Stanley Heller

Overview

Stanley Heller [Stanley H. Heller] has expressed support for terrorists, spread incitement and promoted anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.

Heller is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.

As of November 2022, Heller’s LinkedIn page said he was the “Executive Director” at the Middle East Crisis Committee (MECC) since 2001. MECC is based in New Haven, Connecticut, and it campaigns for BDS and organizes anti-Israel rallies. Heller hosts an MECC weekly TV program called: “The Struggle.”

Also as of November 2022, Heller was listed as the “Administrator” on the website of Promoting Enduring Peace (PEPeace), which advertises itself as a non-profit organization based in New Haven, Connecticut.

As of the same date, Heller was a contributor to New Politics, an independent socialist journal published since 1961. Heller has written for New Politics since 2016.

Heller is the author of two books: “Zionist Betrayal of Jews: From Herzl to Netanyahu” and “The Uprising We Need.”

As of the same date, Heller went by “@ZatarStan” on Twitter.

Support for Terrorists

Heller retweeted a November 6, 2020 tweet that said: “After more than 100 days on hunger strike, Maher al-Akhras wins his demand for freedom…His unwavering resilience is a testament to the will of the Palestinian people.”

Maher al-Akhras is a terrorist leader affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). In July 2020, al-Akhras was arrested by Israeli security forces due to his role in the PIJ but was released in November 2020 after a prolonged hunger strike.

Heller retweeted an April 11, 2015 tweet that said: “Efforts to get #Justice4Rasmea continue. See how you can support…”

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 21, 2012, Heller tweeted: “Triumph. Israeli Supreme Court orders release of Khader Adnan. Reportedly hunger strike against administrative detention ends!!!66 days.”

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.

Incitement

Heller retweeted a November 20, 2017 tweet that said: “Israeli lawmaker who wants to destroy Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque has forged political alliance with European neo-Nazis.” The tweet included a link to The Electronic Intifada blog, which misrepresented the actions of Israeli politician Yehuda Glick.

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.

Heller retweeted a May 9, 2021 tweet that said: “Happening now: Israeli forces continue brutally attacking and detaining protestors in #SheikhJarrah #SaveSheikhJarrah #SavePalestine.”

In May 2021, calls to “save” Sheikh Jarrah, a Jerusalem neighborhood at the center of a property dispute, led to violence against Israelis and were one of the leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza into Israel that month.

Anti-Semitism

On December 12, 2020, Heller tweeted: “Some argue the Hasmoneans were the Jewish Taliban. Still the candles are pretty.” His tweet included an anti-Semitic cartoon by Eli Valley mocking the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Eli Valley has been condemned by former National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Abraham Foxman for depicting “Jews and evangelical Christians… as blood-sucking monsters.”

Former Op-Ed Editor of the New York Times and target of Valley’s work, Bari Weiss, reportedly endorsed the assertion that Valley’s work traffics in “hatred that gloms onto Jews and the Jewish State.”

Hatred of Israel

Heller reposted an April 4, 2025, post on X that said: “Zionism joins the Mongol depredations, Nazism, Stalinism and Assadism in the list of the greatest disasters to befall humanity.”

Heller reposted a December 20, 2024 post on X that said: “The amazing people of Ireland celebrate the closure of the terrorist embassy

/ The terrorists are gone!” The post was referring to Israel closing its embassy in Ireland.

Heller retweeted an August 22, 2022 tweet that said: “Join us for a conversation with the leaders of six leading Palestinian organizations following their baseless designation as ‘terrorist’ organizations by the Israeli government and their subsequent closure…”

In October 2021, Israel’s Ministry of Defense declared six Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be “terror organizations” operating “as an arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group. The six NGOs were accused of funneling donor aid to militants and employing senior PFLP members, “including activists involved in terror activity.”

On October 30, 2021, Heller tweeted: “As a Jew and a student of history I admire your stand for equal justice ‘from the river to the sea’.The slogan isn't the least antisemitic.You're also right to use the word ‘apartheid’ and over 1,000 Israeli's agree with you…”

“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.

Heller retweeted an April 24, 2021 tweet that referred to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as “the Israeli occupation forces” and accused them of “racism” and “Apartheid.”

“IOF” stands for “Israeli Occupation Forces,” a derogatory name used by anti-Israel activists to demonize Israel’s army in place of its official name, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

Heller retweeted a December 2, 2020 tweet that said: “The Israeli government is responsible for all people under its control. Why did it plan for ‘only the number of vaccine doses needed to immunize 9M Israeli citizens,’ not the 5M Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza?”

All Israel's citizens, including Arabs, were provided equal and free access to a coronavirus vaccine.

Under the Oslo Accords [p. 5], the Palestinian Authority (PA) is responsible for providing health services to Palestinians under its jurisdiction. In December 2020, PA officials reportedly contacted Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) department to request the vaccine, which Israel agreed to provide.

On September 13, 2020, Heller tweeted: “Well, Israel has an #apartheid system so it's fitting that these outlaw regimes band together.”

On July 1, 2020, Heller tweeted: “No More West Bank Annexations Cut the $$$ to Israeli Apartheid From the River to the Sea, Full and Complete EqualityNo to Zionisms…”

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.

Heller retweeted a March 18, 2019 tweet that said: “…#Fascism has the exact same smell as #Zionism…”

Heller retweeted an August 17, 2017 tweet that called Israel “an ethno-supremacist state.”

Heller retweeted a June 2, 2017 tweet that said: “...Gal Gadot is a colonizer, an occupier & a supporter of mass violence. That's the issue, not her being Jewish.”

Gal Gadot is an Israeli actress famous for her role as Wonder Woman.

Heller retweeted a June 20, 2014 tweet that said: “[Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu heads a terror org that is terrorizing Palestinians, murdering Palestinian children, detaining and…”

On May 15, 2013, Heller tweeted: “new Remi Kanazi poem ‘Nakba’ @Remroumsee it http://TheStruggle.org on May 15 day the ‘Catastrophe’ is remembered.”

The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”

Supporting BDS

Heller retweeted a January 28, 2022 Jewish Voice for Peace tweet that said: “...Protest in your city. Join BDS campaigns. Demand your government and the UN hold Israel accountable.”

Heller retweeted a November 9, 2021 tweet that said: “Join 120k urging @Puma to end support for Israeli apartheid oppressing millions of Palestinians. Puma can't claim a ‘devotion to universal equality’ while supporting teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinians land. #BoycottPuma…”

Heller retweeted a February 12, 2021 Palestine Legal tweet that said: “Breaking: Victory for the right to boycott! The 8th Circuit affirms what we already knew—Arkansas' anti-BDS law violates the 1st Amendment. #RightToBoycott.”

Heller retweeted an August 7, 2017 tweet that said: “BREAKING: @SenWarren [Senator Elizabeth Warren] supports our right to boycott and opposes the Israel Anti-Boycott Act to not ‘outlaw protected free speech.’”

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.