Naheda Dahleh
Overview
Naheda Dahleh was arrested while participating in an anti-Israel rally in early 2024. She also blocked traffic while leading other anti-Israel rallies that year, during Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group.Dahleh’s activism occurred after Hamas terrorist war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
As of March 2024, Dahleh was an activist with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) branch in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, known as PSL Philly. As of April 2024, she was affiliated [slide 2] with the Philadelphia Liberation Center, a “community hub for solidarity, struggle, and socialist political education” run by PSL Philly.
As of June 2024, Dahleh’s LinkedIn profile said she was a student at Thomas Jefferson University (Jefferson) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, slated to graduate in 2025.
Her LinkedIn also said she was a member of the “Jefferson University’s Law & Society Program” public Facebook group since September 2022. In November 2023, Dahleh was affiliated [slide 1]with Jefferson’s Middle Eastern and North African Association (MENA) (MENA TJU). In 2022, Dahleh was reportedly “a first-year Law & Society student” at Jefferson and “a community organizer.”
As of June 2024, Dahleh’s LinkedIn said she was an intern at Princeton Strategies, a political consulting firm in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from March to August 2023.
As of June 2024, Dahleh’s LinkedIn said she was located in the Greater Philadelphia area.
3/30/24 - Arrested for Blocking Traffic
On March 30, 2024, Dahleh was arrested for blocking an interstate highway at an anti-Israel rally and march held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The protest was titled: “MARCH WITH PALESTINE FOR LAND & LIBERATION / LAND DAY 2024,” and was co-organized by PSL Philly.During the protest, 350 PSL members reportedly “rushed” onto the highway and disrupted traffic. The Philadelphia Police Department (PPD) arrested 67 protesters for disorderly conduct.
At the rally, protesters held a banner that said: “Israel is a terrorist organization.” They also chanted: “Brick by brick, wall by wall, apartheid has got to fall!”
On March 31, 2024, Dahleh tweeted: “including me!” in response to a tweet by anti-Israel activist James Ray that said: “Protestors were kettled by the Philadelphia Police Department today after trying to block a highway during a Palestine protest. The kettling led to 50 arrests. 50.”
On the same day, PSL Philly wrote on Instagram: “During the march, a group of protesters managed to march on I-676 westbound, shutting down traffic for two hours, before being denied exit and arrested by the Philadelphia Police Department and Pennsylvania State Police.”
Dahleh commented: “so proud and so honored to struggle with these incredible and brave comrades.”
Dahleh also commented: “PPD, KKK, IOF THEYRE ALL THE SAME! in the face of extreme and unwarranted police repression, we stand tall in our solidarity with palestine. so incredibly proud of my comrades for such a strong action.”
“IOF” stands for Israeli Occupation Forces, a derogatory name used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army in place of its official name, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
3/2/2024 - Blocking Traffic & Leading an Anti-Israel Rally
On March 2, 2024, Dahleh blocked [00:00:24] interstate traffic and spoke at an anti-Israel rally and march that began at Philadelphia’s City Hall.On March 2, 2024, PSL Philly organized a rally and march at Philadelphia’s City Hall. PSL Philly’s Instagram post promoting the event said the rally was organized to demand “Hands off Rafah!”, “Ceasefire Now!” and “Stop the genocide!”
During the march, Dahleh blocked [00:00:24] traffic on the Ben Franklin Bridge, the city’s main bridge between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and chanted [00:00:24] through a microphone: “Shut it down! Shut it down!”
Other anti-Israel protesters also blocked traffic on the bridge, which reportedly shut down interstate traffic for half an hour.
On the bridge, protesters chanted: “Whose bridge? Our bridge!” They also chanted: “PPP, KKK, IDF, they’re all the same!”
1/30/2024 - Blocking Traffic & Leading an Anti-Israel Rally
On January 30, 2024, Dahleh blocked [00:00:04] traffic while leading an anti-Israel rally held at the entrance to the Vanguard Group, Inc. (Vanguard) headquarters in Malvern, Pennsylvania. Vanguard is an American investment management company.On January 30, 2024, PSL Philly and the PSL chapter in Chester County, Pennsylvania (PSLChesco) held a rally titled: “VANGUARD INVESTS IN GENOCIDE.” The rally was organized to protest Vanguard’s investments in companies that do business with Israel.
At the rally, anti-Israel protesters reportedly “arrived at the front gate of Vanguard’s campus at around 8:00 AM when commuters were beginning to arrive” and blocked the entrance.
Dahleh blocked [00:00:04] the entrance to Vanguard and chanted through a megaphone: “Vanguard, Vanguard, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!”
Anti-Israel protesters at the rally held a PSL banner that said: “STAND WITH THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE’S RESISTANCE / END U.S. SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL!” Another sign said: “Stand with Palestinian People’s Resistance! / STOP U.S. FUNDING OF ISRAELI APARTHEID.”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” can be a euphemism for nationalistic terror. It is often used to excuse or even glorify anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
Support for Terrorists
Dahleh retweeted an October 27, 2023 tweet that said: “... palestinians have every right to defend themselves (by any means necessary) from the terroristic ethnostate that disguises itself as ‘the only democracy in the middle east.’ palestinian resistance will outlast this regime.”Anti-Israel activists use the phrase “by any means necessary,” as one of multiple euphemisms for terrorist violence, including “resistance.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) is dedicated to the violent destruction of Israel. It is designated as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) by the United States. The EU, Canada, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Australia and Israel also list it as a terror group due to its history of carrying out assassinations, suicide bombings, hijackings and multiple murders.
The tweet that Dahleh retweeted said: “How will they defeat a nation who’s resistance lives in its heart?… the Palestinian resistance continue and will continue to confront a criminal nazi army…and inflict unprecedented losses on the enemy army in the history of our people’s devotion.’”
Dahleh retweeted a February 25, 2024 tweet that said: “Ghassan Kanafani: ‘Zionism as a reactionary ideology fitted exactly the ambitions of British colonialism in that period and later with American imperialism.’”
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s early years. Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people and wounded 80 others.
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.
As of June 2024, Dahleh’s Twitter background image included graffiti depicting Leila Khaled painted on Israel’s security barrier with the words: “DON’T FORGET THE STRUGGLE.”
Leila Khaled is a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau. Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
Israel’s security barrier, 97 percent of which is a low chain-link barrier, was built as a deterrent to Palestinian terror attacks. The concrete portions of the fence were built in response to Palestinian sniper attacks.
Promoting Violence Against Israelis
On December 31, 2023, Dahleh tweeted: “2024 to liberation.” Dahleh’s tweet included [image 4] a photo depicting a teenager throwing a rock with the words: “Don’t beg for sympathy from a cruel world, rise and resist.”Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.
Dahleh retweeted an April 13, 2024 tweet that said: “...colonialism only yields when confronted with greater violence. Idk what you thought liberation would entail. This is it. The last 6 months, upon decades of armed confrontation and resistance— it’s what was always going to liberate Palestine.”
Dahleh’s retweet was referring to the April 14, 2024, Iranian missile attack on Israel, which took place during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists. At the time of the missile attack, it was still April 13, 2024, in the U.S.
On April 14, 2024, Iran fired “Over 350 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, armed drones and rockets” toward Israel in an unprecedented attack. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and several international partners intercepted 99% of the projectiles. The IDF named the operation Iron Shield. The missile attack took place during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists.
Iranian media claimed the attack was in retaliation for an alleged Israeli strike on an Iranian consular building in Damascus, Syria, earlier that month. The Damascus attack killed several members of designated terrorist organization Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including a senior commander and a brigadier general.
Hatred of Zionists and Israel
Also as of June 2024, Dahleh’s Twitter bio said: “...from the river to the sea - i am palestinian.”“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of 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. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
Dahleh retweeted an October 27, 2023 tweet that said: “Zionists are not worth engaging with. They need to be treated like it’s the 80s and they’re White South Africans. They should be treated as pariahs and social outcasts with no acceptance anywhere. To be a Zionist is to forfeit any legitimacy and respect.”
Proponents of the “anti-normalization” policy seek to police all interactions between Israelis and Palestinians and shut down all conversations and interactions perceived as being ideologically unaligned with their own agenda.
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/naheda.dahlehTwitter: https://twitter.com/nahedadahleh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nahedadahleh/ [Private]
Instagram 2: https://www.instagram.com/naheheheda/ [Private]
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Thomas-Jefferson
- Organizations:
- BDS,
- PSL
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
