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Roua Daas
Roua Daas Called for Chaos on College Campus and Organized Pro-Hamas Protests
Roua Daas is a student who organized pro-terror and anti-Israel protests during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in late 2023. Daas also called for chaos on college campuses in May 2024.
The rallies occurred in the wake of Hamas terror atrocities and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023.
The Hamas terror attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron,” which was going on during the protests that Daas organized.
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 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
On May 25, 2024, BreakThrough News uploaded a video to YouTube featuring [01:01:15] Daas speaking at the People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, Michigan. The conference was co-organized by pro-terror group Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
In the video, Daas said: “Students have also used mass demonstrations and disruptions on public property to capture public attention, and then force the state and police to repress us in full public view,” and [01:02:28]: “Students have brought the war home.”
Daas later said [01:12:26]: “What students have learned in this moment is how to exist on their campuses in disruptive ways, how to build revolutionary power, and how to utilize leverage points, which force universities to meet their demands.”
On November 29, 2023, Daas was reportedly one of the leaders of a pro-terror and anti-Israel protest at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) titled: “March for Gaza.”
Over 50 protesters participated where they reportedly chanted: “From The River To The Sea, Palestine Will Be Free!” and “There Is Only One Solution…Intifada Revolution!”
“From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” is a chant used [00:02:47] to call for the elimination of 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. In April 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic.
The term “intifada,” which translates from Arabic as “uprising” or “insurrection,” carries the connotation of violence. Palestinian intifadas waged against Israel have been marked since 1987 by hundreds of hijackings, shootings, stabbings, bombings and suicide missions.
Daas was quoted in an article about the protest, saying: “I am here with others on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people to stand for justice and to stand against Israeli genocide.”
Daas also said: “This genocide is the most recent iteration of Zionist Israeli colonial violence. We know that this is again the nature of Zionism and Israel. So, we must continue to speak up until Palestine is free.”
The Students for Justice In Palestine (SJP) chapter at PSU (Penn State SJP) was one of the groups that organized the protest. In December 2023, Daas said [00:00:06] she was an organizer with Penn State SJP.
The protest was also part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
At the rally, protesters reportedly demanded a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and called on PSU “to divest and cut all ties to the Zionist settler colonial project.” Activists also distributed flyers urging the PSU administration to “break PSU’s financial and institutional ties with the U.S backed Zionist genocide of the Palestinian people now!”
Penn State SJP also called on protesters to sign and share a November 8, 2023 petition titled: “Petition to Pennstate Admin: End Financial & Rhetorical Support for Genocide in Palestine.”
On October 25, 2023, Daas reportedly organized an SJP rally where she told the media: “Our simple message is that we stand against Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people and we will be here, we will be marching for Palestine.”
On October 13, 2023, Daas reportedly organized and spoke at an SJP rally titled: “Day of Resistance.”
Anti-Israel activists use the term “resistance” to refer to violence and terror perpetrated against Israeli civilians and their allies. It is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence. Anti-Israel activists chant slogans such as: “Resistance by any means necessary!” and “Resistance is justified when people are occupied!” in response to terror attacks.
One article on the event said: “Supporters shouted chants like ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’ and ‘there is only one solution, intifada revolution’ for about an hour as the sun set in downtown State College.”
In addition to her Penn State SJP activism in late 2023, Daas co-founded the SJP chapter at Butler University (SJP Butler) in 2018. In March 2019 and February 2020, Daas was reportedly president of SJP Butler.d
Daas was reportedly a member of the anti-Israel activist group Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) in November 2023. She is a supporter of the BDS movement.
As of January 31, 2024, Daas, who also goes by [p. 55] Roua Raid Daas, was listed on the PSU website as “a second-year PhD student in the Dual-Title Clinical Psychology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality studies program.” PSU is located in State College and College Township, Pennsylvania.
As of the same date, Daas was also listed online as a steering committee member of BRIDGE, a group that describes itself as “a diversity action alliance consisting of faculty members and graduate students in the Department of Psychology” at PSU. She was also listed as being on BRIDGE’s Training and Education Committee.
As of the same date, Daas was listed online as having received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and French from Butler. In 2021, she graduated [p. 55] from Butler, which is located in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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 Student 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.
In 2012, the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM USA) released a statement saying: “Our liberation...will be gained with the path that was written with the blood of our martyrs. We reaffirm that the only path that we are concerned with is the path that explicitly heads towards the liberation of our land and the return of our people to Palestine.”
PYM organized rallies demonizing Israel, where it displays propaganda posters supporting the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
On October 25, 2015, PYM called to support “intifada” during a period when Palestinian radicals across Israel stabbed and hacked to death scores of Israeli civilians. PYM alleged that “Al-Aqsa Mosque has been the target of particularly brutal assaults” and that “... arbitrary killings are committed daily by the Zionist military and settlers.”
On November 10, 2015, the PYM Facebook page displayed a photo of masked Palestinian radicals throwing rocks and firing rocks from slingshots. That photo was used to promote at least 25 anti-Israel rallies across the globe on or around November 29, 2015, under the banner of “Transnational mobilization for Palestinian resistance.”
On November 30, 2015, PYM displayed a photo on Facebook from one of the rallies showing a sign in support of PFLP member Khalida Jarrar, who confessed to inciting violence and calling for terrorists to abduct Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers.
Another sign showed support for PFLP Secretary-General Ahmad Sadat, who was convicted for the 2001 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi.
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.
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