Raya Kanaan
Overview
Raya Kanaan has demonized Israel on Twitter. She was an activist with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at the University of Houston (UH) and attended the 2018 National SJP Conference.The 2018 National SJP conference was held on November 16-18, 2018 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The conference was themed “Radical Hope: Resistance in the Face of Adversity.” The conference website stated: “[t]he reason we can have hope is that Zionism...can be destroyed.”As of February 2019, Kanaan indicated on Instagram that she was a student at UH, slated to graduate in 2021.
Demonizing Israel
On September 13, 2016, Kanaan tweeted: “the US government has absolutely no shame in using taxpayer money to fund a mass genocide against innocent people.” Kanaan embedded a tweet that said: “The US and Israel have reached an agreement for ten years of military aid worth $39 billion.”On August 4, 2014, during Operation Protective Edge (OPE), Kanaan tweeted: “it wasn't okay in South Africa. it wasn't okay in nazi Germany. WHY is it okay in Palestine? #FreePalestine #SupportGaza.”
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
On July 12, 2014, Kanaan tweeted: “‘One is the colonizer-oppressor,one is the colonized-oppressed’ Why doesn't the media care about dead Palestinians?” and embedded a YouTube link to a Russian Times video clip featuring anti-Israel activist Abby Martin.
In the clip, Martin accused [00:01:18] Israel of “collective punishment against an entire population” in Gaza. Martin also defined [00:02:11] Hamas as “The democratically elected leadership of Gaza.” Martin also said that Israel “goes on the offense against innocent people living in an open-air prison.”
SJP Activism
On October 29, 2018, Kanaan tweeted: “Woah!!! Another exciting SJP event??? Who woulda thought??? Join us at our second general body meeting this Thursday @ 6pm for free shawarma, activities centered around privilege, and more! #Coogs4PalestineOn October 16, 2018, Kanaan tweeted: “do you secretly hate me and want to hit me in the face with something? WELL YOU’RE IN LUCK! stop by PGH tomorrow and pie me and other sjp members for just $3! 
.”
On August 29, 2018, Kanaan tweeted: “Have a lot of homework this week?? Well SJP’s first GBM is tomorrow so your homework can wait!!! See y’all there:’))) #Coogs4Palestine.”
On May 22, 2018, Kanaan tweeted: “Nikki Haley’s actions are complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and her bigotry will NOT be tolerated on this campus.
#NikkiSidesWithGenocide #FreePalestine.”
Kanaan attached a video of an SJP at UH disruption of a May 22, 2018 speech by U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley at UH. In the video, Mohamad Fattouh, an SJP at UH activist accused [00:00:11] Haley of “continuing to sign off on the genocide of a native people.”
Another SJP at UH activist led protestors in chanting [00:00:25] “Nikki Nikki can’t you see? You allowed a killing spree” as well as [00:00:40] “Haley Haley you can’t hide, you signed off on genocide!”
On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests,” or the “March of Return.” The march was organized and funded by Hamas as a campaign of violent protests to spotlight the Palestinian demand to “return” to Israel. The “right of return” has since been discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
On May 16, 2018, senior Hamas official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
On May 7, 2018, Kanaan tweeted: “You don’t have to be Palestinian to stand up for humanity!!! Join us this Saturday at 12pm and show your solidarity with Palestinians and their struggle for liberation!
Kanaan embedded a poster promoting the SJP at UH-hosted event titled: “Nakba Day 2018, a Texas Wide Day of Action for 70 Years of Resistance.”
The event description accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, “racist and genocidal policies,” colonialism and apartheid.
The poster for the SJP at UH event quoted Marwan Barghouti: “our chains will be broken before we are.”
Marwan Barghouti is currently serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in suicide bombings and shooting attacks that killed five Israelis during the second intifada.
Barghouti led the Palestinian Authority (PA) terrorist Tanzim force and founded the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. He also financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe massacre, where 15 civilians were killed and 130 injured.
On April 12, 2018, Kanaan appeared in an SJP at UH photo during Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) 2018 holding a Palestinian flag that said “#CoogsAgainstApartheid.”
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.
Kanaan was photographed standing in front of SJP at UH’s mock separation wall that featured illustrations of the “Map that Lies.”
The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” were purportedly stolen by Israel. In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college textbook containing the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, American cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
Kanaan is also seen near a panel that featured Ahed Tamimi.
Ahed Tamimi has a long history of physically attacking Israeli soldiers. Tamimi is the daughter of Bassem Tamimi, who is known for exploiting young children as political props in staged confrontations with Israeli soldiers.
Also on April 12, 2018, Kanaan also appeared in an SJP at UH group photo taken in front of the mock separation wall.
Attending the 2018 National SJP Conference
On November 22, 2018, Kanaan reportedlyposed for a group photo at the 2018 National SJP Conference. Alongside Kanaan was Dunia Ghanimah, who was wearing a 2018 National SJP Conference nametag. Kanaan and others in the photo wore similar nametags, that were turned backward.2018 National SJP - Celebrating Violence
During the 2018 National SJP conference, anti-Israel activist Mohammed Nabulsi led the attendees in the chant [00:00:52] “Long Live the Intifada! Intifada! Intifada!”
Since the early 2000’s, the term “intifada” has carried the connotation of violence. The second intifada was characterized by more than 120 suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians on buses and in cafes.
Anti-Israel activist Omar Zahzah also reportedly [00:00:07] led National SJP attendees in chanting, in Arabic, “With our bodies and our blood, we will free Palestine.”
As of November 2018, the 2018 National SJP website glorified “radical hope and upfront defiance of Zionism,” citing as examples the “early revolts through the Intifadas to the Great Return March.”
The Great Return March of 2018 was organized and funded by the terror group Hamas as a campaign of violent protests along Israel’s border to spotlight the demand of Palestinians to “return” to Israel.
Tens of thousands of rioters gathered on Israel’s Gaza border, attempting numerous breaches of Israel’s border fence, with leaders andparticipants declaring their intention to harm Jews.
National SJP originally promoted a conference logo featuring a keffiyeh-wearing bear, looking toward a kite bearing the colors of the Palestinian flag.
On October 27, 2018, National SJP said the kite signified “the power in the Gaza March of Return.”
Since March 2018, March of Return participants and Hamas’s “Kite Unit” have sent hundreds of kites bearing incendiary devices and IEDs (improvised explosive devices) across the border into Israel to terrorize Israelis. The kites are often marked with swastikas.
By the time National SJP produced its 2018 conference logo highlighting the kites in October 2018, Gazan terror kites and balloons had ignited more than 1,300 fires in Israel, over seven months.
2018 National SJP - Undermining U.S. Support for Israel
On November 18, 2018, the US Palestine Community Network (USPCN) posted on Facebook the 2018 National SJP keynote speech by Hatem Abudayyeh, USPCN’s co-founder.Abudayyeh has supported [00:08:45] convicted terrorists, praised terror organizations, called for Israel’s destruction and is an activist in theBoycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
In his 2018 National SJP Keynote, Abudayyeh said [00:53:01] that the “specific role” of Palestinian and Arab students was to organize [00:53:42] in order to weaken “Zionist Israel” and force [00:54:23] the U.S. to “no longer provide it with diplomatic, political, financial and military cover and support.”
Abudayyeh predicted [00:55:37] that once U.S. support to Israel ends, National SJP attendees would return to Palestine as “conquering heroes,” end [00:54:38] the “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands including the Golan Heights” and replace “Zionist Israel” with a Palestinian state.
2018 National SJP - Whitewashing Terror Organizations
During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh also painted [00:14:01] terrorist organizations as “liberation movements” and “resistance organizations,” stating [00:14:21] “what we also know is that the majority of the resistance organizations in Palestine are on the U.S. state department list of foreign terrorist organizations.”Abudayyeh also celebrated [00:52:00] that all of the “armed resistance” organizations in Gaza are part [00:52:14] of a “unified resistance in Gaza, that includes all of the resistance organizations, working together under a unified military command.”
2018 National SJP - Defending Terrorist Rasmea Odeh
During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh claimed [00:08:28] that pro-Israel organizations “go after students like you,” adding [00:08:20] “just like they went after my friend and colleague, Rasmea Odeh.”Odeh was a key military operative with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization. In 1969, she masterminded a PFLP supermarket bombing that killed two college students. She also attempted to bomb the British consulate in Jerusalem. Odeh later moved to the United States but was deported to Jordan in 2017 for immigration fraud.
Abudayyeh added that he was asked [00:08:45] to talk about Odeh’s case, and praised SJP and SDS students who organized [00:09:15] “absolutely valuable” events on behalf [00:9:11] of Odeh, “as she was fighting to stay in the U.S.”
2018 National SJP - Demonizing Israel and Jews
During his keynote speech, Abudayyeh defended [00:27:25] the “Irvine 11” — eleven Muslim Student Union (MSA) members who were arrested in 2010 for repeatedly shouting down former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren during an address at the University of California at Irvine (UC Irvine).Abudayyeh referred [00:27:37] to Oren as a “racist fascist speaker, representative of a racist, fascist country.”
Abudayyeh went on to claim [00:29:48] that “today, even in the United States, Israel is finally being seen as the criminal, apartheid, racist state that it is.”
Abudayyeh also called for increased action in the face of President U.S. Donald Trump, and referred [00:48:41] to Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law and senior advisor, as “that pig son-in-law of his.”
2018 National SJP - Excluding Students
The 2018 National SJP Conference welcomed only students who were verified and vouched for by an SJP (or otherwise named campus Palestine solidarity group). Media requests needed to be “approved by the NSJP press team” prior to the conference.A November 7, 2018 Columbus Jewish News article reported that the Los Angeles City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling on UCLA to cancel the 2018 NSJP conference, stating that a “public university should not allow any group to implement a litmus test for event participation on their campus.”
On November 12, 2018, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times that criticized National SJP’s exclusion of members of pro-Israel student groups.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:www.facebook.com/100027033201811Twitter:https://twitter.com/rayakanaan2
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/rayakanaan/ [Private]
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Houston
- Organizations:
- SJP
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 03/26/2026
Videos
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Photos & Screenshots
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Infamous Quotes
“it wasn't okay in South Africa. it wasn't okay in nazi Germany. WHY is it okay in Palestine? #FreePalestine #SupportGaza.”
“It’s so infuriating when Palestinians only claim their roots when it comes to cultural extravagances like dabke and knafe, but never bother speaking out against the apartheid.”
