Murad Odeh
Overview
As of 2013, Odeh was reportedly a member of the St. Louis (STL) Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC), which promotes BDS. STL-PSC is a member organization of theUS Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), formerly known as “The Campaign to End The Israeli Occupation.”. The PSC is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Odeh spoke at the 2019 National SJP Conference.
As of December 2020, Odeh’s LinkedIn page (where he spelled his last name “Owdah”) said he graduated from Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) in 2015, with a master’s degree in Social Work. Odeh reportedly received a Fulbright scholarship, which allowed him to enter the U.S.
Also as of December 2020, Odeh’s LinkedIn page said he was a Program Manager at Avenues for Homeless Youth, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, since July, 2019.
As of the same date, Odeh’s LinkedIn page said that from January 2015 to February 2019, Odeh worked as a community mobilization officer at Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (BADIL) in Bethlehem. Odeh also worked for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).
The United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) has hired Hamas members as teachers in its schools and provided arms to the terror group. Dozens of UNRWA staff participated in the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror attack on Israel, and many kept hostages for Hamas in their homes.
Odeh is a native of the Dheisheh refugee camp near Bethlehem and as of May 2018, lived there with his wife, fellow anti-Israel activist Maya Amber Harris. In May 2018, Harris told the reported manager of United Way of Tanana Valley, Alaska, that she and Odeh would be moving to the U.S. “in a year to start my husband's citizenship process and my masters!”
In 2010, Odeh graduated from Bethlehem University (Bethlehem), with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work.
As of December 2020, Odeh used the name “Odeh Murad” on Facebook and “Murad Owdah” on LinkedIn.
Supporting Violent Protesters
On May 17, 2018, Odeh posted a link on Facebook featuring pictures and text about the Great March for Return. Odeh captioned it in Arabic: “The march of death, which was kindly called this year, is the march of return...towards death.”The link in Odeh’s post claimed, in Arabic, that the protesters were unarmed.
On May 16, 2018 Odeh posted a video on Facebook from “Ramallah News” that was captioned: “A touching farewell to the youngest Palestinian martyr in the March of return, which rose today in Gaza.”
On May 15, 2018 Odeh posted a video on Facebook from “Days of Palestine.” The caption read: “Israel want to hide the truth by targeting journalists.. !! #Nakba70 #GreatReturnMarch.”
Murad whitewashed protests during the “Knife Intifada” in an October 17, 2015 article on IMEMC News. He reportedly said the protests were “‘the tip of the mountain” and that “‘It is about being oppressed some 60, 70 years…(The protests) are just the anger that has exploded.’”
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.
Demonizing Israel
Between April 1, 2015 and May 18, 2016, Odeh created multiple Prezi presentations for the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights that employed falsehoods and misrepresented international law to demonize Israel.The 14th slide of Odeh’s April 1, 2015 Prezi presentation: “Copy of Palestine,” featured a misleading graphic with the headline “Palestinian Loss of land 1947 to Present.”
The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
Slides 19 through 21 of Odeh’s May 18, 2016 Prezi presentation titled: “Badil” misrepresented the “Right of Return” as though it were “guaranteed” under International Law.
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.
In a February 20, 2014 piece in the anti-Israel publication, Electronic Intifada (EI), Odeh wrote that Israel: “steals our lands. It steals our water...It subjects us to arbitrary violence and detention without any meaningful due process. It allows fanatical, armed religious settlers to torment us.”
Anti Israel Activism
On July 14, 2014, Odeh was photographed protesting Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE), in Maya Harris’ Tumblr account. The photo was captioned: “Vigil for #Palestine in St. Louis #stforpalestine organize [sic] by Palestine Solidarity committee St Louis! #GazaUnderAttack.”Israel commenced OPE in July 2014 to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
In the photograph, Odeh held a sign that read: “End US $ To Israel.”
In July 2017, Odeh led a tour of the Deheisha Refugee camp for Interfaith-Peace Builders (IFPB).
Eyewitness Palestine, formerly known as IFPB until 2018, is an anti-Israel NGO that organizes activist delegations to Israel and the West Bank.
In November 2018, Odeh also hosted a group who were part of a tour with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), where he reportedly said: “‘Our issue is not humanitarian aid, our issue is political. Our issue is Right of Return, not a bag of rice.’”
PYM supports and has glorified terrorists, including Hamas, promotes incitement to violence, as well as anti-Israel conspiracy theories and advocates for the dissolution of the State of Israel. PYM also supports BDS, demonizes Israel, supports anti-Israel agitators and praises violent protesters.
Promoting BDS
Odeh concluded by saying: “I commend the ASA for heeding the call of the Palestinian people for boycott, divestment and sanctions against institutions that are complicit in sustaining the Israeli system of ethnic discrimination and domination.”
Odeh’s article, originally published in WUSTL’s campus newsletter on February 20, 2014, was later reproduced onEI.
Speaking at the 2019 National SJP Conference
On November 2, 2019, Odeh featured in a photo in Suhad Katib’s Instagram story, speaking at the 2019 National SJP Conference.The Conference partnered with numerous anti-Israel organizations and conducted their event in a clandestine manner.
2019 National SJP - Supporting BDS
The Conference website called to capitalize on shifts in the political climate, represented by the elections to the U.S. Congress of Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who both support BDS. National SJP speakers also reportedly drew attention to Rep. Omar’s support for the BDS movement as the Representative for UMN’s Congressional district.During the Conference, National SJP speakers reportedly “noted the success of past divestment campaigns at the University [UMN], which ultimately resulted in the passing of a campus-wide [BDS] referendum in 2018.”
The UMN resolution passed in 2018 by a margin of 3.4 percent of those students who voted, translating to approval by 6.18% of all eligible voters. Less than 13% of the eligible voters actually voted on UMN’s BDS referendum.
2019 National SJP - Rejecting Israel and Zionism
The 2019 National SJP Conference website indicated that the goal of their “solidarity movement” was to push for policies that “demanded the end of” the state of Israel, referred to as “the Israeli occupation.”The website clarified that “the Palestinian struggle against Zionism, extends beyond the confines of 1967, and well before the Nakba,” and was based on the rejection of Jewish national self-determination in Israel.
Nakba is an Arabic term for “catastrophe” and refers to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel.
2019 National SJP - Heightened Secrecy
The 2019 National SJP Conference required attendees to be “verified and vouched for” by an SJP chapter to which they belonged and required each chapter to register as a group. The conference also required each group to be verified by a “reference––someone who is NOT going to this conference but who is or has recently been a part of your SJP.”2019 National SJP - Partnering Organizations
National SJP partnered with other anti-Israel organizations to table, sell merchandise and lead workshops, including CODEPINK, Palestine Youth Movement (PYM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), Palestine Legal, Watan Palestine and the Adalah Justice Project.Keynote speakers included Loubna Qutami, Chair of PYM, as well as Taher Herzallah of American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). Other speakers included Miko Peled, Sandra Tamari, Suhad Katib, Chris Gazaleh, Clarissa Bitar, Tariq Luthun, Maytha Alhassen and Sima Shakhsari.
BADIL
BADIL is a Palestinian NGO that mainly focuses on promoting the Palestinian “right of return.” The organization has accused Israel of “occupation, colonization and apartheid,” ethnic cleansing and war crimes.BADIL also awarded a monetary prize for a blatantly anti-Semitic cartoon. It advocates for BDS, has partnered with the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and has been hosted by SJP.
BADIL also “organizes and participates” in anti-Israel conferences and tours and provides brochures on the “Nakba.” They also promote a propaganda poster showing a series of maps that that claim that “Palestinian land” was stolen by Israel, known as “The Map That Lies” and provide fact-sheets highlighting “Israel’s apartheid-like policies.”
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
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/murad-owdah-909641173/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/murad1948 [Deleted]
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/murad_il_falasteeny [Private]
- Status:
- Professional
- University:
- WUSTL,
- more...
- Organizations:
- BADIL,
- BDS,
- more...
- Related Profiles:
- Lee Steinhorst,
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
