequality.” The statement called on the administration “to clarify its own ethics of engagement for its partnerships in cities characterized by radical inequality…”
Hanssen signed [no. 48] a March 2016 anti-Israel statement titled: “Declaration of Faculty and Librarians in Support of the GSU [Graduate Student Union] Campaign for Divestment from the Israeli Occupation.” The statement called on U of T to “divest its holdings in companies directly profiting from the ongoing military occupation of Palestinian territories.”
In the wake of Israel’s July 2014 Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Hanssen signed an anti-Israel letter condemning the Canadian government for focusing “exclusively on denouncing Hamas’s rocket strikes” and “uncritically proclaiming Israel’s right to self-defence.” It also accused Israel of “Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on civilian life and infrastructure in Gaza.”
Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Also in 2014, Hanssen signed [p. 5] a letter condemning the Ontario Legislature for passing a motion denouncing Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) campus events. The letter framed IAW as “a campaign to reveal the true nature of the Israeli occupation.”
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.
Opposing the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism
In February 2020, Hanssen signed [no. 37] an anti-Israel statement by Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV Canada) titled: “Open Letter from 650+ Canadian Academics Opposing the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism.”The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights multiple forms of contemporary anti-Semitism related to Israel, including “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” and “Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 other countries have adopted the definition as well.
The IHRA also highlights another form of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
The letter Hanssen signed also claimed that the IHRA definition was “worded in such a way as to intentionally equate legitimate criticisms of Israel and advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism.” The letter also said the definition “undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against antisemitism.”
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
University Webpage:https://www.history.utoronto.ca/people/directories/all-faculty/jens-hanssenUniversity Webpage 2:https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/people/jens-hanssen
University Webpage 3:https://discover.research.utoronto.ca/1004-jens-hanssen
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/jens.hanssen.16
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/jens.hanssen.16/
Academia.edu:https://utoronto.academia.edu/JensHanssen
ResearchGate:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jens-Hanssen
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@jenshanssen8290
