Tala Alfoqaha
Overview
Tala Alfoqaha was an organizer with an anti-Israel Harvard group that signed a statement blaming Israel for Hamas war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, carried out on October 7, 2023.Hamas committed the atrocities during a series of terror attacks that left over 1,400 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped, as well as thousands wounded.
In April 2023, Alfoqaha was reportedly an organizer for Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine (HLS Justice for Palestine), which signed the October 2023 anti-Israel statement.
The Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) co-organized the statement. PSC is an alternative name for Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Alfoqaha also spread hatred of Israel as a student activist.
Organizer in a Group that Blamed Israel for Hamas War Crimes
On October 8, 2023, Harvard’s Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) released on Instagram a “Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine.”
The statement backed the war crimes, including beheadings of children, perpetrated by the terror group Hamas against Israeli civilians. It read: “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” The statement also claimed the atrocities “did not occur in a vacuum” and that “The coming days will require a firm stand against colonial retaliation.” The list of student groups that signed on to the statement was later removed following public outrage.
For more information on the complete list of Harvard students involved in signing the statement, see here.
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, over 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.
As of December 25, 2023, Hamas had fired over 10,600 missiles from Gaza at Israeli communities, with Hamas claiming 5,000 the day it launched the attack. While Hamas was the main group involved, members of other terror groups also joined in the atrocities.
Many Palestinian civilians, including women and children, also participated in the attack. In several instances, Gazans who worked in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.
In a December 2023 poll, 57% of Gazans and 82% of Palestinians in the West Bank supported the terror attacks. 42% of Gazans were supportive of Hamas rule, up from 38% before the attacks, and 44% in the West Bank supported Hamas, up from 12%.
Hamas began by launching thousands of rockets at Israel and using motorized paragliders “to infiltrate Israeli territory and secure terrain.” Terrorist ground forces destroyed parts of the border fence with Gaza, murdering and kidnapping soldiers.
Terrorists then turned their attention to 22 communities around Gaza, where they went house to house to savagely murder, mutilate and kidnap anyone they found. They executed children in front of their parents and parents in front of their children.
Terrorists beheaded children and babies, and massacred entire families, burning some alive who hid in their homes. Hamas terrorists kicked around the heads of beheaded victims like soccer balls. Israelis between the ages of three and 85 were kidnapped and taken forcibly to Gaza. Hamas has not allowed the Red Cross access to the hostages.
Over 360 unarmed young men and women were surrounded and slaughtered at one music festival alone. Bodies were publicly desecrated, with some dragged through the streets of Gaza, then beheaded.
Women were raped next to the bodies of dead friends. Some were raped and then shot in the head. Others, including young girls, were raped and murdered or mutilated in other ways. Israeli officials opened an unprecedented investigation into the widespread sexual assault. Forensic analysis of corpses showed evidence of torture and rape.
Hamas terrorists said they were given explicit orders to carry out the atrocities, including chopping off legs and raping the corpses of murdered victims.
Hamas intentionally targeted youth centers and elementary schools to execute and kidnap children. They also took stimulant drugs to give added energy to murder and maim. Nazis also took drugs during World War II to fuel their anti-Semitic massacres.
The atrocities were acknowledged as the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, including by U.S. President Joe Biden, who also compared Hamas to ISIS. Hamas attacked on the annual holiday of Simchat Torah, which that year was on Shabbat, the weekly Jewish Sabbath.
The Hamas atrocities against Israeli civilians are crimes against humanity according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The mass murder generated great sympathy for Israel from many countries but led to countless celebrations among Palestinians and anti-Israel organizations in America that back the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Hamas called the October 7, 2023 terror attacks “Al-Aqsa Flood,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The allegation that Jews “threaten” to destroy the mosque has been a pretext for Arab attacks on Jews long before Israel was founded in 1948. Such propaganda has led to multiple periods of violence against Israeli civilians.
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 2] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Hatred of Israel
On April 9, 2023, Alfoqaha reportedly helped organize an anti-Israel rally in Boston’s Copley Square, as an activist for HLS Justice for Palestine. During the rally, protesters reportedly “demanded Palestine liberation” and held signs that read: “Long Live the Intifada.”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.
The day following the Boston protest, the student-run publication, The Harvard Crimson, published an article about the event. Alfoqaha, who also goes by the name Tala A. Alfoqaha, was quoted as saying: “...Israel partners with American police to teach them how to better suffocate their subjects…”
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 [00:02:14] that the training in Israel focuses [00:13:36] on public policy, counter-terrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.
Alfoqaha was quoted in the same April 10, 2023 Crimson article as saying: “Every settler flag that’s been raised can be torn down.”
On April 11, 2019, Alfoqaha wrote on Facebook: “Recommend reading this if you’re interested in what the re-election of Netanyahu entails for Palestinians (spoiler: more illegal settlements, more loss of land, more restriction of daily life and basic rights).”
The post linked to an article by anti-Israel professor Saree Makdisi titled: “Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection underlines Israel’s apartheid reality.”
On January 19, 2019, Alfoqaha wrote on Facebook: “Recommending this article to everyone: incredible & powerful op-ed by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, on why we can no longer be silent about the human rights crisis that Palestinians have been facing.”
The post linked to an article, titled: “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.”
The article said: “Our elected representatives, who operate in a political environment where Israel's political lobby holds well-documented power, have consistently minimized and deflected criticism of the State of Israel, even as it has grown more emboldened in its occupation of Palestinian territory and adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.”
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 [00:02:14] that the training in Israel focuses [00:13:36] on public policy, counter-terrorism and leadership training in the form of lectures and discussions.
Alfoqaha was quoted in the same April 10, 2023 Crimson article as saying: “Every settler flag that’s been raised can be torn down.”
On April 11, 2019, Alfoqaha wrote on Facebook: “Recommend reading this if you’re interested in what the re-election of Netanyahu entails for Palestinians (spoiler: more illegal settlements, more loss of land, more restriction of daily life and basic rights).”
The post linked to an article by anti-Israel professor Saree Makdisi titled: “Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection underlines Israel’s apartheid reality.”
On January 19, 2019, Alfoqaha wrote on Facebook: “Recommending this article to everyone: incredible & powerful op-ed by Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, on why we can no longer be silent about the human rights crisis that Palestinians have been facing.”
The post linked to an article, titled: “Time to Break the Silence on Palestine.”
The article said: “Our elected representatives, who operate in a political environment where Israel's political lobby holds well-documented power, have consistently minimized and deflected criticism of the State of Israel, even as it has grown more emboldened in its occupation of Palestinian territory and adopted some practices reminiscent of apartheid in South Africa and Jim Crow segregation in the United States.”
Biographical Information
As of October 2023, Alfoqaha was listed on a Harvard website as slated to graduate from Harvard Law School (HLS) in 2024.As of the same date, another Harvard website said that Alfoqaha was a third-year law student at HLS and that she graduated from the University of Minnesota (UMN) in 2021 with a double major in mathematics and global studies. In 2015, Alfoqaha was affiliated with the SJP chapter at UMN (SJP UMN).
In a May 15, 2019 article, Alfoqaha was said to have been a “Grassroots Advocacy and Policy Intern” for the anti-Israel organization US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) in Washington, D.C. The same article said she had also worked for the city of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, on its Human Rights and Diversity Commission.
Harvard University is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/100000358254845Twitter:https://twitter.com/AlfoqahaT [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/talaalfoqaha/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tala_alfoqaha/ [Private]
YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFMsdu7zxiBS1bxJLkZlw1A
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@alat.ahaqofla
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Harvard
- Organizations:
- HLS Justice for Palestine,
- PSC (SJP)
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
32 images
Infamous Quotes
“Every settler flag that’s been raised can be torn down.”
