Laila Dames
Overview
Laila Dames was the primary contact of a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter that justified the Hamas terrorism of October 7, 2023.Dames also spread hatred of Israel and America on social media during Israel’s war against Hamas following the attacks.
As of December 2023, Dames was listed as the primary contact for the SJP chapter at Duke University (Duke SJP). Dames was also involved [00:00:26] with Duke SJP in September 2023.
Dames’s SJP chapter showed support for Hamas following a series of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023.
The Hamas terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Justifying Hamas Terrorism
On October 7, 2023, Duke SJP posted a series of graphics on Instagram providing “the full context of events to understand everything occurring in occupied Palestine.”The Duke SJP post said [slide 6]: “Hamas explains their attack was in retaliation to the continuation of Israeli oppression and the damage done to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”
The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
The Duke SJP post also told readers that “it is important to consider the long history of systemic oppression Israel has placed on Palestinians for the past several decades.”
On October 22, 2023, Duke SJP wrote an article in the Duke Chronicle, the school newspaper, that was titled: “A Contextualized Understanding of the Recent Attacks in Israel and Palestine.” Duke SJP referred to Israel as “a settler-colonial state occupying stolen land and imposing a system of violent apartheid.”
Duke SJP also said: “Media and politicians have constructed a rhetorical climate that justifies Palestinian genocide and blatantly fails to contextualize Hamas’ attacks within a broader historical and humanitarian assessment.”
The same article further claimed that “the events on Saturday, Oct. 7 were a deadly reaction to millions of Palestinians being killed and placed under indefinite persecution, apartheid and occupation.”
Hatred of Israel and America
On February 15, 2024, Dames posted a TikTok video containing text that said the United States is “actively funding genocide against your people,” referring to Gazans. She also called Duke as a “stupid zionist university.”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.
Dames signed a November 9, 2023 statement by Duke Faculty for Palestine. The statement called the “situation” in Israel following October 7, 2023, “a crime against humanity and ethnic cleansing.”
On October 25, 2023, Dames posted a video on TikTok video with the caption: “me begging genocide joe and satanyahu to stop bombing literal children and hospitals.”
The terms “genocide joe and satanyahu” referred to U.S. president Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
On October 17, 2023, the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) fired rockets at Israel from Gaza, one of which misfired and fell on the parking lot of the al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital. Initial media reports blamed Israel. Following the incident, U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib immediately accused the Biden administration of funding Israel’s “genocide” of Palestinian people.
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, over 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.
Biographical Information
As of February 2024, Dames was still listed as the contact for Duke SJP on an official university website. Duke SJP promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in November 2023 during Israel’s war against Hamas.As of March 2024, Dames’ LinkedIn said she was a “QuestBridge Scholar at Duke University.”
As of the same date, Dames was listed as a 2024 fellow in the Duke Hart Leadership Program for its Service Opportunities in Leadership Program (SOL). She was listed as a sophomore studying “Public Policy, minoring in Education, and earning a certificate in Child Policy Research.” In December 2021, Dames posted on TikTok that she was slated to graduate from Duke in 2026.
Duke is located in Durham, North Carolina. However, as of March 2024, Dames’ LinkedIn said she was located in Miami, Florida.
Full Profile Coming Soon
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 Students 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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/lailadamesTikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@laila_dames22
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lailadames/
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@lailadames8386
