Leilah Abdennabi
Overview
Leilah Abdennabi [Leilah Ismar Abdennabi] glorified a terrorist, spread anti-Semitism, disrupted a campus event and expressed support for violent protesters. She has demonized Israel, spread hatred of Zionists and opposed interfaith dialogue.
Abdennabi was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Minnesota (UMN) in 2015 and participated in the 2016 and 2017 National SJP Conferences. She has also expressed support for anti-Israel agitators.
On April 12, 2016, Abdennabi promoted on Facebook SJP’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolution at UMN.
As of May 2019, Abdennabi was reportedly a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and of MPD150 [Minneapolis Police Department (MPS)]. MPD150 works “towards a police free Minneapolis.”
In 2015, Abdennabi was reportedly affiliated with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) in Minnesota.
In January 2016, Abdennabi reportedly worked as a teaching assistant, at UMN.
As of March 2019, Abdennabi was reportedly an “equity advocate” in Minneapolis, MN.
As of November 2016 through May 14, 2018, Abdennabi used the name “Leila Issa” on Facebook. As of February 2019, her Facebook page had been deleted.
Glorifying a Terrorist
On February 14, 2017, Abdennabi updated her Facebook profile photo with a photo of herself wearing a keffiyeh and holding a rifle, in a pose similar to famous images of Leila Khaled. Spreading Anti-Semitism
Abdennabi retweeted a January 7, 2017 tweet that said: “But in 2017, regardless of whether white Jews ‘feel white,’ the leaders of the Jewish community have chosen to align with white supremacy +.”
Disrupting a Campus Event
On October 24, 2017, Abdennabi disrupted a pro-Israel event at UMN featuring Arab reservists of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The panelists were invited to share their experiences as non-Jewish members of the IDF and citizens of Israel.In an October 24, 2017, post to the Palestinian American Society of Minnesota Facebook group, Abdennabi commented: “these traitors are speaking at the U of M.”
Video of the disruption shows Abdennabi yelling in the face of the speakers, calling [00:00:09] one and his father “cowardly” rats. Abdennabi then calls [00:00:26] another panelist “a war criminal, I mean IDF soldier” and “spineless piece of garbage” who “chose money over truth.”
She also claimed [00:00:38] “Israel was founded on the genocide, displacement, rape and theft of Palestinians and their land.”
When the reservists offered to engage in dialogue with Abdennabi she walked away, and said: [00:00:48] “I don’t want to talk to genocide deniers.”
Following Abdennabi’s disruption, Abdennabi reportedly accused campus police officers of “White Supremacy when they arrested her” for refusing “to end her disruptive character attacks” of the speakers.
Supporting Violent Protesters
On March 30, 2018, Abdennabi gave a speech at the Anti-War Committee’s Land Day protest in which she promoted the Palestinian March of Return and said Palestinians had been killed in “peaceful land day protests” that had been met with Zionist violence.”Abdennabi ended her speech with the phrase: “Bil rouh! Bil dam! Nafdeek ya Falasteen (with our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice ourself for you Palestine).”
The phrase is based on an Iraqi chant: “Bil Rooh, bil dam, nafdeek ya saddam” which reportedly means: “with our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice ourself for you Saddam).”
Demonizing Israel
On May 12, 2018, Abdennabi was scheduled to speak at the “1st Annual Palestine Lives” conference at Hunter College (Hunter), co-hosted by Within Our Lifetime, formerly known as New York City SJP, as well as the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and Existence Is Resistance.The official conference poster featured a photo montage of armed men in Keffiyehs, with the caption: “Resisting Settler Colonialism Since 1948.”
On March 8, 2017, Abdennabi tweeted: “Stay mad, Zionist trash.”
On April 3, 2015, Abdennabi tweeted a link to a vine clip of a man being thrown through a window and wrote: ”how I feel when dealing with zionist amerikans longlivepalestine.”
On December 24, 2014, Abdennabi tweeted: “Trash a** zionist..[Israeli actress] Natalie Portman is evil.”
Spreading Hatred of Zionists
On July 5, 2016, she tweeted: “‘Israel is coming back to Africa’ to exploit its resources, sell weapons, just f**k s**t up in general.”
On March 21, 2015, Abdennabi tweeted “Saudi Arabia is trash, so is Israel. What is your point? They share common interests& allies of US…”
On October 30, 2014, Abdennabi tweeted: “Israel is a democracy- 4 euro Jews only.”
On July 18, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, Abdennabi tweeted: “When Israelis and zionists come to our protests, what exactly are they protesting? For the genocide to continue?”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Opposing Interfaith Dialogue
Abdennabi signed a January 14, 2015 letter that called for a boycott of the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI). The letter stated: “We reject the notion that this program is an interfaith one and that there is the need for Muslim Americans to engage with the state of Israel”MLI "invites North American Muslim leaders to explore how Jews understand Judaism, Israel and North American Jewish identity through a Zionist lens," and to expand their understanding of Jewish “ethics, faith, and practice.” According to MLI founder Imam Abdullah Antepli, “MLI aims to put mainstream North American Jewry in conversation with their Muslim counterparts.”
The letter Abdennabi signed pledged: “to be in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle and to do so by honoring the BDS call” and to “support delegations to Palestine that are meant to highlight the reality on the ground of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.” Next to Abdennabi’s name on the letter was “American Muslims for Palestine-MN.”
SJP UMN Activism
On May 8, 2015, Abdennabi attended the SJP UMN annual banquet.On March 10, 2015, Abdennabi was a scheduled panelist, representing SJP, for a Students for a Democratic Society at UMN event. The event’s Facebook description said it was “featuring women leading in the movements resisting injustice and oppression!”
On March 4, 2015, Abdennabi attended an SJP UMN event with journalist Dan Cohen speaking about his experiences reporting from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE).
Dan Cohen is a Mondoweiss reporter known for demonizing Israel.
During the SJP UMN event, Cohen reportedly said the war was “not an attack on Hamas...it was an attack on Palestinian society.” He also reportedly claimed “Israeli soldiers were allowed to take revenge” and that they intentionally shot civilians.
Abdennabi posed for a group photo with Cohen, posted on Facebook by that SJP UMN, to advertise Cohen’s talk.The photo was captioned: “Don't forget to come to our event ‘Live From Gaza: Dan Cohen’ tonight from 6-8pm in STSS Rm 220!”
Abdennabi posed for another group photo with Cohen, posted to Facebook by SJP UMN, the day after Cohen’s talk.
Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators
On January 15, 2018, Abdennabi posted to Facebook a photo of herself holding a sign that read: “It is Right to Resist War and Empire.” Abdennabi added a border to her photo featuring an image of Tamimi and the caption: “Free Ahed Tamimi.”
On December 20, 2017, Abdennabi called on her Facebook followers to “SHARE NOW PLEASE” and “HAVE YOUR ORGS ENDORSE” a joint statement calling to “Free Ahed Tamimi and all Palestinian Political Prisoners.”
On February 9, 2017, Abdennabi promoted on Facebook a petition condemning Fordham University’s decision to refrain from granting SJP official club status on its campus.
Fordham reportedly blocked the formation of a Fordham SJP chapter “based on the reported behavior of other [SJP] chapters on other campuses,” indicating that “the establishment of a local branch could be ‘polarizing’ and pose a safety concern to students and faculty.”
SJP UMN Honoring Terrorists: 2015 - 2016
On January 27, 2016, SJP UMN posted on Facebook support for Muhammad Al-Qiq. Al-Qiq was detained by Israel for his involvement in Hamas terror activity.On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN held a “die-in” in support of Palestinians who were conducting a wave of stabbing attacks on Israelis, known as the “Knife Intifada.”
During the die-in, SJP UMN activists lay on the ground, while SJP UMN activist Motaz Nashawaty, spoke accusing [00:00:05] Israel of an escalation in “state violence” and [00:00:32] of “extrajudicial murders.”
Nashawaty continued: [00:00:41] “We will pay respects to the Palestinian martyrs executed by Israeli forces” and recited [00:01:57] the names of Palestinian terrorists, such as Fadi Aloonand [00:02:03] Muhannad Halabi, who he described [00:02:07] as “young Palestinians whose lives were unjustly taken away from them by Israeli security forces.”
Aloon stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy after posting “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page, and Halabimurdered two Israelis and injured two others, including a 2-year-old, during a stabbing spree. Halabi posted on his Facebook page “[t]he third Intifada is here…Let the revolution erupt.”
Nashawaty continued [00:02:43] “our people are dying in streets now in Palestine, but they are not helpless - they are resisting.”
On October 14, 2015, SJP UMN posted to Facebook photos from a rally in support of Rasmea Odeh and wrote: “Thank you to our friends for keeping us updated with some pictures from Rasmea's appeal today.” Participants in the rally held signs that read:“I support RASMEA” and “Minnesota stands with Rasmea Odeh.”
Odeh was a key military operative with the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 1969, Odeh masterminded a PFLP bombing that killed two college students in a Jerusalem supermarket.
One of the photos of Odeh that SJP UMN shared on Facebook was captioned: “This is what you call a #Warrior.”
On October 12, 2015, SJP UMN shared on their Facebook page a video that claimed Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara), purportedly “bled to death” and suffered abuse by Israeli soldiers.
Mansara was wounded while he engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem, critically wounding a 13-year-old Israeli boy and moderately wounding a 25-year-old man.
Manasra was successfully treated at the same Israeli hospital as his victims and later convicted of attempted murder.
SJP UMN wrote in their Facebook post: “We cannot ignore these constant, heinous crimes, acts of racism, hatred, and inhumanity Palestinians are subjected to by Israeli settlers.”
SJP UMN Spreading Incitement: 2015
On November 1, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “Israel is a colonial bully, trying to take Al Aqsa under the guise of ‘sharing.’”The allegation that Jews will destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, has been applied to Jews as a pretext for attacks by Arabs, even before the existence of Israel.
Such propaganda was the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence in the fall of 2015, with Palestinian leaders fueling violence by promoting the libel that Israel intends to desecrate the Al Aqsa Mosque.
Hamas called on Palestinians to “take up arms” to defend Al Aqsa and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas praised those willing to martyr themselves. He also declared Jews would not be allowed to “desecrate” Al Aqsa with their “filthy feet.”
In October 2015, SJP UMN posted a photo on Instagram of their section on the Washington Avenue Bridge. One of their panels featured a map that erased Israel, portraying the whole country with no internal borders and entirely covered by a keffiyeh.
SJP UMN Campaigning Against a Jewish Heritage Trip: 2015
In February 2015, SJP UMN launched a campaign against the Jewish heritage trip to Israel, Birthright. Campaign flyers said: “FREE TRIP TO ISRAEL BUT WHO PAYS THE PRICE?”The campaign condemned Birthright for presenting “a depoliticized image of Israel” and programming a trip that is “overall tailored to be pleasant experience devoid of conflict.” The campaign claimed that the program “would not discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict” and that “topics such as illegal settlements in the West Bank and restrictions on Gaza will not be covered.”.
SJP UMN encouraged Birthright participants to extend their trip and join tours with political groups such as Breaking the Silence (BTS) and The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), whose director Jeff Halper has called for the end of Israel.
Breaking the Silence was discredited by Israeli investigative TV show, HaMakor, in July 2016, in a report revealing that a substantial number of BTS testimonies are untrue or distorted.
SJP UMN Disrupting an Israeli Speaker: 2015
On November 3, 2015, SJP UMN endorsed the disruption of an event where three activists were reportedly arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing.The event was a talk on ethics and the law of war by Israeli law professor, Moshe Halbertal. The disruption was organized by the Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose campaigns mainly to end US aid to Israel.
Protesters reportedly sat in the audience and then stood and shouted chants, preventing Halbertal from speaking and accusing him of being a “war crimes apologist.” FightBack News said: “The lecture was scheduled for one hour, but most of that time was taken up by interruptions.”
The article also said that after protesters were removed from the hall by university police, they continued disrupting the event by shouting [00:00:01] chants including “free, free Palestine” and [00:01:55] “Israel is an apartheid state” in the hallway, which were audible from inside the lecture hall. Anti-Israel propagandist Sabry Wazwaz, who has called for the destruction of Israel and the U.S., spread anti-Semitism, compared Zionists to Nazis and expressed support for a terrorist, led the chants.
SJP UMN Demonizing Israel: 2015-2016
In April 2016, SJP UMN built a “mock apartheid wall” for its “Divest Week 2016,” which the group called a “divestment special edition of our annual Israeli Apartheid Week,” promoting the 2016 UMN Divest BDS campaign.IAW is a series of events on university campuses that promote Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and claim to “raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system.”
On April 22 2015, SJP UMN wrote on Facebook that “Israel’s ‘birthday’ is established on the occupation and exile of an entire people,” in a post which also denied SJP involvement in the vandalism of a pro-Israel group’s display celebrating Israeli independence.
The next day, Rula Rashid, SJP UMN treasurer, reportedly approached a table set up by a pro-Israel campus group to educate students about Israel’s independence and said “you stole our land.”
On April 9, 2015, SJP UMN tweeted: “‘If it's centered around Judaism, why are only white Jews allowed to live in Israel? It's not a case about religion and Judaism.’ @MnarMuh.”
On March 4, 2015, SJP UMN hosted an event with Dan Cohen, a journalist with the anti-Israel Mondoweiss, speaking about his experiences reporting from Gaza during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE). OPE was launched by Israel to stop Hamas rocket attacks and destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
During his talk, Cohen reportedly said the war was “not an attack on Hamas....it was an attack on Palestinian society.” He also claimed that “Israeli soldiers were allowed to take revenge” and that they intentionally shot civilians.
SJP UMN Opposing Normalization: 2015
On April 23, 2015, SJP UMN posted on Facebook a “definition of normalization.” The definition said that normalization was “gathering (either directly or indirectly) Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis, whether individuals or institutions; that does not explicitly aim to expose and resist the occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people.”The policy of “anti-normalization” aims to ensure that all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians align only their agenda, including ending the occupation and a full right of return for Palestinians, which is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. The policies are shared with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
SJP UMN Hosting Anti-Israel Propagandists: 2015
On October 15, 2015, during the “Knife Intifada,” SJP UMN hosted anti-Israel propagandist Sabry Wazwaz at a vigil for “the Palestinian lives lost in the recent attacks.” The “Knife Intifada,” was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders.Wazwaz has spread religious incitement, promoted anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and called for intifada.
On April 20, 2015, SJP UMN co-sponsored an event featuring disgraced anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita on “how critique of American and Israeli colonization might be productively undertaken.” In 2014, Salaita had an offer employment retracted by the University of Illinois, after a series of anti-Semitic tweets he had posted were uncovered.
SJP UMN Promoting BDS: 2016
On February 15, 2016, SJP UMN launched a divestment campaign, calling for the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) and UMN to support divestment from companies that SJP UMN claimed “profit from human rights violations in Palestine/Israel.”SJP UMN’s statement announcing the campaign said UMN’s investment in the companies targeted by the campaign showed “implicit support for…the killing of civilians, and violations of their basic human rights.”
UMN’s Chief Investment Officer reportedly told The Minnesota Republic, a student-run newspaper at UMN, that the university had “no direct exposure” to the four companies targeted by the campaign.
On March 8, 2016, the MSA voted [00:26:24] to strike down the divestment resolution from the MSA agenda.
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.
AMP
American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) was founded by UC Berkeley Professor Hatem Bazian as a vehicle to generate mainstream support in the United States for the Palestinian national cause.
On its website, the organization lists Bazian as the chairman of its national board and describes itself as “a national education and grassroots-based organization, dedicated to educating the American public about Palestine and its rich cultural, historical and religious heritage.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused AMP of promoting “extreme anti-Israel views and has at times provided a platform for anti-Semitism under the guise of educating Americans” about Palestinians. The ADL further stated that AMP is directly involved in campus-based anti-Israel activity through Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Prior to founding the AMP in 2006, Dr. Bazian created SJP together with fellow UC Berkeley Professor Snehal Shingavi in 2001. The close working relationship between AMP and SJP has been documented several times over the years by several organizations, including NGO Monitor and StandWithUs.
In addition to providing financial, public relations and legal assistance to SJP, AMP has also been accused of having connections to Hamas. The AMP national board includes former members of both the Islamic Association of Palestine (IAP) and Holy Land Foundation (HLF), both of which were found liable for aiding and abetting Hamas. The IAP was founded by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas.
Social Media and Weblinks
Twitter: www.twitter.com/1001leilaa [Deleted]
www.twitter.com/1001leila [Deleted]
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leilah1001/ [Deleted]
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/1001nights/
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/leilah-abdennabi-1
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- Minnesota
- Organizations:
- AMP,
- BDS,
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- Related Profiles:
- Sarah Tawashy,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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