Randa Wahbe

Overview

Randa M. Wahbe has expressed support for terrorists, demonized Israel and is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of February 2020, Rahbe was listed as a graduate student at Harvard University (Harvard). As of the same date, Rahbe’s Harvard online bio page said she was a “doctoral candidate in anthropology… developing an archive of Palestinian martyrs confiscated by the Israeli army and interred in restricted military zones.”

Rahbe’s Harvard online bio page also said she served as an “executive board member of Insaniyyat: The Society of Palestinian Anthropologists (Insaniyyat), as well as a “steering committee member” for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR)

The bio page also said Rahbe was “a policy member” for Al-Shabaka — The Palestinian Policy Network. Al Shabaka’s other Policy Advisors include BDS leaders Hatem Bazian and Omar Barghouti.

Wahbe was reportedly a founder and co-president of University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) in 2006. Wahbe was also reportedly a founder and activist with SJP at Columbia (CSJP) from 2010 until 2011.

As of February 2020, Wahbe’s Harvard bio page said she had a master’s degree in Epidemiology from Columbia and bachelor’s degree in International Development from UCLA.

Wahbe was a scheduled speaker at the National SJP Conference at George Mason University (GMU) in November 2016.

From 2012 until 2014 Wahbe was an activist [00:00:10] with and reportedly the “international advocacy officer” for Addameer, an NGO based in Ramallah whose members were reportedly (p.30) linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.

In 2011, Wahbe was an activist with Adalah-NY: Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (Adalah-NY).

As of February 2020, Wahbe went by the name Randa Kamal on Facebook.

Support for Terrorists

On February 21, 2012, Wahbe tweeted: “I hope that one day we can celebrate the release of all 4417 Palestinian political prisoners #KhadersVictory4Palestine, in reference to Khader Adnan.

#KhadersVictory4Palestine” referred to to Khader Adnan

Khader Adnan was a senior member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorist organization. A 2007 YouTube video showed Adnan praising and encouraging suicide bombings: "Who among you will carry the next explosive belt? Who among you will fire the next bullets? Who among you will have his body parts blown all over?” In May 2023, Adnan died in prison after refusing medical treatment during a hunger strike.

On April 6, 2015, Wahbe reportedly advocated for Khalida Jarrar as “an advocacy officer at Addameer.

Khalida Jarrar is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror organization. She has reportedly been the head of the PFLP in the West Bank since 2016. In 2015, an Israeli military court sentenced Jarrar to 15 months in prison for calling to kidnap Israeli soldiers. Israel arrested Jarrar again in 2017 “on suspicion of involvement with terrorist activities and violent public disturbances.” In 2019, she was arrested by Israel with 50 other PFLP operatives following a deadly 2018 bombing attack.

Addameer is an NGO that advocates on behalf of prisoners held in Israeli jail, including many terrorists such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) recruiters Mohammad Allan and Khader Adnan. Addameer’s senior leadership includes [pp. 29-35] senior Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorists like Khalida Jarrar, whom Addameer also advocates for. In 2021, Israel officially designated Addameer as a terror organization.

On October 11, 2016, Wahbe tweeted: “This newly uncovered footage of Ghassan Kanafani is the best way to wake up.”

Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson of the designated terrorist organization the PFLP in its 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.

Demonizing Israel

On November 29, 2018, Wahbe’s profile on an Al-Shabaka event page said that Wahbe’s research at Harvard "focuses on how Palestinian dead bodies are exploited by the Israeli state to facilitate its settler-colonial expansion."

On March 5, 2014, Wahbe spoke “on Palestinians & Israeli Prisons – Repression & Resistance in Apartheid’s Jails,” at an event organized by the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Dublin, Ireland.

During Wahbe’s speech, she alleged [00:00:20] that: “Israel actually uses imprisonment as a way to continue the colonization of Palestine as a way to break down the Palestinian spirit.”

On February 27, 2011, Wahbe co-authored an article with fellow SJP activist Tanya Keilani, in the Columbia Spectator titled: “Israel Practices Apartheid.” In the article, the authors promoted Israel Apartheid Week and claimed: “Israel discriminates against its Palestinian minority—20 percent of the total population—by corralling them in ghettos…”

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.

The authors also suggested that Israel was a settler-state practicing “racism” and “colonialism,” adding that“C-SJP’s objective in hosting international Israeli Apartheid Week is not to debate whether Israel is practicing apartheid, as this is a fact already substantiated.”

On April 12, 2010, Wahbe co-authored an article in the Columbia Spectator, titled “The Palestinian Gandhis,” where she alleged that “Nonviolent resistance has been a cornerstone of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli apartheid…”

Support for BDS

On March 21, 2013, Wahbe was featured [00:01:56] in a BBC television news report, titled “Palestinian views on President Obama’s visit.”

The report said that Wahbe worked for “Palestinians for Dignity,” whose website described the organization as a “group of youth” rejecting all Palestinian Authority negotiations with Israel until all the group’s demands were met.

As of January 2012, the group’s website called for a “strategy that is supported by political, economic, academic and cultural boycott of the Zionist entity.”

Wahbe is a signatory to a 2015 resolution encouraging the American Anthropological Association (AAA) to boycott Israeli academic institutions.In June 2016, the AAA announced that a resolution to boycott Israeli universities was defeated but that there were “other actions planned.”

On March 9, 2011, Wahbe was listed as an “Activist with Adalah NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel” and a scheduled speaker at “Palestine Then and Now: The Road to Freedom, Part of a series of events for Israeli Apartheid Week” organized by SJP at Hunter College (Hunter).

The event page description said the event was an: “evening to discuss the history of Palestine and the importance of Boycott Divestment and Sanction (BDS) in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine.”

CSJP’s Mock Israeli Checkpoint 2010

On November 20, 2010, CSJP uploaded a video to their YouTube channel, titled: “Mock Israeli Checkpoint at Columbia University”

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On November 18, 2010, CSJP activists staged [00:00:01] a mock Israeli checkpoint on Columbia’s Low Plaza.

Activists, dressed as Israeli soldiers blindfolded [00:01:08] and taped over the mouths of other activists, who were meant to portray Palestinians.

Israeli checkpoints were built to prevent terror attacks, like suicide bombings, against Israel's civilian population.

The video claimed [00:02:21] that “91% of students at An-Najah University miss classes because of delays at checkpoints.”

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.

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.