Ruqaiyah Damrah

On October 7, 2023, following multiple coordinated Hamas terror attacks on Israeli civilians, Damrah tweeted: “We don’t need to preface every act of resistance with an apology for how violent it is.”

Also on October 7, 2023, Damrah tweeted: “If we have to apologize for violenfe [sic] in order to receive solidarity, then that solidarity is not genuine.”

On October 8, 2023, Damrah tweeted photos from an anti-Israel protest held in support of the Hamas terror attacks. The protest was reportedly co-organized by the Seattle chapter of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network (Samidoun).

Damarah tweeted: “Even after being tear gassed and attacked by pro Israel supporters, Seattle stood in solidarity with the Intifada in Palestine @SamidounSeattle @falastiniyat”

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.

On Saturday, October 7, 2023, approximately 2,900 heavily armed Hamas terrorists breached Israel’s border with Gaza. They executed numerous war crimes on civilians, including mass murder, beheadings of children, rape of men and women, torture, kidnappings and mutilation.

Hamas broadcast videos of their butchery on social media, often to victims’ accounts for families to see. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.” As of November 10, 2023, approximately 1,200 Israelis, the vast majority of them civilians, were murdered during the attacks. Hamas kidnapped 242 Israelis, including at least 30 children. At least 3,500 people were wounded, many severely.

A terrorist detained by Israel admitted he raped an Israeli woman when he broke into a kibbutz house during the October 7, 2023 attack. In March 2024, a former hostage of Hamas publicly stated she was sexually abused and tortured while in captivity.

For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.

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.

On August 2, 2021, Damrah published an article in the Yale Journal on Israel and Palestine (YJIP) titled: “Palestinian Indigeneity: Identity Shaped by Oppression.”

In the article, Damrah alleged that Jewish historical claims to Israel “support ideological agendas rather than on real history” and suggested that “the entire debate should be dismissed instead of regarding it as a legitimate factor for Israel’s creation.”

One way anti-Israel activists spread antisemitism is by denying Jewish history, with the aim of delegitimizing restored Jewish sovereignty, attacking Israel’s legitimacy and portraying Jews as foreign to the Land of Israel.

Damrah wrote: “As an ideology, 19th century European Zionism must be understood as a modern political movement influenced by European nationalisms that existed strictly as a form of colonization.”

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture. Zionism is a core part of the identity of most Jews.

In May 2021, during Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas, Damrah reportedly co-authored a “Statement of Condemnation” in the Yale Daily News. The statement accused [slide 2] Israel of “genocide, and ethnic cleansing,” as well as “apartheid.”

In May 2021, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists fired over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at major population centers in Israel. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes.

The statement also alleged [slide 1]: “Israeli forces have attacked Palestinian worshippers at Al-Aqsa Mosque” and “attacked hospitals and residential buildings in Jerusalem and Gaza.” According to a Y4P press release issued on June 29, 2021, the campaign was “created in response to the events in Sheikh Jarrah” and was sponsored by Yale's Middle Eastern and North African Students Association (Yale MENA) and Yale ASA.

Incitement surrounding Al-Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli cities from May 10 to 21, 2021. In response to rocket attacks from Gaza, Israel launched Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW), striking military targets in the terrorist-controlled enclave.

The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before the existence of the modern Jewish state. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.

During Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW), Israel employed targeted strikes on terrorist installations in Gaza, warning civilians in advance. Hamas is known to have placed military assets and an extensive attack tunnel network deliberately underneath and within civilian structures, such as schools, since at least 2014.

The statement alleged [slide 2]: “Just as Israel’s military enforces the apartheid system against Palestinians, the US police enforces the system of white supremacy against Black Americans.The fight against Israel’s apartheid is interconnected with the fight to defund the police in the U.S.”

The accusation that Israeli law enforcement teaches American police brutal tactics during police exchange programs is used to demonize Israel. Participants in these programs have stated that the training in Israel focuses on public policy, counterterrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.

The statement called [slide 2] on Yale students to “recognize the connections between the US’s domestic racial oppression and its imperial oppression against people of color worldwide.”

Pro-Israel campus groups criticized the statement for having “antisemitic overtones.”

The Yale College Council (YCC) voted during a council meeting held on Zoom on June 27, 2021, to endorse Y4P’s statement in a final vote of eight for, four abstaining and three against.

In December 2022, Damrah helped organize a Y4P boycott campaign calling on Yale to cancel its contracts with G4S, a British security company that does business in Israel and provides surveillance technology for the university.

On December 3, 2022, Y4P launched a petition that read: "...Yale now uses the same technologies used by private prisons, migrant detention centers, and the apartheid regime in Israel."

The petition also said: "The principal method for pressuring universities to dissociate from the Israeli occupation is the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement." It also said: “We aim to build on this movement by pressuring Yale to end its complicity in funding apartheid in Israel."

On December 3, 2022, Damrah led a “Palestine & BDS 101” teach-in to launch [slide 2] Y4P’s BDS campaign.

On December 6, 2022, Damrah tweeted: “So excited to co-launch Yale’s first @BDSmovement campaign! Yale needs to be held accountable for its ties to human rights violations in Palestine and around the world.”

That day, Damrah was quoted in the Yale Daily News as saying: “We’re hoping that our campaign will generate important discussions around what it means to stand in solidarity with oppressed and colonized people around the world and what we mean when we say that all struggles are fundamentally connected.”

The article also quoted Damrah as saying: " …much of the advocacy on campus has less to do with Jewishness and more to do with 'white supremacy modeled after European forms of colonialism."

On March 28, 2023, Y4P submitted a resolution to the YCC that accused Israel of “settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid” and called on the university "to cut ties with G4S and end its complicity with the injustices G4S commits throughout the world".

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.

Support for Hamas Terrorism

Hatred of Israel and America

Anti-Israel Campus Activism (Y4P, BDS)

Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS)

Social Media and Weblinks