Khaled Shihabi

Overview

Khaled Shihabi has promoted hatred of Israel and showed support for terror financiers. Shihabi was a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) activist at the University of Texas at Dallas (SJP UTD) in 2021, 2022 and 2023.

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

In November 2022, Shihabi was affiliated [slide 4] with the activist group Within Our Lifetime (WOL). WOL’s “Points of Unity” states: “We defend the right of Palestinians as colonized people to resist the zionist occupation by any means necessary.”

As of March 2023, Shihabi’s LinkedIn page said he was a student at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), majoring in neuroscience and slated to graduate in 2023.

As of the same date, Shihabi’s Facebook page said he was located in Dallas, Texas.

January 23, 2023 - Promoting Hatred of Israel

On January 23, 2023, Shihabi spoke at an anti-Israel rally in Austin, Texas, outside the Israeli American Council (IAC) summit in the Fairmount Hotel. He represented [00:02:16] SJP UTD. The rally was dubbed “Shutdown IAC.”

Other speakers and protestors included Mohammed Nabulsi, Lina Assi, Frances Cava Humphrey and Nidaa Lafi.

At the rally, Shihabi said [00:03:32]: “We have heeded the call for BDS as our method of struggle. Which means to boycott, divest, and sanction the State of Israel.”

Shihabi continued [00:04:22]: “We must demand the complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”

“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.

During the rally, protesters chanted: “Occupation is a crime, Zionism is a curse!”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Zionism is a core part of the identity of most Jews.

Protesters also chanted: “Israel, Israel, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide!” and “Intifada intifada, long live the intifada!”

The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.

Nabulsi then led the protestors in chanting: “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!”

Nabulsi led protestors in chanting: “Traitor traitor traitor!” at Israeli-Arab activist and IAC attendee Yoseph Haddad. Assi then raised her middle finger toward Haddad.

The protestors then chanted in Arabic: “min an-nahar lil-maye Falasteen arabiyah [from the river to the sea, Palestine is Arab]!” They also chanted: “barra barra ya muhtall thawra thawra ma fish hal [The occupier get out, get out, there is no solution but the revolution]!”

Also at the rally, Humphrey gave a speech and concluded [00:01:35] by leading chants: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! … From Palestine to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine!” An activist from SJP at the University of Houston (UH) accused Israel and America of having a “shared mission to oppress and harm colonized peoples for imperialistic purposes.”

Supporting Terror Financiers

On November 24, 2022, Shihabi featured [Slide 4] in a photo in a WOL Instagram post. In the photo, Shihabi held a sign that read: “#FreeShukri #FreeGhassan #FreeMufid #FreeTheHLF5 #FreeThemAll.”

The HLF5 were five individuals associated with the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) indicted for funneling funds to Hamas in the guise of humanitarian aid. The men were were all convicted and sentenced in 2009 to federal prison terms ranging from 15 to 65 years.

Anti-Israel Activism (SJP, BDS)

On January 18, 2023, Shihabi featured [slide 4] in a photo presenting a slide that featured a series of maps popular with anti-Israel activists. The photo was from an SJP UTD Palestine 101 workshop on September 12, 2022.

The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

On November 29, 2022, Shihabi featured [slide 1] in a photo posted on Instagram by SJP UTD, tabling for an SJP UTD booth. The booth featured a whiteboard that read “LEARN ABOUT DIVESTMENT & BUY DESSERT!” The post’s text also said that SJP UTD had a “great showing at our HLF5 Documentary Screening” earlier that month.

On November 6, 2022, Shihabi featured [slide 7] in a photo posted on Instagram by SJP UTD, speaking at an SJP UTD event. The post caption said participants discussed “Palestine, liberation, and divestment.”

On August 16, 2022, Shihabi featured [slide 1] in a group photo on Instagram from a Texas SJP leaders retreat. The retreat took place from August 12-14 at UH and prepared the SJP leaders for the upcoming year for “challenging Zionism on campus and in our communities and building a mass movement for Palestine liberation.”

On April 9, 2022, Shihabi featured [slide 1] in an Instagram photo tabling for SJP UTD at the UTD student union. The booth featured a banner that promoted the UTDivest campaign.

On November 4, 2021, Shihabi featured [slide 1] in a photo next to a posterboard promoting SJP UTD.

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 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.

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.