Layan Fuleihan

Layan Fuleihan’s Promotion of Martyrdom and Celebration of Hamas Terrorist Atrocities

Layan Fuleihan [Layan Sima Fuleihan]is an activist who has promoted martyrdom, celebrated Hamas terrorist atrocities against Israeli civilians, expressed support for terrorists and spread hatred of Israel. Fuleihan was arrested during an anti-Israel rally in January 2024.

Layan Fuleihan participated [01:08:36] in the pro-Hamas encampment at Columbia in April 2024. She can be seen at the left of the screen, in a black shirt and a red keffiyeh, arguing with a member of the New York Police Department (NYPD).

The incidents occurred in late 2023 and early 2024 following a series of Hamas terrorist war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization founded in 1987 that is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing Jews. Since 2001, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and on October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped over 200 hostages, including children and the elderly.

Promoting Martyrdom

On May 25, 2024, BreakThrough News uploaded a video to YouTube featuring Fuleihan speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, Michigan. The conference was co-organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).

In her speech, Fuleihan said [01:23:00]: “We have two options, either victory or death, there is no in between. There can be no mistake, that U.S. imperialism and Zionism represents a project of death. And the people, those of us in this room, the mass movement for Palestine, the billions across the globe, who share this vision, we represent a project of victory. So we are committed to studying, we are committed to struggling, we are committed to organizing together and we will see our project of victory through until the end.”

Celebrating Hamas Terror Atrocities at an Anti-Israel Rally

On October 8, 2023, one day after the Hamas massacre, Fuleihan helped lead a rally in support of Hamas, titled: “All Out For Palestine.” Fuleihan spoke on behalf of anti-Israel group The People’s Forum (TPF), a co-organizer of the rally, where Fuleihan served as the education director and an instructor. The rally took place in Times Square, New York City.

At the rally, Fuleihan said [00:00:02]: “Yesterday, the world woke up to incredible news. The media will tell you that yesterday, terrorists invaded Israel. But we know that actually what happened is that the oppressed people of Palestine broke out of the open-air prison they have been subjected to.”

Referring to Gaza as an “open-air prison” is a way to delegitimize the UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.

On October 8, 2023, the anti-Israel groups Al-Awda and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) joined with other groups in New York City for a rally in support of the previous day’s Hamas terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Activists repeatedly celebrated the mass murder of Israeli civilians. They stomped on [00:00:01] and burned [00:00:21] Israeli flags. Speakers led [00:17:43] calls for Israel’s violent destruction and celebrated [00:20:45] Hamas firing rockets at Israeli cities and the taking [00:27:27] of hostages.

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, approximately 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.

As of December 25, 2023, Hamas had fired over 10,600 missiles from Gaza at Israeli communities, with Hamas claiming 5,000 the day it launched the attack. While Hamas was the main group involved, members of other terror groups also joined in the atrocities.

Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, also participated in the attack. In several instances, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.

In a December 2023 poll, 57% of Gazans and 82% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the terror attacks. 42% of Gazans were supportive of Hamas rule, up from 38% before the attacks, and 44% in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12%.

Hamas began by launching thousands of rockets at Israel and using motorized paragliders “to infiltrate Israeli territory and secure terrain.” Terrorist ground forces destroyed parts of the border fence with Gaza, murdering and kidnapping soldiers.

Terrorists then turned their attention to 22 communities around Gaza, where they went house to house to savagely murder, mutilate and kidnap anyone they found. They executed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children.

Terrorists beheaded children and babies, and massacred entire families, burning some alive who hid in their homes. Hamas terrorists kicked around the heads of beheaded victims like soccer balls. Israelis as young as an infant of nine months and as old as 85 were kidnapped and taken forcibly to Gaza. Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.

Over 360 unarmed young men and women were surrounded and slaughtered at one music festival alone. Bodies were publicly desecrated, with some dragged through the streets of Gaza, then beheaded.

Women were raped next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways. Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape. Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.

A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.

Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.

The atrocities were acknowledged as the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, including by U.S. President Joe Biden, who also compared Hamas to ISIS. Hamas attacked on the annual holiday of Simchat Torah, which that year was on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath.

The Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The mass murder generated great sympathy for Israel from many countries but led to countless celebrations among Palestinians and anti-Israel organizations in America that back the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Hamas called the October 7, 2023 terror attacks “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before Israel was founded in 1948. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

Arrested at an Anti-Israel Rally in Support of Hamas

On January 20, 2024, Fuleihan was reportedly arrested during a “Shut It Down For Palestine” rally held at J. Hood Wright Park in New York City, along with fellow TPF leaders Claudia De la Cruz, Manolo De Los Santos and David Chung.

Fuleihan featured [00:00:01] in a January 27, 2024, TPF Instagram video in which she said [00:00:01]: “The genocide defenders sent their puppets, the NYPD, thinking they could shut us down. They were wrong.” Fuleihan later said [00:01:17]:“Arrest us, and the millions will keep marching. We are the ones with the power.”

Support for Terrorists

Fuleihan retweeted a January 5, 2024 tweet that said: “‘Who’d have thought’ so many young people in the US would support Palestine and defy their national media, asks Hezbollah leader Nasrallah. That a majority want to see all of Palestine returned to the Palestinians will have a ‘huge’ impact in the coming struggle, he says.”

The tweet included a video of Hassan Nasrallah speaking in Arabic was posted by BreakThrough News, a pro-Palestinian media outlet whose staff includes anti-Israel activists Eugene Puryear and Jackie Kindall.

Hassan Nasrallah became the leader of terror group Hezbollah in 1992 and maintained his leadership until an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon killed him on September 27, 2024. Nasrallah once said: “In a future war, all of occupied Palestine will be struck by our rockets” and [00:00:19]: “Israel is a cancerous tumor!…The only solution is to eradicate the cancer.” He called Jews the most “cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble” people in the world.

Fuleihan retweeted a December 26, 2023 tweet that demanded “the immediate liberation of Khalida Jarrar and all Palestinian political prisoners.”

Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.

Hatred of Israel

On October 7, 2023, Fuleihan tweeted an iconic photo that showed a large crowd of Palestinians celebrating that day’s Hamas massacre. Fuleihan wrote: “

Long Live the Palestinian Resistance!!”

As of February 2024, Fuleihan used the same iconic photo as her Twitter banner picture.

Fuleihan retweeted an October 7, 2023 tweet that said: “Palestinians break into separation fence w/Israel, dozens of Israelis captured and brought into Gaza…many here see this as a rare chance for +550 Palestinians sentenced to life to be released in [an exchange] deal.”

The tweet included a video of Hamas terrorists driving tractors into Israel’s border fence with Gaza, tearing it apart and shouting: “Allahu Akbar [God is great]!”

Fuleihan retweeted an October 14, 2023 tweet that said: “When Palestine is liberated and Israel falls as it eventually will, its memory will be recalled as a mere blip in history, just like Rhodesia – remembered only for its racism, the enormous violence it perpetrated and as a cautionary tale of the dangers of supremacist ideologies.”

On October 17, 2023, Fuleihan tweeted: “Israel has just bombed Al Ahli hospital in central Gaza and massacred hundreds instantly. The entire territory remains under complete siege. Israeli occupation is genocidal and needs to go now.”

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 January 18, 2024, Fuleihan shared a statement on Twitter issued that day by TPF founder and executive director Manolo De Los Santos, which was titled: “We Will Not Apologize: Zionism is Racism!” Fuleihan wrote: “Proud to be with @PeoplesForumNYC and @manolo_realengo on the right side of history

.”

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.

In the TPF statement, De Los Santos wrote: “We make no apologies for calling for the destruction of an apartheid and colonial state that is actively engaging in a genocide of the Palestinian people…For us, Zionism is synonymous with colonialism and racism.”

De Los Santos also called for“a democratic Palestine, as determined by the Palestinian people, based on the full right of return of all Palestinian refugees…Nothing will deter our commitment to continue fighting for Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Pro-Hamas Encampment at Columbia University (Columbia)

On April 19, 2024, Fuleihan was filmed participating [00:48:46] in the Columbia encampment protest outside the gates of the university. She also argued [01:08:36] with police and led chants [01:13:46], as part of the TPF staff.

At the protest, Fuleihan led the crowd in chanting: “...Columbia University…is nothing but a ruling-class institution and the ruling class has pure fear because of the strength of the movement for Palestine…we have declared the future has no space for Zionism or U.S. imperialism…this institution is so afraid of our message…that it deploys a fascist police force to repress the voices of the majority of the world…we are [a threat] to the White House, and we will be here and we will send our message to our comrades inside…From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free…”

“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free,” is a chant used [00:02:52] to call for the elimination of the State of Israel.

On April 17, 2024, Columbia students and anti-Israel activists set up a pro-Hamas “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the university's main lawn. Many participants were arrested and the encampment featured multiple violent incidents, including taking over a campus building and taking a university worker hostage.

Activists protested Israel’s war against Hamas and demanded that Columbia “divest from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide and occupation…”

The action had reportedly been planned for months and was organized by the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) coalition. The encampment was also organized by Columbia’s banned pro-Hamas activist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the university chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Activists reportedly received training from National SJP and other anti-Israel organizations.

Biographical Information

As of January 2024, Fuleihan served as the education director and an instructor at TPF, a self-described “group of organizers, educators, visionaries, cultural workers, thinkers and fighters committed to the systemic transformation of a society rooted in equity, justice and human dignity."

As of February 2024, Fuleihan’s bio for a September 2023 event said she was an editor at 1804 Books, TPF’s press and bookstore “for socialist literature and revolutionary theory.”

In January 2024, a “Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint” was reportedly filed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) against TPF. The complaint accused De Los Santos and TPF of “advocating in support of the US designated foreign terror organization Hamas” and reportedly advocating “for the overthrow of the U.S. Government.”

As of November 2023, Fuleihan, who also goes by Layan Sima Fuleihan, was reportedly an organizer with the Shut It Down for Palestine Coalition. The group comprises anti-Israel organizations that collaborate to organize protests all over the world whose aim is to “demand an immediate ceasefire, cutting all aid to Israel, and lifting the siege on Gaza.”

As of February 2024, Fuleihan was listed as an author at the international media organization Peoples Dispatch.