Rima Najjar

Overview

Rima Najjar [Rima Najjar Merriman] has defended violence against Jews, spread incitement and expressed support for the terrorist group Hamas. Najjar has also spread anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, glorified and defended terrorists, compared Israel to Nazi Germany and demonized Israel.

As of March 2020, Najjar was listed as part of the organizing collective of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), a coordinating organization of the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Najjar was banned from the question-and-answer website Quora for posting “hate speech,” in 2019. She has also contributed extensively to the conspiracy-theory website GlobalResearch.ca and contributed to anti-Israel news sites Mondoweiss as well as Electronic Intifada, in addition to Al Jazeera.

In 2018, Najjar marched with IfNotNow (INN) in Washington, DC and demonstrated with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).

As of March 2020, Najjar said on Quora that she was a retired English Literature Professor at Al-Quds University, and that she studied at Indiana University (Indiana).

In December 2019, Najjar reportedly lived in Indiana.

Defending Violence Against Jews

On December 9, 2014, Najjar posted to Facebook: “END RELIGIOUS #ZIONISM & ALL TYPES OF ZIONISM. THEY STUNT THE HUMAN SPIRIT.” Najjar continued: “DEVELOPING STORY: THE HEADQUARTERS OF A #RACIST #JEWISH #SECT SUFFERS ANOTHER ATTACK,” and labeled the leader of the Chabad movement, the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a “racist.”

Najjar’s post was written following the stabbing of an Orthodox Jewish manat the Chabad world headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, earlier that day.

On November 18, 2014, Najjar claimed on Facebook that the perpetrators of the Har Nof Massacre in Jerusalem that day were carrying out “ACTS OF DESPERATION AGAINST INTOLERABLE AND PROLONGED OPPRESSION.”

On November 18, 2014, two terrorists murdered six people with a gun, axes and a butcher knife in a Jerusalem synagogue during morning prayers. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group claimed credit for the attack, which left five Jewish men dead along with a Druze police officer. The terrorists, who were killed during the attack, were motivated by the libel that Israel threatened to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On November 17, 2015, Najjar posted to Facebook a photo she captioned: “Abu Dis masked men put up posters last night commemorating the one-year anniversary of the martyrdom of Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal who killed three Israeli rabbis and an Israeli Jew as they prayed at a synagogue in the Jewish colony of Har Nof.” The PFLP published various posters glorifying the murderers.

Najjar added: “All Palestinian violence against #Jewish #Zionist#Israel is a reaction to Jewish terror against Palestinians.”

Incitement

On May 1, 2018, Najjar shared to Facebook a “STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE POPULAR FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE” that called for the “continuation of the intifada and the resistance against the Zionist occupation” and that paid “tribute to the martyrs of the working Palestinian class.”

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

On October 5, 2015, during the Knife Intifada, Najjar posted to Facebook a poster featuring a Hamas terrorist alongside a Palestinian in a Keffiyah gripping a knife, and the words “You are like them So light up the West Bank with fire,” in Arabic.

Najjar commented: “The Elite of #Gaza ... The Elite of the West Bank You are like them So light up the West Bank with fire.”

In October 2015, there was an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” was characterized by young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab Israeli civilians.

Support for Hamas

On July 12, 2014, Najjar posted to Facebook a photo of a terrorist standing in front of several rockets and commented: “It's not just #Hamas and its rockets that unleashes Israel's violence; it's any act of resistance#Palestinians justifiably take, wherever they may be.”

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

On July 29, 2014, Najjar posted to Facebook: “WILL #HAMAS RISE UP FROM THE ASHES COME DAYLIGHT? THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION.”

On August 9, 2014, Najjar characterized the Hamas terrorist organization as the Palestinians’ “right to armed resistance.”

On August 6, 2014, Najjar posted a photo of Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades to Facebook, adding: “#TERRORISM IS A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT” and “SALUTE TO THE TROOPS OF THE EPIC#RESISTANCE AND SUMOUD IN #GAZA,#PALESTINE.”

Anti-Semitism

On March 18, 2020, Najjar tweeted a photo of a crowd in an airport and wrote: “On the left, returning Jordanians at airport bent on seeing the coronavirus crisis thru with their families at home. On the right, Israeli Jews fleeing the virus, looking for safety in the US. bec Zionists have no sense of true belonging or faith in the land they colonized.”

On January 10, 2019, Najjar claimed on Quora that the Hillel campus organizations were “Israel’s agents,” and wrote: “When it comes to Palestine, its history and civilization… Hillel in the U.S. acts as an Israeli organization rather than an American one. ”

Hillel International is a Jewish campus organization serving college students at 850 universities worldwide.

On February 25, 2018, Najjar posted to her Medium account a Facebook post she authored that demonized the Hillel Jewish student association on campus, writing: ““#Hillel, a racist organization, has as much place on university campuses as does the #KKK.”

On May 13, 2017, Najjar posted to Facebook a graphic of a Jewish vampire about to sink his teeth into a Palestinian child. Najjar added: “#JewishStateNakba: Israel feeds on Palestinian children (also imprisons and tortures them - but not to fatten them up!)”

On October 21, 2017, Najjar posted to Facebook: “WHO CAN BLAME THIS PALESTINIAN CHILD WHEN TRULY RABID #JEWISH #ZIONIST DOGS ARE SET LOOSE AMONGST PALESTINIANS WITH IMPUNITY?”

Najjar added: “#AbuDis girl is terrified of stray dog who had barked at her in the street. Her brother tells me in explanation, ‘It's a Jewish dog.’”

Najjar added the hashtags: “#JewishAndNazi #Apartheid #Colonialism #Return #Palestinian Refugees #ZionismIsFascism #JewishSupremacy #TheEndOfIsrael.”

On July 25, 2015, Najjar posted to Facebook: “#Israel: #Jews for the ethnic cleansing of#Palestinians.”

Spreading Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theories

On February 4, 2019, Najjar tweeted at anti-Israel US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar: “@IlhanMN THE #JEWISH PRESS IS LEADING THE SMEAR CAMPAIGN AGAINST you.”

Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks.

On March 12, 2018, Najjar authored an article on Medium titled: “Do Jews Control the U.S.?”

In the article, Najjar claimed that: “Jews are, in fact, disproportionately influential actors (i.e., controlling in the sense of having sway or dominance) in various spheres of endeavor in the U.S” and alleged “the control of U.S. Presidents by Jewish Zionist advisers.”

Glorifying Terrorists

On December 8, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook a photo of terrorist Marwan Barghouti as “a complete alternative to [Mahmoud] Abbas” and added “"THERE IS READINESS FOR A STRUGGLE AMONG THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE; THEY NEED SOMEONE TO LEAD THEM.”

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 February 15, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook: “THIS YOUNG PALESTINIAN HEROINE MARTYR WILL LIVE ON IN THE HEARTS OF ALL PALESTINIANS AND LOVERS OF JUSTICE IN PALESTINE #FreePalestine,” along with a photo of Kilzar al-Owewi.

Two days earlier, al-Oweiwi attempted to stab an Israeli soldier in Hebron, before she was shot dead.

On April 5, 2015, Najjar posted two photos to Facebook of a child soldier dressed in Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) garb and holding a Kalashnikov, writing: “To me, it makes me think of all the Palestinian generations yet to come who will take up resistance against Israel's obliteration of their parents and grandparents.”

On November 6, 2014, Najjar posted and translated a poster on Facebook that glorified as “martyr hero(es)” terrorists Abdel Rahman al-Shaludi, Ibrahim Akkari and Mu'taz Hijazi.

In October 2014, Abdel Rahman Al-Shaludi, a reported Hamas supporter, drove his car into a crowd of pedestrians in Jerusalem, killing two, including a baby, before he was shot dead.

That month, Hamas terrorist Ibrahim Akkari drove his car into a group of pedestrians in Jerusalem in October 2014, killing one person and injuring 12. Akkari then exited the vehicle, attacking police with a metal bar, before he was shot.

Also in October 2014, Islamic Jihad member Mutaz Hijazi shot and seriously wounded Rabbi Yehuda Glick in Jerusalem. Hijazi later fired upon and was killed by Israeli police.

Defending Terrorism

On February 19, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook “#FreePalestine from #JewishTerrorism” along with a detailed defense of a terrorist attack, where two Palestinian 14 year-olds stabbed an Israeli to death and severely wounded another in a supermarket where Jews and Arabs work and shop together.

On October 30, 2015, during the Knife Intifada, Najjar tweeted: “AND AS A MEANS FOR LIBERATION ‘A majority of Palestinians support armed intifada as means of self-defense.’”

On October 7, 2015, Najjar tweeted: “Third #Intifada, fifth generation of #Palestinian #SUMOUD against the Western-backed Jewish occupation and colonization of their land.”

On February 19, 2015, Najjar defended on Facebook members of a suspected ISIS terror cell who were indicted for conspiring to kidnap and kill Israelis, writing: “MORE SHIN BET DECEPTION? OPERATION, IF TRUE, SOUNDS LIKE LEGITIMATE PALESTINIAN RESISTANCE.”

On September 5, 2014, Najjar posted to Facebook a photo of a masked PFLP militant cradling an assault weapon with a sniper scope in one arm and a child in the other, commenting: “RESILIENCE IN GAZA IS STRONGER THAN EVER Despite the terrible cost, #resistance and the struggle for justice in Palestine will continue until victory.”

Defending Terrorists

On January 29, 2013, Najjar posted to Facebook a photo calling to “Free Samer Issawi.”

On June 13, 2015, Najjar posted to Facebook a defense of Khader Adnan that described Adnan as a “mild-mannered baker” and “renowned figure in international grassroots activism.”

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 November 15, 2015, during the Knife Intifada, Najjar posted to Facebook a collage of photos, which she claimed were: “Photos of Palestinians who have been murdered by apartheid Israel since the beginning of October through Nov 15, 2015,” adding “#PalestinianLivesMatter #BDS.”

Included in the collage were images of Muhannad Halabi, Baha Alyan and Fadi Aloon.

On October 3, 2015, during Israel’s “Knife Intifada,” 19-year-old Mohanad Halabi murdered two Israeli rabbis in a stabbing attack in Jerusalem’s Old City. The wife and child of one of the victims were also injured. The day before the murder, Halabi, a member of the terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), had reportedly posted to his Facebook page: “The third Intifada is here"and "Wake up from your slumber and save al-Aqsa. Let the revolution erupt.”

In October 2015, Baha Alyan was shot and killed by an Israeli security guard after Alyan boarded a bus in Jerusalem, alongside Hamas terrorist Bilal Ghanem, killing three civilians and wounding three others.

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 January 27, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook: “January 27: Join social media day of action for#Justice4Rasmea.”

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.
On February 9, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook a photo of Leila Khaled emerging from the European parliament, flashing a “v for victory” sign.

Najjar added: “LEILA KHALED URGES FREEDOM FOR MOHAMMED AL-QEEQ, JUSTICE FOR OMAR NAYEF ZAYED IN MEETINGS AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT.

Khaled also discussed the case of 14-year-old Ahmad Manasrah, and the imprisonment of political leaders like Khalida Jarrar and Ahmad Sa’adat.”

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 April 18, 2016, Najjar posted an illustration and article in defense of Dima Al-Wawi to Facebook.

12-year-old Al-Wawi was imprisoned for attempting to stab a security guard at the Israeli community Karmei Tzur. Al-Wawi later claimed she intended to kill the guard and hoped she would be killed in the process. “I was dreaming that I was going to be martyred,” she said.

On January 12, 2017, Najjar posted to Facebook a call to action to free terrorist Ahmad Sa’adat.

Ahmad Sa’adat is the Secretary General of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He is currently sentenced for terror activities, including his role in the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze’evi and is in an Israeli prison. Under Sa’adat’s leadership, the PFLP perpetrated many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians during the second intifada.

On June 17, 2017, Najjar posted to Facebook: “While resisting the Jewish colonization of Palestine,THREE PALESTINIANS CARRY OUT KNIFE-AND-GUN ATTACK IN ILLEGALLY ANNEXED#JERUSALEM, POLICEWOMAN KILLED.”

In June 2017, three terrorists carried out a shooting and knifing attack outside of the Old City of Jerusalem, murdering a border police woman and wounding three other people, before they were shot dead.

The Islamic State (IS), Hamas and the PFLP later claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Najjar attached to her post a photo of the terrorists, labeled them “martyrs” and added “May they rest in peace.”

On February 20, 2020, Najjar tweeted: “Tell her story and all others. #KhalidaJarrar.”

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.

On March 11, 2020, Najjar tweeted: “Tell Congress to Free Khalida Jarrar.”

On March 16, 2020, Najjar tweeted: “Aya Khateeb Palestinian detainee is 34 years-old - 'married 2+.'conveniently turning a mother into a number. She was arrested on February 17th and has been under constant [Israeli] interrogation and physical abuse, without contact with counsel.”

In February 2020, Aya Khatib was reportedly arrested for using her position as a humanitarian worker “on behalf of the needy in Gaza to funnel money, supplies and intelligence” to Hamas.

Comparing Israel to Nazi Germany

n July 28, 2017, Najjar posted to Facebook: “PRAYING FOR LIBERATION FROM#JewishAndNazi.“

On February 13, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook: “THE #ZIONIST GOVERNMENT HAS, IRONICALLY, OUT-MASTERED THE NAZI MECHANISMS OF MORAL DISENGAGEMENT OR IN A WORD, HASBARA,” along with a photo juxtaposing the Nazi flag and an image of the concentration camp with the Israeli flag.

On January 29, 2015, Najjar claimed on Facebook that Israel preaches “a twisted brand of [Judaism] that calls for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the supremacy of Jews in Palestine” and “has turned the star of David into the equivalent of a swastika.”

On June 19, 2014, Najjar posted a cartoon portraying Israeli soldiers planting a Nazi flag on top of a pile of Palestinian bodies.

Najjar commented: “Israel's reason for making Palestinians suffer has always been, and continues to be, its stated intent to obliterate them in order to make room for a Jewish state in all of historic Palestine. WHAT PALESTINIANS DO OR DON'T DO MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE!”

Demonizing Israel

On March 8, 2020, Najjar tweeted: “Palestinians need free universal health care for the lethal virus that is Israel.”

On January 31, 2020, Najjar tweeted: “Filthy RACIST = zionist.”

On August 29, 2018, Najjar posted to Facebook: “LEADERS OF THE FREE WORLD, what are YOU doing now to help free #Palestinians from the#Apartheid of the #JewishStateNakba?”

On June 13, 2018, Najjar posted to her Medium account that she was “against the existence of the Jewish state in Palestine” and wrote: “My visceral reaction against Zionism includes rage, hatred and a strong desire to be aggressive against the Zionist regime in Israel.”

Najjar also labeled Israel “racism, Apartheid and Jewish supremacy.”

On August 27, 2017, Najjar posted an article to Medium titled: “Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is disturbing.” Najjar introduced her article with: “Why are White supremacists perceived as racist villains, but Jewish supremacists perceived as ‘complex’?”

In the article, Najjar declared that “Israel’s existence as a Jewish state is disturbing” and a “nightmare,” adding: “The Jewish supremacist state of Israel must come to an end as such.”

On August 23, 2017, Najjar posted a Facebook post calling for the end of Israel with a series of propositions, such as: #TheEndOfIsrael = #Palestine, #TheEndOfIsrael = The end of Jewish supremacy in #Palestine, #TheEndOfIsrael = The end of the triumph of #Zionism.

On May 30, 2017, Najjar posted to Facebook: “The right to have a Jewish state in Palestine is the right to be racist.”

On May 15, 2016, Najjar posted on Facebook: “The very existence of the #Zionist #Jewish state is a provocation to every non-Jewish Palestinian and every right-thinking person.”

On April 30, 2016, Najjar posted to Facebook a PDF file of a blog post claiming that Zionism is anti-Semitic. The blog labeled Zionism and anti-Semitism “racist political twins.”

On September 25, 2015, Najjar co-authored an article for the Electronic Intifada, titled “Israel’s assaults on Palestinian education amount to genocide.”

On June 15, 2014, Najjar posted: “ZIONISM IS INHERENTLY EVIL.”

On May 15, 2014, Najjar posted to Facebook: “OUR #NAKBA IS ONGOING!
Justice requires an end to #JewishSupremacy over Palestinians.”

BDS Activity

As of March 2020, Najjar was listed on the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) website as part of the group’s Organizing Collective.

On September 29, 2018, Najjar posted to Facebook: “The US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) at US Campaign for Palestinian Rights National Conference (Together we Rise) in St Paul, Minnesota. GO #BDS!”

On May 26, 2017, Najjar called on Facebook for a “comprehensive military embargo on Israel” and “bringing work and traffic to a standstill and refusing the entry of Israeli products into supermarkets.”

On June 6, 2016, Najjar updated her Facebook photo to the logo of the BDS movement and included a lengthy description of the movement.

On October 28, 2015, Najjar spoke at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) on the topic of “Why Boycotting Israeli Universities is the Right Thing to Do.”

Banned from Quora

In May 2019, the question-and-answer website Quora reportedly banned Najjar from its site permanently, because her use of the term Zionism “was so pejorative that it amounted to ‘hate speech.’”

Quora reportedly warned Najjar repeatedly over a period of years before banning her from the site.

Najjar responded to Quora’s decision, by filing a federal lawsuit against Quora in the Northern District of California. As of April 2020, the lawsuit was still pending.