Paige Belanger
Overview
Paige Belanger expressed support for Hamas at a rally three days after the terror group’s October 2023 war crimes against Israeli civilians. Belanger vandalized an Israeli defense company’s facility in Massachusetts that same month. She has also spread hatred of America.The Hamas atrocities that Belanger celebrated included mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.
Belanger is a member of Palestine Action US, which describes itself as a “direct action network dismantling the US and Israeli War Machine to end the occupation of Palestine.” The group is part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
An October 2023 tweet from Palestine Action US urged people to rip down posters raising awareness of Israeli civilians kidnapped by Hamas and held hostage in Gaza.
In November 2023, Belanger’s Instagram bio said she was the secretary of the anti-Israel Marxist group Berkshire Communists. Palestine Action US funder James Chambers is the General Secretary of the Berkshire Communists.
As of November 2023, Belanger’s LinkedIn profile said she worked as a server and bartender at California Pizza Kitchen since February 2016, and had graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges (HWS) with a bachelor’s degree in History and International Relations in 2013.
As of November 2023, Belanger’s Facebook page said she was located in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the seat of Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
10/10/2023 - Supporting Hamas Terrorism at a Rally
On October 10, 2023, Belanger participated [slide 4] in a rally in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, that was organized by Berkshire Communists to give “unequivocal support” for the “Palestinian resistance” and to show “full support of the Palestinians who are showing up what decolonization and revolution look like!”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.
At the rally, Belanger held [slide 4] a sign that said: “Free Palestine!”
At the October 10, 2023 Berkshire rally, anti-Israel activists chanted [slide 1]: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
At the October 10, 2023 Berkshire rally, anti-Israel activists chanted [slide 1]: “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.
As of October 2023, Belanger’s Instagram Stories Highlights titled “henofthewoulds” re-posted [slide 11] a graphic with a screenshot of a post that said: “Lots of ‘progressives’ participated in the demonization of Palestinians by calling for ritualistic denunciations of resistance... Congratulations. You carried water for the colonizer—for free.”
On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 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.
10/12/2023 - Vandalizing Elbit Office to Protest Israel
On October 12, 2023, Belanger, Chambers and Calla Walsh, another Palestine Action agitator, vandalized [slide 1, 5] and “shut down” a Elbit Systems of America facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company is the American subsidiary of the Israeli defense manufacturing company Elbit Systems Ltd, based in Haifa, Israel.Participants splashed [slides 2, 4, 8] red paint in front of the building and graffitied [slide 3] its outer wall. They also blocked [slides 1, 5] the entrance of the building as they held anti-Israel signs.
At the protest, Belanger said [00:00:33]: “We wanna be an example that there is genuine anti-imperialist action to take within our own communities…”
Anti-Israel Activism (Palestine Action US, BDS)
On October 22, 2023, Belanger wrote on Instagram about a BDS protest co-organized by Palestine Action US and Berkshire Communists, scheduled for October 25, 2023.Belanger wrote: “This Wednesday, we bring the fight against US weapons manufacturers to Northampton! Join us in our march on L3 Harris, which provides critical components for weapons being used in Palestine at this moment. From Elbit to General Dynamics to L3 Harris, Massachusetts will no longer stand for the weapons industry in our communities! #freepalestine…”
General Dynamics and L3 Harris are both American defense companies.
On October 20, 2023, Belanger spoke [slide 4] at a rally organized by Berkshire Communists against General Dynamics for their alleged role in the “genocide of the Palestinian people.”
On October 17, 2023, Belanger wrote on Instagram referring to an October 19, 2023 protest in Pittsfield, Massachusetts: “Come stand with us outside General Dynamics in Pittsfield on Thursday to say that our community will not be complicit in the manufacture of the weapons that make genocide possible. Free Palestine!”
Hatred of America
On July 4, 2022, America’s Independence Day holiday, Belanger posted on Facebook a photo of two women lighting the American flag on fire.
On March 2, 2022, Belanger posted on Facebook in response to a photo that claimed the U.S. bombed different countries in the past years. She wrote: “Why isn't the US banned from every major world event? Why aren't musicians canceling their tours in the US? Where are the sanctions?”
Twitter:https://twitter.com/henofthewoulds
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/henofthewoulds/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-belanger-49300b11b/
On March 2, 2022, Belanger posted on Facebook in response to a photo that claimed the U.S. bombed different countries in the past years. She wrote: “Why isn't the US banned from every major world event? Why aren't musicians canceling their tours in the US? Where are the sanctions?”
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/paige.belanger7Twitter:https://twitter.com/henofthewoulds
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/henofthewoulds/
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-belanger-49300b11b/
