Shaban Gheith

Overview

Shaban Gheith promoted incitement and spread hatred of Israel on campus. Gheith was also president of an anti-Israel activist group at the University of Central Florida (UCF).

Gheith served as the president of the Palestinian Student Association (PSA) at UCF (UCF-PSA) from October 2021 to December 2021.

In December 2021, Gheith graduated [pg. 47] from UCF with a bachelor’s degree in health professions and sciencesUCF is located in Orlando, Florida.

Gheith graduated [pg. 16] from Valencia College (VC) with an associate's degree in 2019.

Hatred of Israel

On May 25, 2021, Gheith spoke [00:00:01] at an on-campus “Teach-In” hosted by UCF-PSA, where he accused Israel of “genocide.” UCF-PSA held the event less than a week after the end of an Israeli operation against terror groups in Gaza.

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 “Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW),” carrying out targeted military strikes in Gaza.

During his speech, Gheith claimed [00:00:01]: “...for years now we have put up with the media coverage showing this genocide of our people as a conflict, knowing deep down that this is not a conflict but a genocide, a displacement of natives in their homeland. Israel has been able to get away with their crimes against humanity for far too long now…”

Promoting Incitement

On March 2, 2022, Gheith reportedly attended an on-campus UCF-PSA anti-Israel rally titled: “ALL EYES ON SHEIKH JARRAH.”

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. 

At the protest, Syria Lutfi, then-president of UCF-PSA, led the activists in the chants: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!,” “Free, free Sheikh Jarrah!” and “Be-ruh be-dam nifdik ya Aqsa [With spirit, with blood, we will redeem you, Aqsa]!”

“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 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.