Lyra Monteiro
Overview
Lyra Monteiro has promoted hatred of Israel in college lectures. Monteiro also spread anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel during a war against Hamas terrorists in late 2023.Monteiro has promoted incitement, engaged in anti-Israel activism and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Monteiro wrote the late 2023 statements 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.”
As of December 2023, Monteiro was listed online as an assistant professor in the “Department of History and the Graduate Program in American Studies” at Rutgers University (Rutgers) in Newark, New Jersey. Monteiro was listed on the Rutgers website as “Lyra D. Monteiro.”
As of the same date, Monteiro was also listed online as an affiliate faculty member in the African American and African Studies program at Rutgers.
As of December 19, 2023, Monteiro’s LinkedIn profile said Monteiro was the director and co-founder of The Museum On Site (TMOS).
As of December 26, 2023, Monteiro was listed online as the co-convener of the Philadelphia-based project Finding Ceremony.
As of December 2023, Monteiro was listed online as having received a PhD in archeology and the ancient world from Brown University (Brown) in 2012.
Also as of December 2023, Monteiro’s LinkedIn said Monteiro was located in New York, New York.
As of the same date, Monteiro used the handle “@intersectionist” on Twitter and had the username “Dr. Lyra D. Monteiro (she/zie) is not leaving."
Promoting Hatred of Israel in College Lectures
In December 2023, Monteiro reportedly produced a presentation “covering ‘context of the genocide in Palestine’” which was used for an undergraduate art history course at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW-Madison). The presentation was part of Finding Ceremony, which Monteiro has described as “a reparationist project, which must be funded by the institution(s) that have harmed stolen ancestors.”On December 6, 2023, Monteiro tweeted about giving a lecture, writing: “So we talked about BDS--which was new to most students. And then we talked about the other way the genocide shows up in our TV show--season 1 of Mr. Robot, episode 9 (which we’d just watched) has a scene in @QueensMuseum, which is where the UN voted in 1947 to start the Nakba.”
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.
Anti-Semitism and Hatred of Israel during a War with Hamas
On December 11, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “...This isn’t ‘like the Holocaust. / or ‘like Vietnam’ / or ‘like Rwanda.’ Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians & removal from Gaza is not ‘like’ anything…”The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.
On December 9, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “Also do we have a term, other than ‘white supremacy’ that characterizes these nonsense but forceful claims of antisemitism launched at those who are advocating for the people who Israel is literally committing genocide on rn [right now]?”
On October 14, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “...the Israeli genocide in Gaza has become more and more horrifying…”
On the same date, Monteiro tweeted: “Once again either the Twitter algorithm is working for me, or I don’t actually follow any zi0nists/ignorant default white supremacists/both siders. / If I see any of that s**t I will def unfollow…FREE PALESTINE
.”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 October 13, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “...the white supremacist settler colonialism…supports Israel’s ‘right to defend itself ‘by committing genocide…”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, about 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.
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 between the ages of three and 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.
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.
Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Promoting Incitement
On August 5, 2021, Monteiro tweeted: “...For Brown students, alums, faculty, staff--add your name to the 1000+ who’ve signed the letter…#SaveSheikhJarrah #GazaUnderAttack...”In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month. Israel responded by launching Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW), carrying out targeted military strikes against the terrorists and their infrastructure in Gaza.
Monteiro’s tweet included a link to sign an anti-Israel statement titled: “LETTER IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PALESTINIAN LIBERATION STRUGGLE.”
The statement said: “We condemn Israel’s incessant efforts to dispossess and displace 28 Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem…The recent attempted expulsions are part of Israel’s long-standing project of ethnic cleansing and dispossession…
The statement also said: “We condemn the Israeli police’s ruthless attacks on Muslim worshippers in al-Aqsa Mosque compound…during the holy month of Ramadan…#SaveSheikhJarrah #GazaUnderAttack…”
Ramadan is an Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are meant to engage in self-reflection, repentance and the giving of charity. Ramadan is frequently marked by increased anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric throughout the Arab world, Palestinian violence in Israel and heightened tensions centered in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The statement said: “We condemn Israel’s incessant efforts to dispossess and displace 28 Palestinian families in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in Jerusalem…The recent attempted expulsions are part of Israel’s long-standing project of ethnic cleansing and dispossession…
The statement also said: “We condemn the Israeli police’s ruthless attacks on Muslim worshippers in al-Aqsa Mosque compound…during the holy month of Ramadan…#SaveSheikhJarrah #GazaUnderAttack…”
In May 2021, violent clashes broke out between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police at the Al-Aqsa compound following claims the Al-Aqsa Mosque was in danger. The subsequent incitement was a leading factor in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel later that month. Israel responded by launching “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza. Allegations of Jews “threatening” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque have been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews predating the State of Israel.
Ramadan is an Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are meant to engage in self-reflection, repentance and the giving of charity. Ramadan is frequently marked by increased anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric throughout the Arab world, Palestinian violence in Israel and heightened tensions centered in the Old City of Jerusalem.
On May 16, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “Many things about this #FreePalestine #SaveSheikhJarrahh solidarity demo in Puerto Rico feel different. Partly it’s the absence of even the possibility of Zi*nist counter-protesters. I bet that freedom accounts for a lot. / #Fromtherivertothesea.”
On December 9, 2023, Monteiro posted a link on Facebook to a video taken the day before of about 20 anti-Israel protesters inside the Brooklyn Museum.
Monteiro wrote in the post: “This is a long video that I hope Museum Studies/Public Humanities/etc ppl will teach with THIS WEEK: leaders of Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine Decolonize This Place speaking at length inside Brooklyn Museum re: why they are there, how museum supports genocide, & reading letter of support from museum’s staff.” Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and Decolonize This Place (DTP) are anti-Israel activist groups based in New York, New York.
The video featured WOL leader Nerdeen Kiswani speaking in front of participants holding large signs that said [00:00:01] “Brooklyn Museum: No Silence On Genocide,” as well as [00:00:04] “No Normalization for Settler Colonialism” and [00:00:05] “Palestine Will Live Forever.” The protest took place on December 8, 2023, one day prior to a pro-Hamas WOL march titled: “FLOOD BROOKLYN FOR GAZA.”
On December 10, 2023, Monteiro tweeted a picture of a flyer calling for a “Global Strike for Gaza” organized by WOL for the following day and wrote: “...Let us indeed SHUT IT DOWN for Palestine.”
On December 22, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “#FindingCeremony’s website…has been transferred onto @WordPress & off @Wix in support of the Palestinian BDS boycott of @BDSmovement…”
Monteiro retweeted a December 22, 2023 tweet that said: “
Urgent Rally for Palestine - This Christmas Stand for Justice!...” The tweet included a picture of a flyer promoting the rally organized by multiple anti-Israel activist groups, with text that read: “PRIESTS OF PALESTINE CALL FOR MOBILIZATION, NOT CELEBRATION! ALL OUT FOR CHRISTMAS FOR GAZA.” The rally was scheduled for December 25, 2023 in New York, New York.
Twitter:https://twitter.com/intersectionist/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nauntie.l/ [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyra-d-monteiro-259a1021/
University Website:https://sasn.rutgers.edu/lyra-d-monteiro
Academia.edu:https://ncas-rutgers.academia.edu/LyraMonteiro
Medium:https://intersectionist.medium.com/
Linktr.ee:https://linktr.ee/lmonteir
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” is a chant calling to dismantle 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.
Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)
On November 19, 2023, Monteiro tweeted a graphic with a list of U.S. and Israeli companies on “THE BDS BOYCOTT LIST.”On December 9, 2023, Monteiro posted a link on Facebook to a video taken the day before of about 20 anti-Israel protesters inside the Brooklyn Museum.
Monteiro wrote in the post: “This is a long video that I hope Museum Studies/Public Humanities/etc ppl will teach with THIS WEEK: leaders of Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine Decolonize This Place speaking at length inside Brooklyn Museum re: why they are there, how museum supports genocide, & reading letter of support from museum’s staff.” Within Our Lifetime (WOL) and Decolonize This Place (DTP) are anti-Israel activist groups based in New York, New York.
The video featured WOL leader Nerdeen Kiswani speaking in front of participants holding large signs that said [00:00:01] “Brooklyn Museum: No Silence On Genocide,” as well as [00:00:04] “No Normalization for Settler Colonialism” and [00:00:05] “Palestine Will Live Forever.” The protest took place on December 8, 2023, one day prior to a pro-Hamas WOL march titled: “FLOOD BROOKLYN FOR GAZA.”
On December 10, 2023, Monteiro tweeted a picture of a flyer calling for a “Global Strike for Gaza” organized by WOL for the following day and wrote: “...Let us indeed SHUT IT DOWN for Palestine.”
On December 22, 2023, Monteiro tweeted: “#FindingCeremony’s website…has been transferred onto @WordPress & off @Wix in support of the Palestinian BDS boycott of @BDSmovement…”
Monteiro retweeted a December 22, 2023 tweet that said: “
Urgent Rally for Palestine - This Christmas Stand for Justice!...” The tweet included a picture of a flyer promoting the rally organized by multiple anti-Israel activist groups, with text that read: “PRIESTS OF PALESTINE CALL FOR MOBILIZATION, NOT CELEBRATION! ALL OUT FOR CHRISTMAS FOR GAZA.” The rally was scheduled for December 25, 2023 in New York, New York.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/lyra.monteiroTwitter:https://twitter.com/intersectionist/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nauntie.l/ [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lyra-d-monteiro-259a1021/
University Website:https://sasn.rutgers.edu/lyra-d-monteiro
Academia.edu:https://ncas-rutgers.academia.edu/LyraMonteiro
Medium:https://intersectionist.medium.com/
Linktr.ee:https://linktr.ee/lmonteir
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- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
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Infamous Quotes
“the white supremacist settler colonialism…supports Israel’s ‘right to defend itself ‘by committing genocide.”
“This isn’t ‘like the Holocaust. or ‘like Vietnam’ or ‘like Rwanda.’ Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinians & removal from Gaza is not ‘like’ anything.”
