Mohammad Abou-Ghazala
Overview
Abou-Ghazala is a founding member of George Mason University (GMU)'s Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). He served as its president in 2015.
Abou-Ghazala attended the National SJP Conference in 2017, which was scheduled for October 27-29, 2017, in Houston, TX. The conference was themed “A Reimagined World: Dismantling Walls from Palestine to the Rio Grande.” Per the National Students for SJP 2017 Conference website, the conference aimed to strengthen “collaborative efforts within all regions to pass BDS” and envision “pathways to achieving sanctions in the future.”
As of June 2019, Abou-Ghazala’s LinkedIn page said he was a Researcher for the Arab Studies Institute.
His LinkedIn page also said he graduated from GMU in 2019 with a master’s degree in Middle East and Islamic Studies and a bachelor’s degree from GMU in Global Affairs in 2017.
Celebrating Violence
On March 31, 2019, Abou-Ghazala tweeted: “If you’re an occupation soldier you deserve to get stabbed
On January 7, 2019, Abou-Ghazala tweeted “
On December 14, 2017, Abou-Ghazala tweeted: “An angel is born whenever a stone collided with an Israeli soldier’s face.”
On September 27, 2017, Abou-Ghazala tweeted: “Killing occupation soldiers is not terrorism. Killing occupation soldiers is not terrorism. Killing occupation soldiers is not terrorism.”
On October 13, 2015, Abou-Ghazala shared a video of a Palestinian protester slinging stones and commented “We don't always throw stones at soldiers, but when we do, we Dabke quickly to make sure they know we're invincible.”
On October 5, 2015, Abou-Ghazala posted a cover photo on Facebook of Palestinians throwing rocks, with large text superimposed saying “Support our Troops.”
On November 9, 2014, Abou-Ghazala posted on Facebook a photo of protesters setting on fire the Mexican Presidential Palace and wrote “Any president who lives in a palace deserves to have it burned down. :)”
On August 27, 2014, Abou-Ghazala wrote on Facebook that “At the end of the day it was the resistance that saved Gaza and beat Israel. It wasn't nonviolence, it wasn't appealing to the conscience of zionists, and it wasn't eating hummus with Israelis. It was resistance. Remember that next time you tell Gaza to ‘be like Gandhi.’”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Incitement
On November 7, 2014, Abou-Ghazala shared on Facebook a poster encouraging a ”#HandsOffAlAqsa twitter storm.”
The poster read “'The very existence of Masjid Al Aqsa is under serious threat from Israeli extremists who seek to destroy it. Are we the generation who allows al-Aqsa to fall and the crescent to be removed from the golden and grey domes?'”
In addition to sharing the poster, Abou Ghazala also wrote a comment directed at fellow SAIA co-founder Tareq Radi — “Let’s make this happen.”
The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a traditional pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda served as the excuse for an upsurge in Palestinian violence that flared in the fall of 2015 and incited Palestinians to attempt mass casualty attacks on Israeli civilians in July 2016..
In July 2015, Abou-Ghazala gave a speech at a Socialist “We are Many” event, where he described [00:50:05] “the beginnings of student intifada” at GMU.
Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.
Supporting Terrorism
On August 27, 2014, Abou-Ghazala shared on Facebook a post commemorating the death anniversary of PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa.
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is a transnational Islamist organization founded in Egypt in 1928. It was designated as a terrorist organization by Egypt (2013), Saudi Arabia (2014), the United Arab Emirates (2014) and Bahrain (2017). Among its offshoots is Hamas, a terrorist group dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Defending Terrorists
On September 16, 2018, Khalil Jabarin fatally stabbed American-Israeli Ari Fuld in the back outside a shopping mall south of Jerusalem and attempted to stab another civilian before he was shot by Fuld.
On January 9, 2018, Abou-Ghazala tweeted: “Still she smiles” and embedded a tweet that said: “Child Malak Salman is sentenced to 10 years in Israeli jails” and a photo of Salman.
On May 22, 2017, Abou-Ghazala updated his Facebook profile picture with the caption “I Support #DignityStrike.”
“Dignity Strike” refers to a hunger strike initiated by Marwan Barghouti on April 16, 2017. More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners participated in the strike – most them also convicted for acts of terrorism. Barghouti headed the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He was sentenced to five consecutive life terms by an Israeli civilian court for some of his crimes, including his role in the Sbarro Cafe bombing.
On August 9, 2016, Abou-Ghazala posted a photo to Facebook and Instagram calling to “free all political prisoners,” including Rasmea Odeh and Bilal Kayed.
Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
PFLP terrorist Bilal Kayed was incarcerated for 14 years for terror attacks and attempted terror attacks committed during the second intifada, in 2002.
Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.
Minimizing Hamas Terrorism
Hamas fired over 4,564 missiles and rockets at Israeli population centers during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014.
Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators
On March 31, 2018, Abou-Ghazala tweeted: “Can’t wait for Zionists on campus to whitewash murdering civilian protestors in cold blood.”
Demonizing Zionists
On June 1, 2015, Abou-Ghazala condemned on Facebook a community building event supported by the Islamic Society of North America [ISNA], the All Dulles Area Muslim Society and the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) titled “Painful Hope: Bringing Together Israelis & Palestinians.”
On August 3, 2014, Abou-Ghazaleh posted to his Facebook page: “I recently found out a Zionist from my school joined the IOF and lend a hand to their mass slaughter. Who knew a psychopath was roaming the same campus as me.”
Spreading Hatred of Israel
On July 6, 2017, Abou-Ghazala tweeted: “The fall of Zionism is inevitable. Israel holds too many contradictions 2 avoid implosion. An ethnocentric state will never be a democracy.”
On July 25, 2016, Abou-Ghazala posted on Facebook a tweet from anti-Israel professor Steven Salaita, which claimed that Israel practices “ethnic cleansing” against Palestinians.
On August 2, 2015, Abou-Ghazala posted an article on Facebook that claimed Israel “executed” Palestinian civilians “in cold blood” during OPE.
On November 5, 2014, Abou-Ghazala promoted a SAIA-organized Gaza Vigil on Facebook with the comment “If you're on campus today, be a good person and stop by the vigil being held for the children murdered by the Zionist war machine.#NoEthicsInEthnicCleansing.”
On July, 3, 2014, Abou-Ghazala wrote a Facebook post in which suggested that Israel exploited the kidnapping and murder by Hamas of three Israeli high-schoolers as an excuse to attack Gaza: “When the settler teens were found, we all began awaiting the slaughter of Gaza, tells you all you need to know about Israel.”
A video of the rally showed students shouting “1-2-3-4 occupation no more, 5-6-7-8 Israel is a racist state.”
In June 2013, Abou-Ghazala and SAIA members disrupted a speech given by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. The students yelled at Olmert, calling him a“war criminal” and “murderer.”
Abou-Ghazala yelled [00:00:14] at Olmert: “Free my people. Free Palestine.”
BDS Activism
Abou-Ghazala embedded a BDS petition he created, calling on George Mason University Dining Services to boycott Sabra Hummus. The petition labelled Israel an “apartheid” state, and accused the IDF of “various human rights violations, including the slaughter of at least 1,400 Palestinian civilians during a siege on the Gaza Strip in 2009.”
On November 15, 2018, Abou Ghazala tweeted: “Sabra Hummus is partially owned by the Strauss Group, which publicly funds IDF brigades like the Golani, responsible for unspeakable war crimes. Funny how Zionists always fail to address that fact and make it all about the hummus.”
On April 17, 2015, Abou-Ghazala wrote an article for GMU’s student newspaper in which he promoted BDS. In the article, he claimed “the very inception of the Zionist state required the brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestine of its indigenous populations, and the mass-slaughter of Palestinian civilians.”
He also claimed that “Israel’s definition of ‘peace’ inherently entails perpetuating the misery of Palestinians,” and that Israel employed a “two-tiered system of rights within Israel that relegates all non-Jewish residents to second-class citizenship.”
SAIA 2016 - Spreading Lies
On October 5, 2015, SAIA posted on Facebook a photograph of a small child next to photographs of Israeli soldiers and claimed that "today, Israeli occupation soldiers arrested a three year old. For throwing stones."
On October 25, 2015, SAIA posted an article on Facebook claiming that “peace activist” Hashem Azzeh was “assassinated” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). In October 2015, Al Azzeh died following a battle with a cardiac condition. Palestinian news sources later claimed Al Azzeh’s death was caused by the IDF’s use of tear gas nearby.
On October 3, 2015, SAIA shared a video on Facebook and commented: “An Israeli Zionist lynch mob cheers the cold-blooded murder of 19 year old Fadi Alloun.”
Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.
GMU SAIA - Whitewashing a Terrorist
On October 3, 2015, SAIA shared a video on Facebook and commented: “An Israeli Zionist lynch mob cheers the cold-blooded murder of 19 year old Fadi Alloun.”
Fadi Aloon was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy. Several hours before the attack, Aloon posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.
GMU SAIA - Shutting Down Dialogue with Israelis
On November 5, 2013, SAIA staged a walkout to disrupt a talk given by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Sgt. Benjamin Anthony at GMU about his personal experiences of the Israeli-Arab Conflict. The group also projected [00:00:48] the SAIA logo on the building used to host the event.
SAIA produced a video of the walkout with a description claiming: “The walkout was part of SAIA's anti-normalization strategy that seeks to expose normalizing events…”
Propanents of the “anti-normalization” policy seek to police all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians and shut down all conversations, interactions and speech that they perceive as being ideologically unaligned with their own agenda. Adherents to this position reject “liberal Zionist” groups who seek to dialogue with Palestinians, on the grounds that such interaction “normalizes” entrenched power dynamics.
GMU SAIA - Promoting A Graduation Day Walkout
On December 19, 2013, SAIA staged a graduation day walkout during a speech delivered by American-Israeli businesswoman and philanthropist Shari Arison, who SAIA described as an “apartheid profiteer.”
During the walk-out,several graduates reportedly wore “no honor in apartheid” stickers on the tops of their graduate caps while their guests waved [00:02:04]keffiyehs.
Before the event, SAIA leader Tareq Radi co-authored with GMU professor and SAIA advisor Craig Willse an "open letter outlining our concerns," hosted on the GMU SAIA website. The open letter quoted University President Ángel Cabrera’s praise of “Arison’s example of practicing moral responsibility in business” as the basis to allege that the “university’s name is being used to whitewash the activities of the Arison Group.”
Radi and Willse claimed “Honoring Arison makes Mason appear to be a PR machine for robber baron billionaires” and claimed that the Arison Group was displacing Bedouins, constructing a “cross-Israel Jewish-only highway”, building a portion of “the Apartheid Wall,” operating “an illegal factory for construction materials” and illegally extracting minerals from the occupied portion of the Dead Sea.
GMU SAIA - Crashing an Israel Festival
In May 2014, GMU SAIA members crashed an Israeli Independence Festival wearing garments with the SAIA emblem and Keffiyehs. The police permitted the group to enter only after issuing [00:01:53] a warning not to cause trouble. The group subsequently spent their time at the festival arguing [00:05:37] with pro-Israel attendees.
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.
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- DMV GMU,
- more...
- George-Mason
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- SJP (SAIA)
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- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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