Lara Sheehi
Overview
Lara Sheehi has expressed support for terrorists, promoted hatred of Israel and Zionists, and spread incitement. Sheehi was accused of anti-Semitism by her Jewish students in 2023. Sheehi has also promoted hatred of America and the police, and engaged in anti-Israel activism.In 2022, Sheehi was affiliated with the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). She is also a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of February 2023, Sheehi worked as an assistant professor of clinical psychology at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, D.C. since 2017, and was the “founding faculty” director of The Psychoanalysis and the Arab World Lab, “a decolonial psychoanalytic space of knowledge production.”
In January 2023, Sheehi was accused by her students at GWU of anti-Semitism and promoting violence against American and Israeli civilians, according to a complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. The complaint said that the incidents occurred during a mandatory diversity class she has taught at GWU. The university began its own investigation after the complaint was filed.
In January 2024, Sheehi reportedly announced her departure from GWU after she accepted a position as an assistant professor of clinical psychology in the School of Social Science and Humanities at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies (DI) in Doha, Qatar. However, as of the same date, Sheehi’s LinkedIn profile said she was located in Williamsburg, Virginia.
As of January 2024, Sheehi’s LinkedIn profile said she was chair of the Teachers’ Academy of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). She was also listed as having a “Psychologist in Private Practice” since 2013. She was licensed in Virginia, South Carolina and Washington, D.C.
As of the same date, Sheehi served on the advisory board of the USA Palestine Mental Health Network.
Sheehi co-authored the book titled: “Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine,” which was published in 2022.
As of January 2024, Sheehi’s LinkedIn said she received her doctorate in clinical psychology from GWU in 2010. She also graduated from the American University of Beirut (AUB) with a bachelor’s degree in English in 2006.
Sheehi’s LinkedIn also said: “She is co-editor of Studies in Gender and Sexuality, on the editorial board for the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA), Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society (PCS), and Journal of Institutionalized Children: Explorations and Beyond. She is on the advisory board to the USA-Palestine Mental Health Network and Psychoanalysis for Pride.”
Support for Terrorists (PFLP, PIJ, Hamas)
On July 8, 2022, Sheehi tweeted about Ghassan Kanafani: “This will forever be the best video to teach what refusal means; what unbending militancy in the face of settler colonial and white supremacist logics of dialogue and discourse looks like; and why we can’t budge an inch in the face of fascism. His legacy lives on…”Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
Sheehi’s tweet included a tweet with a video of a 1970 Kanafani interview where he rejected peace talks and called [00:00:20] negotiations with Israel “a conversation between the sword and the neck.”
On March 12, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “Up to 3,989 signatories! Pass it on and use #FreeAhmadManasra plz…”
Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015, during the Knife Intifada. They critically wounded a 13-year-old boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. The spree ended when police shot Hassan and a passing motorist hit Ahmed. Ahmed was taken to an Israeli hospital. He admitted to investigators: “I went there to stab Jews.” He was later tried and convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
On September 6, 2021, Sheehi tweeted about Palestinian terrorists who had escaped from an Israeli prison: “...Every person who commits to abolition should be working to protect these heroes at ALL COSTS.”
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.
On June 20, 2021, Sheehi spoke on the “Rendering Unconscious” podcast, where she referred [01:04:12] to Leila Khaled as a “freedom fighter.”
Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
On May 10, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “And don’t tag me in f**king anti-Palestinian bulls**tters, blaming Hamas for lack of negotiations. This is settler colonial apologetics. F**king learn something, all of you. There are no more excuses for you settlers, all around, from Palestine, to Turtle Island [North America].”
Hatred of Israel and Zionists
On April 15, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “MY RAGE CAN LIGHT A THOUSAND SUNS RIGHT NOW. F**k ALL settlers. #LongLiveTheResistance #PalestineWillBeFree.”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.
On April 13, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “...#EndIsraeliApartheid.”
On February 22, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “...Israel is allied with neo-Nazis in Europe bcz of the underlying ethnofascism. We need to disrupt these logics, front to end.”
On January 17, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “The Israeli regime’s cruelty has no bounds…”
On December 26, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “...Zionism is racism and mobilizes racism.”
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.
On December 4, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “...the psychotic processing of settlers and Zionists truly has no bounds.”
On May 12, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “...There is no cycle in the logics of settler colonialism, only a straight and narrow path intent on displacing and annihilating the indigenous—in this case PALESTINIANS—in service of the settlers future. F**k you.”
On August 4, 2020, Sheehi tweeted: “F**K YOU AND F**K YOUR ‘AID’. Destroy Zionism and commit to land back, then we’ll take you seriously you f**king genocidal f**ks. F**k you,”
In her tweet, Sheehi included an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tweet that said Israel offered aid to Lebanon after a deadly industrial explosion in Beirut’s port.
On September 1, 2019, Sheehi tweeted: “...Palestinians have been telling us since its illegal inception that Israel is an ethnonationalist supremacist state whose very existence is built around ethnic purity to which they’ll go to any end to achieve…”
On July 22, 2019, Sheehi tweeted: “Israel is an apartheid state hellbent on creating bantustans [segregated regions], just like its predecessor South Africa, and this is just clearing a perimeter for more land annexation…”
On May 31, 2019, Sheehi tweeted about Jonathan Greenblatt, the National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), writing: “Guess who I just saw and called a Nazi? Literally not one blink of an eye…”
On May 15, 2019, Sheehi tweeted: “In commemoration of #Nakba71, here is the incredible Special Edition of the @PsychActivistthat I had the honor of curating last year showcasing primarily Palestinian voices…”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
Spreading Incitement
On May 7, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “#SaveSheikhJarrah.”On May 9, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “Oh yes the big bad rocks, my god, how scary next to the self-identified ‘best military in the world’. I’m shaking in my boots for them…”
During OGW in May 2021, Hamas reportedly used civilians as human shields to defend against Israeli counterstrikes. Hamas also launched rockets from densely populated civilian areas, stockpiled weapons in private homes and situated key operations facilities in civilian apartment buildings, near mosques, hospitals and schools.
Also on May 9, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “All eyes on Gaza now. What the settler colonial f**ks will do is displace their full force aggression (as tho what’s happening now in Sheikh Jarrah … isn’t enough) on the most vulnerable of Palestinians bcz cruelty and collective punishment is the point, always.”
Anti-Semitism Against Jewish Students
On January 12, 2023, StandWithUs (SWU), a pro-Israel advocacy group, filed a complaint against GWU with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights regarding Sheehi’s conduct. The complaint alleged [p. 1] that Sheehi was responsible for “antisemitic discrimination and retaliation experienced by first-year Jewish and Israeli students” during a mandatory diversity course she taught at GWU.According to the SWU complaint, GWU violated [pp. 3, 19] Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to take measures against Sheehi for actions that constitute anti-Semitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).
The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Thirty-three other countries have adopted the definition as well.
The complaint stated [p. 1]: “Dr Sheehi singled out the Jewish students and deprived only them of an opportunity she afforded all other students – defining their own identity and what it means to experience discrimination based on that identity.”
The complaint also said Sheehi retaliated [p. 2] against Jewish and Israeli students by “denigrating them to other faculty members and instigating baseless disciplinary proceedings against them.” The complaint said [p. 2] that GWU “allowed the baseless, retaliatory proceedings to proceed without conducting any investigation.”
In the Fall semester of 2022, Sheehi taught “Diversity Sequence I”, a required course for graduate students enrolled in GWU’s Professional Psychology Program.
The complaint described the first day of class, stating [p.4]: “When a Jewish Israeli student introduced herself and said that she was from Israel, however, Professor Sheehi’s response was, ‘It’s not your fault you were born in Israel,’ thereby implying the student’s Israeli national identity is something of which she should be ashamed.”
On September 30, 2022, Sheehi invited [p. 4] the students in her class to attend a “Brown Bag lecture” featuring anti-Israel Professor Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian. Sheehi organized the lecture as part of the Psychoanalysis and the Arab World Lab.
The complaint stated [p. 5] that during her lecture, Shalhoub-Kevorkian remarked “that good deeds done by Jews and Israelis are done to mask sinister activity” and “denigrated Jewish citizens of Israel by referring during her presentation to ‘white Israeli racism’.”
One way that anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is to claim [00:06:46] that Israeli Jews, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, do not descend from the ancient Israelites.
This claim alleges that Israeli Jews are white Europeans who lack a connection to the Land of Israel. The Khazar myth is a common version of this claim which is used to delegitimize [00:02:16] the existence of the modern State of Israel.
On October 3, 2022, during a classroom discussion, some of Sheehi’s Jewish students [p. 5] “took that opportunity to explain to the professor and the class how they had been harmed by the information conveyed during the brown bag presentation the previous week.”
The complaint said [p. 6] that Sheehi denied what the students had experienced was anti-Semitism and claimed: “Zionism in and of itself indicates that Jewish folks are different. There are many people who say that Zionism in and of itself is an antisemitic movement. Why? Because it locates that Jewish folks are that much more different that they need to have a space unto themselves.”
The IHRA highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “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.”
The complaint said [p. 6]: “In response to the students’ claim that they had felt targeted on the basis of their Jewish identity by the information conveyed during the brown bag presentation, Professor Sheehi suggested their experience was a good thing.”
The complaint continued [p. 6]: “She claimed that it was in keeping with the class approach of ‘disrupting.’ She urged the Jewish students to ‘lean into’ the spaces that feel disruptive and destabilizing and ‘sit with’ the discomfort.” The complaint said only Jewish students were told to do this but instead, “if students of another identity described oppression, harassment, or discrimination toward their identity groups, Professor Sheehi validated both the identity and the experience as described.”
The complaint said one Jewish student told [p. 7] Sheehi that she felt unsafe in a program that would invite Shalhoub-Kevorkian who endorsed [p. 5] violence against Israeli civilians in the lecture and “lionized” Ahmad Manasra, who stabbed Israeli civilians in 2015. Sheehi responded [p. 7] to the Jewish student by calling the student’s comment a “damaging Islamophobic anti-Palestinian” comment.
The complaint reported [p. 8] that following Sheehi’s denial of students’ claims of anti-Semitism, Jewish students met with university administrators to discuss their experiences with Sheehi.
Sheehi then retaliated [p.14] against the Jewish students by making “false allegations about them during faculty meetings” and [p.15] initiated disciplinary proceedings against the students, which were ongoing as of February 2023.
Hatred of America and Police
On June 8, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “...Welcome to Amerikkka, where white supremacists successfully brand themselves after murdering people.”The term “Amerikkka” uses the initials of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a way to demonize America as “fascist or racist.”
On January 29, 2022, Sheehi tweeted: “...These f**ks are empowered, they’re violent, and they’re brazenly displaying their exploitation of power knowing that the state and certainly this mayor sanctions their impunity. That’s why ACAB.”
“ACAB” is an acronym that stands for “All cops are bastards.”
On December 26, 2021, Sheehi tweeted: “...ACAB and join the revolution, simultaneously."
Anti-Israel Activism
Sheehi stated [00:11:07]: “We must stand in solidarity with all liberation efforts. We must follow the lead of our Palestinian colleagues. We must center Palestine in every effort. And we must bravely support Boycott, Divestment and Sanction efforts, despite threats and efforts to derail solidarity.”
Sheehi continued [00:11:29]: “For me, this needs to be done not as an offshoot of our clinical work, or a distraction, but rather a central working tenant of any clinical praxis...”
Sheehi also said [00:36:02] during the webinar: “At the time, in the manifesto, I said ‘Liberate Palestine with psychoanalysis.’ I meant it then but I was also taking a deliberate stance still saturated with relationality to normative clinical praxis. Today, my stance is slightly different but no less militant. And here’s where I would say that liberation is our struggle, and when I say ‘our’ I’m talking specifically to mental health practitioners…”
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish values.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
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
Twitter: https://twitter.com/blackflaghag/ [Deleted]Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psychoanalystactivist/ [Private]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lara-sheehi-she-her-72321b19/
University Website: https://psyd.columbian.gwu.edu/lara-sheehi
Academia.edu: https://gwu.academia.edu/LaraSheehi
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