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Kelly Hui
Kelly Hui [Kelly X. Hui] has expressed support for terrorists and spread hatred of Israel and Zionists.
Hui has also justified antisemitism and showed support for a Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) initiative launched by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter at the University of Chicago (SJP UChicago) in 2023. Hui has engaged in other anti-Israel activism and was affiliated [p. 5] with SJP UChicago in 2021.
In February 2022, Hui was reportedly an organizer for CareNotCops (CNC), a campus group “dedicated to the abolition of the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD).”
As of May 2023, Hui’s LinkedIn page said Hui was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in “English, Critical Race & Ethnic Studies, Creative Writing” at UChicago, slated to graduate in 2024.
As of the same date, Hui’s LinkedIn said Hui was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow at UChicago. Hui’s LinkedIn page also said Hui was the Head Viewpoints Editor of the UChicago student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, from January 2021 to October 2022 and a Viewpoints Columnist from September 2020 to June 2021.
As of May 2023, Hui’s LinkedIn page said Hui had been working as a barista at Grounds of Being: The Divinity School Coffee Shop, since September 2022.
Hui’s LinkedIn page also said Hui was a communications fellow for “Ed Markey for U.S. Senate” from March to November 2020. Hui was also an intern for the Michelle Wu for Boston City Council At-Large campaign from June to August 2019.
As of May 2023, Hui’s LinkedIn indicated Hui was studying and working in Chicago, Illinois. However, as of the same date, Hui’s Facebook page said Hui lived in Lexington, Massachusetts.
As of May 2023, Hui went by the username “kelly” and the handle “@halfmoonpoem” on Twitter.
Hui retweeted a January 26, 2023 tweet that concluded: “death to israel.” The tweet featured photos and text memorializing Palestinian terrorists who died in a shootout with the Israeli army.
On January 26, 2023, nine Palestinians were killed in a shootout after IDF soldiers entered the Jenin refugee camp to arrest a cell of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists, who were reportedly planning a terror attack. During the attempted arrests, members of the cell as well as other Palestinian gunmen opened fire on the soldiers.
Hui retweeted a February 6, 2023 tweet from SJP UChicago that defended the group’s campus protest held four days earlier in support of the same Palestinian terrorists. In the tweet that Hui retweeted, SJP UChicago called the protest “a campus demonstration honoring 10 Palestinians massacred in Jenin.”
On May 13, 2021, Hui tweeted to Boston Mayor Michelle Wu during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas.
Hui wrote: “i’m asking my candidate @wutrain to condemn the actions of the israeli government & stand up for the people of palestine. michelle is running on a platform of justice—that should mean supporting the liberation of palestinians from settler colonial violence & ethnic cleansing.”
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 January 22, 2022, Hui tweeted: “Zionists frame the dispossession of Palestinians under talk of ‘legal disputes,’ but we know the truth: what we’re seeing across all of Palestine is ethnic cleansing. Liberation will not occur through courts but through the resistance of the people. #SaveSheikhJarrah #SaveAlNaqab [Israel’s Negev region].”
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.
In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
Hui retweeted a February 5, 2022 tweet from SJP UChicago that read: “Zionist classes at UChicago perpetuate Palestinian erasure and normalize settler-colonialism, all behind a veneer of objectivity and intellect. Boycott these classes and those taught by Israeli fellows to show you're not complicit in the Zionist oppression of Palestinians!”
Hui retweeted a November 14, 2022 tweet from Northwestern University’s SJP chapter (SJP NU) that said: “
From the River to the Sea, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE…”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel. It has also been employed by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal to call for the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
The tweet included a photo [slide 1] of a banner hung on a campus fence that said: “FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA PALESTINE WILL BE FREE.” The banner was created with over 40 copies of a student op-ed that said: "...the NU administration should consider 'From the River to the Sea' as a hateful slogan and treat it as such."
On December 13, 2022, Hui tweeted about U.S. Senator Ed Markey, writing: “sometimes how i think about how i worked comms [communications] as a fellow for a senate campaign & got paid nothing & the first speech i wrote had a phrase in it that become a popular campaign slogan & then the senator absolutely broke my belief in politics forever bc he was (is!) a zionist.”
On the same day, Hui tweeted: “seriously i was spending every day during the pandemic writing my silly talking points doing my silly phone banks all for a zionist,,,embarrassing.”
On April 2, 2022, in Hui’s capacity as the Head Viewpoints Editor of The Chicago Maroon, Hui co-wrote an article with Elizabeth Winkler in which Hui apologized to SJP UChicago and retracted a student editorial that condemned SJP UChicago’s “continued pattern of antisemitism.”
Toward the end of the letter, Hui and Winkler admitted that their decision to retract the editorial “may affect Jewish students on campus” and “could be seen as stifling Jewish voices.”
The student editorial that Hui retracted was published on February 17, 2022, and it was titled: “We Must Condemn the SJP’s Online Antisemitism.” The editorial read: “The SJP’s recent calls to boycott Jewish-taught and -related classes, posted to Instagram on Holocaust Remembrance Day, are anti-Semitic and must be condemned.”
In the article, the authors criticized SJP UChicago’s January 26, 2022 Instagram post urging students to "support the Palestinian liberation by boycotting classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows," under a heading that read: "Don't Take S**tty Zionist Classes." SJP UChicago also wrote: “Boycott these classes that serve as vehicles to spread Zionist propaganda on college campuses.”
On March 2, 2022, SJP UChicago released [slide 9] a statement on Instagram demanding the “immediate deletion” of the Chicago Maroon article as well as “a public apology issued by the Maroon to SJP UChicago and to Palestinian students for the dissemination of misinformation and the disregard of journalistic integrity and factual reporting” and “a public recommitment to ensuring that all columns and articles abide by expected standards of accuracy and truth, particularly those written by Zionist authors or on behalf of Zionist organizations.”
On April 2, 2022, the Chicago Maroon published a letter titled: “An Apology From the Viewpoints Head Editors Regarding Recent Op-Ed,” which Hui co-wrote. In the letter, Hui and the co-writer apologized for supposed “factual inaccuracies” in the op-ed that were used to “support Zionist and racist sentiments” and “delegitimize and undermine SJP UChicago’s campaign and the larger movement on campus and beyond for Palestinian liberation and self-determination.”
Hui retweeted a January 5, 2023 tweet by SJP UChicago that read: “Calling all members of the UChicago community to support our winter campaign against General Elran’s ‘Counter-Terrorism’ course and the presence of the israeli military on our campus.”
On January 5, 2023, SJP UChicago launched a BDS campaign titled: “#IsraeliMilitaryOffOurCampus,” which they also promoted with the hashtag: “#CounterColonialism.”
The campaign called [slide 5] upon students to boycott a class being taught by retired Israel Defense Forces (IDF) General Meir Elran, to “oppose his presence (and the Israeli military’s) on our campus” and to “protest the university’s relationship with the Israel Institute.”
In January 2023, Elran was teaching a course at UChicago titled: “Security, Counter Terrorism and Resilience, the Israeli Case” as a visiting lecturer. The course was organized through an academic exchange program sponsored by the Israel Institute, a nonprofit organization that pairs colleges and universities with Israeli scholars who teach courses about the State of Israel.
SJP UChicago’s January 2023 boycott initiative was part of a BDS campaign [slide 7] the group initially launched in January 2022. The campaign urged students to boycott “Sh*tty Zionist Classes,” which included “classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows.”
On January 5, 2023, SJP UChicago announced [slide 2] on Instagram that Elran’s course was “the s**ttiest, most racist class of them all…being offered this winter.” Their Instagram bio provided an access link to their “Statement on General Meir Elran’s 'Counter-Terrorism' Course.”
In the statement, SJP UChicago claimed [p. 2]: “Elran’s career has been defined by and dedicated to securing Israel's colonial project and crushing Palestinian resistance to it.”
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.
SJP UChicago also described [p. 1] as “particularly damning…the role Elran played in repressing the first intifada (1987-93), a popular Palestinian uprising against apartheid and occupation…”
The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1991 and resulted in over 120 Israeli civilian casualties. Palestinian terrorists hijacked multiple buses and carried out shooting, stabbing and bombing attacks against Israelis, including the bombing of the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem.
In the statement, SJP UChicago accused Israel of being “an expansionist apartheid state predicated on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian land” and a “colonial enterprise” with “genocidal practices.” The statement concluded by urging students to sign a petition “against General Elran's course and the broader presence of the Israeli military on UChicago's campus.”
SJP UChicago linked to a document in their Instagram bio titled: “18 Reasons to Oppose General Elran's 'Counter-Terrorism' Course," in which SJP UChicago wrote: “What he really teaches and represents is militaristic racism.”
The same document said: “The technologies, tactics, ideological justifications and ‘research’ (General Elran’s speciality) Israel uses against Palestinians are the same as those used against racialized peoples in the U.S.”
The accusation that Israeli law enforcement teaches American police brutal tactics during police exchange programs is used to demonize Israel. Participants in these programs have stated that the training in Israel focuses on public policy, counterterrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.
In the same document, SJP UChicago wrote: “In fact, Israel is a foundationally racist colonial regime that must be dismantled, held accountable, and replaced by a truly just social order.”
Hui retweeted a January 10, 2023 tweet that linked to an SJP UChicago op-ed in The Chicago Maroon, titled: “Israeli Military Off Our Campus!” The teaser read: “...Meir Elran’s ‘counter-terrorism’ course represents an incursion of the Israeli military into our campus and classrooms. It must be opposed.”
The op-ed accused Israel of “biological warfare against Palestinian civilians,” the “torture of Palestinian children” and “periodically massacring the Palestinians it holds captive in the Gaza Strip.”
SJP UChicago concluded the op-ed with its desire that “the University’s Palestinian students will no longer be forced to watch leading participants in their ongoing Nakba be hired by their administration, welcomed on their campus, and handed positions of power in their classrooms.”
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 February 2, 2023, SJP UChicago held [slide 1] a campus protest outside Elran’s classroom, which they organized to demand “#IsraeliMilitaryOffOurCampus while honoring the 10 martyrs recently massacred in Jenin by Israeli ‘Counter-Terrorist Forces.’”
The protest included [slide 7] slogans chalked on the building’s walkway such as “Elran Off Campus,” “IDF Off Our Campus” and “Free Palestine From the River to the Sea,” a chant used to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.
In May 2021, in the wake of Israel’s OGW against Hamas, Hui signed a press release from “former staff, fellows, volunteers, donors, supporters, and endorsing organizations of Senator Ed Markey’s 2020 re-election campaign.” The letter condemned Markey for his support of Israel.
Hui retweeted a May 30, 2021 tweet that promoted a petition, which Hui signed [p. 5], in support of a joint statement made by SJP UChicago and the incoming Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at UChicago calling on the university to endorse BDS.
On May 21, 2021, UChicago’s USG issued a joint statement with SJP UChicago that said: “We support the divestment of the University of Chicago from Israelicompanies [sic] in compliance with the larger standing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, endorsed by 170+ Palestinian organizations…We stand against the ideology of Zionism that has been used as a justification for the murder, displacement, and traumatization of Palestinian people.”
The statement also said: “From the river to the sea, USG supports a Palestine that is free.”
Hui also signed [p. 3] a May 25, 2021 statement by the Chicago chapter of the anti-Israel group IfNotNow (INN) in support of the SJP-USG statement.
Hui retweeted a June 1, 2021 tweet from SJP UChicago activist Eyshe Beirich that linked to Beirich’s Chicago Maroon op-ed titled: “Join the Incoming USG in Standing with Palestine.” The subheading of Beirich’s article read: “...The incoming USG’s statement supporting BDS was a principled and necessary stance in the fight for Palestinian liberation, on campus and beyond.”
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 Student 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.
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.
