Sarah Abdelshamy
Sarah Abdelshamy Glorified Terrorism, Called for Israel’s Destruction and Celebrated Hamas Terrorist War Crimes
Sarah Abdelshamy [Sarah Shamy] is an activist who has glorified terrorism and called for Israel’s destruction. She celebrated Hamas terrorist war crimes as a speaker at anti-Israel rallies in late 2023. She also spread incitement, expressed support for terrorists and promoted hatred of Zionists on social media.Abdelshamy celebrated Hamas terrorist war crimes against Israeli civilians less than a week after the October 7, 2023 attacks. The attacks left over 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. The atrocities included mass murder, torture, rape and beheadings. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Abdelshamy is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Abdelshamy was an organizer with the anti-Israel activist group Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) in 2022 and 2023.
Abdelshamy was an activist with Students for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McGill University (McGill) in 2018 and 2019. She was also involved with the group in 2022. SPHR is another name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
As of April 2024, Abdelshamy’s LinkedIn profile said she had been a communications manager at the Women’s Economic Council (WEC) since January 2022.
Also as of April 2024, Abdelshamy’s LinkedIn said she graduated from McGill with a master’s degree in Islamic studies in 2021. She also graduated from McGill with a bachelor’s degree in African studies and Islamic studies in 2019.
As of the same date, Abdelshamy’s Facebook said she was located in Montreal, Quebec and that she went by the name “Sarah Ragab.”
Glorifying Terrorism & Calling for Israel’s Destruction
On May 25, 2024, Abdelshamy moderated [00:10:48] a plenary session at the People’s Conference for Palestine, titled: “Palestinian Resistance and the Path to Liberation.”
During her speech, Abdelshamy glorified [00:12:16] terrorism and called [00:12:50] for Israel’s destruction. The conference was organized by multiple anti-Israel groups, including PYM, SJP and Al-Awda. It was held in Detroit, Michigan on May 24-26, 2024.
Early in her speech, Abdelshamy said [00:11:26]: “At the heart of the strategy for Palestinian liberation is the conviction that in order to be victorious, the struggle must transform and involve the whole of society on all levels.”
Abdelshamy later said [00:12:16]: “...the Palestinian resistance has proven itself to be resourceful, innovative and most importantly capable of confronting the enemy on all levels: militarily, politically, ideologically and existentially.”
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.
In the same speech, Abdelshamy continued [00:12:37]: “The advancements made by the Palestinian resistance over the last decade has demonstrated that the enemy is unable to contain the development of the resistance, but it has also shown that this is a protracted people's war of liberation and that the only one that is capable of sustaining it is the Palestinian resistance which will continue to fight until liberation from the river to the sea.”
“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.
10/8/2023 – Leading a Pro-Hamas Rally in Montreal
On October 8, 2023, Abdelshamy led a PYM protest celebrating Hamas’s massacre of over 1,200 Israelis.
On October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas invaded Israel and massacred approximately 1,200 Jews, PYM and other anti-Israel groups held a protest in Montreal celebrating the attack.
PYM’s Facebook post promoting the protest said: “Last night, the resistance in Gaza led a heroic attack against the occupation” and the post called to “celebrate the resistance’s success, to uplift their calls.” The post also said: “Their march toward liberation is as monumental as their rockets - the resistance will…liberate our land from the fangs of the enemy. The resistance has set a new precedent for the Palestinian struggle.”
The post also celebrated Hamas’s capture of Israeli hostages, which included men, women, children, babies as young as nine months old and elderly over 84 years old.
At the protest, activists chanted [00:01:06; 00:03:01] “viva viva, intifada,” a call for violence, and [00:00:55] “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!,” a call to destroy Israel. Protesters held signs saying [00:01:17] “Victory is here” and [00:02:14] a Star of David thrown into a trash can with the caption, “Keep the world clean.”
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.
On October 9, 2023, in a video interview about the protest, Abdelshamy said [00:01:30]: “What we’re seeing today is a people who have been under blockade for over 16 years…remain steadfast. And so, what they [Palestinians] are fighting against is a colonial power [Israel].”
Israel and Egypt implemented a UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets.
10/13/2023 – Speaker at a Pro-Hamas Rally in Montreal
On October 13, 2023, Abdelshamy was featured as a speaker at a pro-Hamas rallyin Montreal, organized by PYM. She also represented the group as their spokesperson and was reportedly one of the protest’s organizers.On October 13, 2023, PYM and other anti-Israel groups held a rally in Montreal to show “unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their active struggle for liberation.”
Protesters chanted [00:00:52] “intifada, intifada” and “be-ruh be-dam nifdik ya Aza[with spirit and blood we will free Gaza]” and held [00:00:42] signs supporting Palestinian resistance and calling for [00:01:19] “resistance until liberation.”
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.
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.
In an interview from the protest, Abdelshamy reportedly “emphasized [that] colonized people have the right to resist their occupation.”
11/4/2023 – Speaker at a Pro-Hamas Protest in Montreal
On November 4, 2023, Abdelshamy was featured as a speaker at a pro-Hamas protest in Montreal, organized by PYM.On November 4, 2023, PYM together with other anti-Israel groups held a “National Day of Action 100k March for Gaza” in Montreal. Protesters chanted [slide 2]: “intifada intifada, long live the intifada” and [slide 11] “there is only one solution, intifada revolution” as well as [slide 12] “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
The protesters marched to Canada’s national public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada’s offices where a speaker claimed CBC was “hiding the truth.” Protesters vandalized [slide 37] the office doors and windows with red paint, painted [slide 39] “f**k Israel” on the doors, and [slide 42] “call it genocide” on the doors and ground in front of it and blocked the entrance, holding a sign that said “call it a genocide.”
Abdelshamy was quoted in an article about the protest as saying: “...people have a responsibility to support the ‘right to Palestinian liberation against colonial domination and racist occupation.’”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 other countries have adopted the definition as well.
Abdelshamy also said: “What we are seeing now is the people of the world, and in Montreal specifically, demanding an end to this genocide [in Gaza]...”
11/25/2023 – Speaker at a Pro-Hamas Protest in Ottawa
On November 25, 2023, Abdelshamy was featured as a speaker at a pro-Hamas protest in Ottawa, organized by PYM.In her speech, Abdelshamy celebrated [00:00:33] the “glorious news [that] 39 of our prisoners have been released from the clutches of the Zionist jails.”
Abdelshamy continued [00:01:41]: “This is the era of liberation… as a small brave nation brings the so-called indestructible army down to its knees.”
Abdelshamy also said [00:07:52] “...when we are organized and when we fight, we can bring even the most powerful of empires to its knees. And we will do just that.”
Abdelshamy further stated [00:08:37]: “And the brave people of Palestine… are fighting to liberate the entire world from this fascist project called Zionism.”
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.
Abdelshamy concluded [00:09:28] by saying: “And we will never stop until every single inch of Palestine is free. From Jenin to Nablus, from Al Quds [Jerusalem] to Gaza, from the refugee camps to the prisons, from the river to sea, Palestine will be free!”
Spreading Incitement
On May 12, 2021, Abdelshamy posted on Facebook: “... Zionism has no place on our campus and the forced demolitions of homes and expulsion of Palestinian families from Sheikh Jarrah, the bombing of unarmed civilians in Gaza, the raiding and terror acts in al-Aqsa mosque during the holy month of Ramadan. This is what Zionism is. You cannot separate support for Israel and Zionism from these acts of terror — they are one and the same. Zionism REQUIRES these genocidal acts in order to function…”In May 2021, Palestinian violence erupted in anticipation of an Israel High Court ruling on eviction proceedings concerning over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah.
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 population centers 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.
Abdelshamy’s post linked to a petition she had signed that accused [p. 1] Israel of “raiding, bombing, and maiming Palestinian Muslim worshippers inside of the Al-Aqsa mosque.” The petition also demanded [p. 3] that McGill “cut its ties with the expansive network of exchanges and memoranda of understanding with Israeli education institutions that seek to normalize the atrocities committed by the illegal state of Israel” and [p. 4] “divest from all corporations, investments, and companies that fund and profit from the expansion of illegal settlement in occupied Palestine.”
Support for Terrorists (PFLP)
On October 13, 2022, Abdelshamy posted on Facebook: “... Come out in front of the French Consulate on Oct. 22 at 2pm to call for the immediate release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah -- the longest serving political prisoner in Europe -- who has been detained by the French regime for 38 years. / In collusion with the American and Zionist regimes, France continues to hold Georges Abdallah hostage for his resistance against the occupation…”Georges Abdallah is a convicted Lebanese terrorist, reportedly a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and co-founder of the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions (LARF). He murdered an American military attaché and an Israeli diplomat in 1982.
On July 5, 2022, Abdelshamy posted on Facebook: “Come out this Friday to celebrate the life and resistance of Ghassan Kanafani!!...” Abdelshamy’s post included a link to a PYM event in Montreal. The Facebook event description said the event was “in commemoration of Kanafani's assassination where we will share stories of his resistance and display his writing.”
Kanafani was a leading member and spokesperson for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) during the terrorist organization’s 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 and wounded 80 others.
Hatred of Zionists
On May 31, 2021, Abdelshamy posted on Facebook: “Zionist groups and students on campus are some of the most vile, racist, Islamophobic, discriminatory people I have ever met…To all the Zionists at McGill: you are vile, racist, harassers who continue to bend over backwards supporting a terrorist apartheid state and you are no better than Israel and their occupying forces.”“Israeli Occupation Forces,” or “IOF,” is a derogatory name for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army.
On February 13, 2019, Abdelshamy posted on Facebook: “f**k zionists on campus for consistently putting Palestinian students at risk…f**k zionists for always making sure that this campus is as unsafe as it can be for anyone who dares criticize an illegal f**king apartheid state. f**k McGill for allowing this to happen…”
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/sarahragabshamyLinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-a-5793a01b7/
Medium:https://sarahabdelshamy.medium.com/
Videos
Photos & Screenshots
