Noor Abutaah

Overview

Noor Abutaah co-hosted a rally protesting Israel, participated in demonstrations against Israel, spread hatred of Israel and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement at GMU.

Abutaah was a member of George Mason University (GMU)’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA), an affiliate of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

As of May 2019, Abutaah’s LinkedIn profile said she graduated from GMU in 2013, with a bachelor’s degree in Global Community Health and Nutrition.

As of May 2019, Abutaah’s LinkedIn profile said she was a member of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) while she was a student at GMU.

As of May 2019, Abutaah’s LinkedIn profile said she worked as Operations Manager for United Muslim Relief (UMR) between April 2014 and January 2016.

In October 2015, United Muslim Relief (UMR) posted on Facebook that “Currently, Noor is pursuing her Masters in Public Health at GMU and is going to be moving on to work at Mercy Corps in Jordan as a programs officer.” As of May 2019, Abutaah’s Facebook page said she lived in Washington, D.C.

As of May 2019, Abutaah used the name “Noor Ab” on Facebook.

Hosting an Anti-Israel Rally

On August 1, 2013, Abutaah co-hosted a GMU SAIA-hosted event titled: “Day of Anger: Stop Prawer DC Rally,” with anti-Israel activists Mohammad Abou-Ghazala, Lena Ibrahim and Khaled Mohammad Al Sarayreh outside The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The event’s Facebook description said the rally was to “spread awareness of the biggest impending ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians by Israel since 1948” and called on participants to “Demand that the US Government stops its unquestioning support of Israel!”

The “Prawer Plan” is a proposed Israeli government plan (the Begin-Prawer Plan) to officially recognize and register the vast majority of Bedouin settlements throughout southern Israel and relocate and compensate the residents of 35 unrecognized villages.

At the protest, students chanted [00:00:07] “5-6-7-8 Israel is a racist state” and [00:00:32] “1-2-3-4 occupation no more.”

Demonstrating Against Israel

On August 2, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Abutaah participated with other SAIA members in an event titled: “National March on the White House: End the Massacre in Gaza!”

The event’s Facebook description said that “initial co-sponsors” included anti-Israel groups such as American Muslims for Palestine (AMP), Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Al-Awda: Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

At the March, participants displayed signs that read: “Stop the Palestinian Holocaust,” “Stop the Slaughter in Gaza,” “Stop Funding the Massacre in Gaza” and “The Warsaw Ghetto had Tunnels too.”

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.

Hamas fired over 4,564 missiles and rockets at Israeli population centers during Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014.

On July 5, 2014, Abutaah held a Palestinian flag and stood with members of the Neturei Karta, at a demonstration in Washington, D.C. hosted by the Washington, D.C., Maryland (MD), Virginia (VA) SJP Chapter (DC MD VA SJP).

Neturei Karta is an anti-Israel Jewish fringe group whose leader, Yisroel Dovid Weiss, was excommunicated from many Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups for participating in a 2006 Holocaust denial conference in Iran. The group opposes Zionism on religious grounds and has called to dismantle Israel.

The event’s Facebook description stated: “In the wake of the disappearance of three Israeli settlers, Israel has escalated its brutal occupation...Join us as we honor those who have been martyred.”

Hamas was responsible for the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers from a bus stop on June 12, 2014. The abducted boys were murdered by their captors, and their bodies were found buried in Palestinian-controlled territory on June 30, 2014.

The event’s Facebook description also demanded: “Immediate Release of All Palestinian Prisoners” and “Support of the Palestinian right to resistance.”

During the demonstration, activists chanted [00:00:11] “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

“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.

Spreading Hatred of Israel

On October 11, 2015, Abutaah posted a video of the funeral procession of Fadi Aloon and commented: “Funeral of 19-year-old Fadi Alloun in Jerusalem who tried to run from a crazy mob of Zionist settlers and looked to Israeli soldiers to help and they shot him dead. The settlers proceeded to mutilate his dead body. #israel”

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.

On November 15, 2014, Abutaah shared a video to Facebook titled: “Jews and Christians telling the Real Truth about Israel History” and commented: “Brief history lesson on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land.”

The video featured pro-BDS professor and former spokesperson of the PLO under Yasir Arafat, Rashid Khalidi, BDS leader Ilan Pappe, and Phyllis Bennis, a co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), which was formerly the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.

Bennis indicated [00:04:00] that Palestinians paid the price for the Holocaust when the State of Israel was created, while Pappe said [00:05:44] that Israel ethnically cleansed Palestinians in order to create the State.

On July 14, 2014, Abutaah posted to Facebook “...if you STILL don't acknowledge that the racist, supremacist ideology of Zionism is the driving force for the genocide of an entire indigenous population, watch this video.”

On July 11, 2014, Abutaah also shared to Facebook a video titled: “Israel & Palestine: A Very Short Introduction” that accused [00:01:04] Israel of “erasing Palestinian villages and towns” and [00:02:27] being built on a “blueprint of exclusion.”

Promoting BDS

On April 2, 2013, Abutaah appeared in a photo posted to Facebook by GMU SAIA with the caption: “Great launch for our Boycott Sabra Campaign today! This is just our first step towards divestment. Get ready Mason.”

On April 25, 2013, Abuttah appeared in a group photo posted by GMU SAIA on Facebook at a panel event on BDS, titled: “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Movement and South African Apartheid: Panel Discussion.”

The event included speakers who would “present their perspectives on...the system of Israeli apartheid...in the context of the South African example.”

The event’s Facebook description said that Craig Willse “will explain the BDS movement.”

Craig Willse is a Professor at GMU and reportedly a member of the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). Willse was arrested in 2017 for “trespassing and disorderly conduct" after participating in a JVP-organized disruption, targeting an LGBTQ contingent during the Celebrate Israel Parade in New York City.

On November 21, 2013, Abutaah signed a petition as part of a GMU SAIA campaign to boycott Sabra hummus at GMU. Sabra is partially owned by an Israeli company, the Strauss Group.

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.

MSA

The MSA was established by members of the Muslim Brotherhood in January 1963 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, with the goal of "spreading Islam as students in North America." A 2004 FBI investigation uncovered an internal Muslim Brotherhood document in which a brotherhood leader identified the MSA as "one of our organizations."

The MSA reportedly has “nearly 600 chapters” located in the United States and Canada, and is “the most visible and influential Islamic student organization in North America,” boasting conferences, special events, publications, websites and other activities.

The organization includes a number of previous chapter presidents with explicit links to terrorist groups. Included are al-Qaeda cleric Anwar al-Awlaki (Colorado State University), Somali al-Shabaab militant leader Omar Shafik Hammami (University of South Alabama) and Pakistani Taliban recruiter Ramy Zamzam of the MSA's Washington, D.C. council.