Patrick Higgins

Patrick Higgins has endorsed terrorism, glorified terrorists, celebrated terror organizations and disrupted a campus event organized by an Israeli professor at UT, as a member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at the University of Texas (UT) Austin. PSC is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).

 
Higgins has also rejected Israel’s right to exist, demonized Israel, promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and expressed support for an anti-Israel agitator.

Higgins was affiliated with SJP at the University of Houston (UH), from 2017 to 2018.

Between February 2016 and March 2018, Higgins published a blog titled: “Robespierre Monument.”

As of May 2020, Higgins was listed as a graduate student in the Department of History at UH and as of 2019, he was reportedly a PhD Candidate of Arab History.

 
Higgins’s doctoral dissertation project reportedly focuses on Palestinian and Arab revolutionary perceptions of US imperialism in the Arab world, from the 1950s to the early 1970s.

 
Higgins graduated from UT Austin in 2015, with a master’s degree in Middle Eastern Studies and received a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University (WSU).

As of March 2019, Higgins was reportedly an Instructional Assistant in the History Department at UH, since September 2016.

Endorsing Terrorism

On September 11, 2019, Higgins tweeted: “Wholesome footage of Palestinian resistance rockets forcing Netanyahu to flee his own campaign speech.” 

On May 14, 2018, Higgins tweeted: “Zionist theft and murder became perhaps most efficient under the pretext of Oslo. There is no way forward but to support Palestinian resistance in all forms.”

On April 2, 2018, Higgins shared a tweet that said: “anyone who truly believes in the Palestinian cause supports armed resistance.”

Higgins wrote: “And for BDS to work, it also cannot become the crutch on which commentators rely to refuse support for anti-colonial armed struggle. What went for Algeria and Vietnam goes for Palestine; liberation and return by any means necessary!”

On August 31, 2017, Higgins tweeted: “Call me 'tankie' all you want for these statements, because I certainly hope the Palestinian resistance gets tanks. Drones, too.”

On September 11, 2015, Higgins tweeted: “Is Hezbollah looking to expand resistance operations to the West Bank? All rumors here, but encouraging ones:” and linked to an article that suggested Hezbollah could be operating from the West Bank to perpetrate attacks against Israel.

Hezbollah has long been known as an anti-Semitic and genocidal terror organization dedicated to destroying Israel. 

On July 5, 2015, Higgins tweeted: “Hamas's rockets are not 'ineffectual': http://europe.newsweek.com/foreign-investment-israel-slashed-by-half-329269 And this should be celebrated.”

Higgins’ tweet linked to a Newsweek report about foreign investment in Israel dropping partially due to boycotts and partially as a result of Hamas rocket attacks deterring tourists from visiting.

Higgins followed up a minute later: “Think of Hamas rockets as the Sanction part of the BDS movement.”

Hamas is a designated terrorist organization by the European Union, Canada, Australia, the United States and Israel.

On July 25, 2014, Higgins tweeted: “Love and respect to the brave Palestinians marching. And if this is indeed the beginnings of a 4th intifada, may it be the decisive one.”

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.  

On July 14, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Higgins tweeted: “It is ethical to cease calls for Hamas rockets to stop while Gaza is under fire, and to amplify calls for better rockets to reach Gaza.”

Israel commenced 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 November 15, 2012, during Operation Pillar of Defense (OPD), Higgins wrote in a CounterPunch article: “rockets—made with the few materials to which access is possible—are resistance symbols, declarations of struggle, promises that Israel’s violence will not be accepted by Gaza, despite the military power of the forces arranged against it.”

Israel launched OPD to stop Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians from Gaza. Over the course of eight days in November 2012, Palestinian terrorist groups fired more than 1,500 rockets at Israel. The majority struck Israel, damaging homes, schools and other civilian areas. Human Rights Watch noted: “Palestinian armed groups made clear in their statements that harming civilians was their aim.”

Glorifying Terrorists

On October 19, 2019, Higgins tweeted approvingly of “The PFLP martyr Mohammed al Aswad.” Mohammed Al Aswad, known as the “Guevara Gaza,” was a terrorist with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in Gaza, who was killed ina 1973 firefight with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

On February 4, 2018, Higgins tweeted: “Israel recently assassinated Bassel al-Araj, the definition of an 'organic intellectual.’”

Basel Al Araj was killed in a shoot-out with Israeli troops during an arrest raid. He had been suspected of belonging to a terror cell planning to carry out attacks on Israeli targets. Two M-16 assault rifles and an improvised Carlo-style submachine gun were found inside his home. 

On August 31, 2017, Higgins tweeted: “Happy Birthday to one of the greatest anti-colonial leaders of our time, Hassan Nasrallah.”

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah called on Jews living in Israel, in 2017, “to leave Palestine and go back to the countries from which they came.”

In 2013, Nasrallah referred [00:00:19] to Israel as a cancerous tumor and in 2002, Nasrallah said: “If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” He also reportedly declared: “If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice, I do not say the Israeli.” 

On May 22, 2017, Higgins set his Facebook cover photo to an image of Palestinians at a rally holding photos of Palestinian prisoners. Higgins captioned the photo: “#DignityStrike36.” The hashtag was used on the 36th day of that year’s Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike.

“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 March 6, 2017, Higgins tweeted: “Palestinian youth activist and writer Basil al-Araj, assassinated this morning by Zionist occupation forces.”

On April 19, 2016, in a post on his blog, Robespierre Monument, Higgins wrote: “From the ranks of the PFLP, some of the old voices of the vanguard remain, voices such as Leila Khaled, reduced far too often in activist circles to a T-shirt a la Che Guevara.” 

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.  

On February 25, 2016, Higgins tweeted: “Rasmea Odeh, Hero of the People.” He linked to a New York City SJP statement in support of Odeh.

On February 17, 2016, Higgins referred, in a post on his blog, to “stalwart Arab resistance figure Samir Kuntar,” who he claimed “became the target of an obvious frame-up.”

Celebrating Terror Organizations

On March 19, 2018, Higgins wrote in a post on his blog, titled: “The Tropes of Anti-Anti Imperialism, Part 3: Palestine and the War on Syria,” that Hamas: “actions against Israel serve the ends of justice. As refugees in their own land, Hamas fighters’ armed rebellion not only amounts to self-defense from the racist aggression manifested in Israel’s very existence, but also plays a role in the liberation of the Palestinian people as a whole from colonialism.”

On April 19, 2016, in a post on his blog, titled: “Victims of Propaganda: In Defense of the Palestinian Left,” Higgins lauded the PFLP as an example of Palestinian “voices of resilience.” He went on to claim that the PFLP and Hezbollah were “victims of propaganda” and that “To defend their honor is exactly the kind of job a radical must embrace.”

The PFLP — designated a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada, Israel, the European Union, the Gulf Cooperation Council and Australia — pioneered aircraft hijackings to draw attention to their movement’s demands, most notably with the capture of an Air France plane in 1976.

The hijackers flew the plane to Entebbe, Uganda, where they separated nearly 100 Jewish passengers from the others and threatened to execute one Jew per hour. Israel, however, launched a successful commando raid to rescue the hostages.

The PFLP also claimed “credit” for the November 18, 2014 Har Nof Synagogue massacre — where PFLP operatives murdered six people with a gun, axes and a butcher knife during morning prayers. PFLP Gaza leader Hani Thawbta stated: “We declare full responsibility of the PFLP for the execution of this heroic operation..."  

Disrupting a Campus Event

On November 13, 2015, Higgins was [00:01:01] one of twelve PSC members who disrupted an event organized by Israeli Professor Ami Pedahzur of UT’s Institute for Israeli Studies, about the Israeli Defense Forces.

PSC member Mohammed Nabulsi interrupted the speaker to deliver a prepared speech and the other PSC members began chanting [00:05:08]: “Long live the intifada!” and “We want 48, we don’t want two states!”

Campus police later arrived and detained the PSC members. 

Pedhazur later found that Higgins referred to himself online as Edward Despard, a British officer who became radicalized and plotted to kill King George III. 

Following the incident, PSC accused Professor Pedahzur of assault and filed a complaint with the university against him. PSC also posted on Facebook, calling on students to file complaints against Pedahzur. 

Professor Pedahzur later reportedly received death threats. UT’s investigation found that Pedahzur “did not violate the university’s Nondiscrimination Policy and did not engage in harassment of the student organization.” 

Rejecting Israel’s Right to Exist

On November 15, 2012, during Israel’s OPD, Higgins wrote an article on CounterPunch, in which he said: “the answer to the question of whether Israel has a right to exist is as easy as the answer to the question of whether murderous settler-colonialism has a right to exist. That is answer is no. Nope. Not a chance.”

Higgins also said in the article that Israel attacked Gaza as part of a “spectacle of a usurping colony forcing a population into a wall-enclosed ghetto and bombing them in the name of Judaism and the Jews.”

Higgins then accused Israel of “murderous settler-colonialism” and wrote regarding Israel and the U.S.: “Their special relationship is drenched in a common genre of imagery: the imagery of death, as evidenced by… the countless corpses of people.”

Demonizing Israel

On May 12, 2018, Higgins participated in an anti-Israel protest in Houston. He was tagged in a Facebook post about the event that said: “On the 70th anniversary of the NAKBA, Houstonians joined with people all over the world to say ISRAEL OUT OF PALESTINE.”

Higgins was also tagged in a photo on Facebook at the protest, holding a sign that claimed Israel had ethnically cleansed Palestinians.

On April 19, 2016, in a post on his blog, titled: “Victims of Propaganda: In Defense of the Palestinian Left,” Higgins wrote that the Palestinians’ “confrontation with imperialism” took “the form of classic settler-colonialism, replete with actual invaders and full-on ethnic cleansing.”

On February 17, 2016, Higgins wrote in a post on his blog, titled: “War Within a War,” that Israel’s “policies aim to achieve hegemony over the region as whole, slaughtering the heirs to Samir Kuntar by name and face and slaughtering countless other Arabs as a matter of simple imperial course.”

On February 9, 2016, Higgins wrote in a post on his blog, titled: “Between Dictatorships,” that: “the… Palestinian people find themselves under a sixty-plus year assault, perpetual targets of assassination and siege. In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian population languishes in an imperial cage, on their every side either insurmountable walls or harsh sea, with colonial snipers and hovering drones watching their movements to ensure they stay packed like herd animals on the sliver of earth allotted to them. They live in the ruins of refugee camps.”

On August 17, 2015, Higgins tweeted: “Israel uses force to carry out ethnic cleansing and genocide for settler expansion/security.”

On August 16, 2014, Higgins co-wrote an article that described Gaza as “the world’s largest open-air prison.” Referring to Hamas’s charter being accused of anti-Semitism, the article said: “We see no need to discuss the 1988 Hamas Charter here, as it is not politically operative.”

Promoting BDS

On March 19, 2018, Higgins wrote in a post on his blog, titled: “The Tropes of Anti-Anti Imperialism, Part 3: Palestine and the War on Syria,” that: “First, meaningful solidarity with Palestine requires, probably even more than activists targeting Israel itself, meaningful pressure against the US government backed by one simple demand: cut off all aid to Israel.”

In April 2015, Higgins co-authored a divestment resolution at UT Austin.

The resolution called on the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) to divest itself of holdings in companies that “facilitate in the oppression of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.” The divestment measure failed to pass.

Supporting an Anti-Israel Agitator

In October 2016, Higgins signed a National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) statement extending “unconditional solidarity” to Rabab Abdulhadi, director of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora (AMED) program at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and faculty mentor for the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) at SFSU. 

Professor Rabab Abdulhadi has, since 2014, sought to cultivate alliances between SFSU and two Palestinian universities, An-Najah and the Hamas-dominated Birzeit. 

Abdulhadi reportedly invited SFSU students to join a “political solidarity” trip that met with individuals including Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader Leila Khaled and Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, a group banned by the Israeli government for its ties with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB).

Abdulhadi also glorified terrorists including Leilah Khaled.

The National SJP statement Higgins signed claimed that pro-Israel groups had “waged a coordinated smear campaign—employing Islamophobia, anti-Arab racism, outright lies and innuendo, and defamation against Professor Abdulhadi—in an attempt to pressure SFSU to sever its ties with An-Najah University.”

Al-Najah (alternatively, An Najah) University is the largest Palestinian university in the West Bank and is notorious for its triumphal exhibit lauding the August 9, 2001 Sbarro cafe suicide bombing. The blast killed 15 civilians, including 7 children and a pregnant woman and wounded 130.

Al-Najah’s exhibit featured a mock-up of Sbarro’s, including gnawed pizza crusts and bloody plastic body parts suspended from the ceiling, as though blasting through the air.

The 2013 An Najah graduating class was named for terrorist Abu Jihad at an appreciation ceremony for the class’s outstanding students. Abu Jihad (Khalil Al-Wazir) planned the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre that killed 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounded 71 others.

The NSJP statement that Higgins signed also claimed that pro-Israel groups: “throw their significant power and resources in order to censor anything they would construe as outside their political dictates.”

PSC Austin - Disrupting Campus Events 2015

PSC Austin created a Facebook event titled: “McRaven Address Walkout.” The event was to initiate a walkout during a November 20, 2015 address by U.S. Navy veteran Admiral William McRaven at UT Austin. 

McRaven is a UT Austin graduate and led the raid to kill Osama bin Laden. In its Facebook event description, PSC accused UT Austin of hosting “a swarm of US intelligence and military officials on campus,” who would “recruit students to a life of crime.”

On November 13, 2015, twelve PSC members disrupted an event organized by Professor Ami Pedahzur of UT Austin’s Institute for Israeli Studies. The event was titled: “The Origin of a Species: The Birth of the Israeli Defense Forces’ Military Culture.”

PSC Austin - Disrupting A Campus Event 2014  

On October 14, 2014, members of several student organizations, including PSC, disrupted [00:00:18] a talk about ISIS given by Israeli Major General Meir Dagan, former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service.

PSC Austin - Glorifying Intifada 2015  

In November 2015, PSC Austin, together with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Houston, scheduled an event titled: “Solidarity with the Palestinian Uprising: Call to Action!” 

The event’s Facebook description claimed: “The Zionist state occupation forces” were “killing dozens of unarmed Palestinians…with the participation of racist Zionist settlers.” 

The event took place during a wave of stabbing attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israeli civilians, termed the “Knife Intifada.” Palestinians shared graphics and video tutorials across social media explaining how to most effectively stab Jews. One widely shared video showed a young girl from Gaza brandishing a knife while calling on West Bank Palestinians to stab Israelis.

The event’s Facebook description also said: “Palestinians across historic Palestine—including 1948 Palestine—have taken it upon themselves to launch a popular resistance…to fight the genocidal Zionist project. The Palestinian youth…have in particular taken the lead in this uprising. They are sacrificing themselves so that Palestine may have a future. The least we can do is show our support for them.”

The event’s Facebook description concluded: “Long Live the Resistance! Long Live the Intifada!”

Since the early 2000s, the term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” has carried the connotation of violence.  

PSC Austin - Promoting BDS 2015

In 2015, PSC Austin spearheaded the #UTDivest campaign to introduce a divestment resolution to the Student Government Assembly (SGA). The campaign’s goal was to have [00:01:45] UT Austin join the BDS movement.

The divestment resolution called on the University of Texas Investment Management Company (UTIMCO) to divest itself of holdings in companies that “facilitate…the oppression of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.”