Tara Tarawneh
Overview
Tara Tarawneh was arrested for stealing an Israeli flag in November 2023. She also glorified Hamas terrorist war crimes, promoted incitement to violence and called for Israel’s destruction. In October 2023, she justified Hamas terrorism due to the “sheer fact” that Israel exists.Tarawneh’s actions took place following a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians, including mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, which were executed on October 7, 2023. The terror attacks left about 1,200 Israelis dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded.
Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Hamas is a designated terrorist organization founded in 1987 that is dedicated to destroying Israel and killing Jews. Since 2001, Hamas has launched thousands of rockets at Israel and on October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped over 200 hostages, including children and the elderly.
In September 2023, Tarawneh was listed as a junior studying comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), which is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Also in September 2023, Tarawneh was listed as a staff writer for the Daily Pennsylvanian, a student-run newspaper at Penn.
As of November 12, 2018, Tarawneh was listed as an author on the website of Artmejo which provides “Art Consultation & Curation services to businesses, galleries and individuals.” As of November 18, 2023, Tarawneh’s Artmejo profile was deleted.
Also in September 2023, Tarawneh was listed as a staff writer for the Daily Pennsylvanian, a student-run newspaper at Penn.
As of November 12, 2018, Tarawneh was listed as an author on the website of Artmejo which provides “Art Consultation & Curation services to businesses, galleries and individuals.” As of November 18, 2023, Tarawneh’s Artmejo profile was deleted.
According to a March 31, 2025 post on X, Tarawneh is a Jordanian national.
Tarawneh was charged by the Philadelphia County District Attorney’s Office with theft and “receiving stolen property.” As of November 2023, Tarawneh’s case was active and awaiting a status hearing.
On October 28, 2023, Tarawneh spoke at an anti-Israel rally held in Philadelphia and said [00:00:14]: “Do you guys remember the photo of the kids and men laughing and smiling as they sat on top of the Israeli military jeep captured by our freedom fighters?...How about the photos of the bulldozer breaking through the [Israeli-Gaza] border? Do you remember that picture? And the several other joyful and powerful images which came from the glorious October 7!”
Tarawneh continued [00:00:49]: “I remember feeling so empowered and happy, so confident that victory was near and so tangible. I want all of you to hold that feeling in your hearts. Never let go of it. Channel it through every action you take. Bring it to the streets! Go down to the streets every day! And don’t ever let them feel that you quietly accept this genocide!”
Tarawneh also led [00:01:30] the crowd in chanting: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”
11/4/2023 - Arrested for Stealing an Israeli Flag
On November 4, 2023, a few weeks after Hamas terror attacks on Israel, Tarawneh was arrested for stealing an Israeli flag on October 28, 2023 that was reportedly from the front of an apartment building near the Penn campus.Tarawneh was charged by the Philadelphia County District Attorney’s Office with theft and “receiving stolen property.” As of November 2023, Tarawneh’s case was active and awaiting a status hearing.
10/28/2023 - Glorifying Hamas Terrorism at a Rally
On October 28, 2023, Tarawneh spoke at a rally where she glorified [00:00:14] Hamas’s October 7, 2023 terrorist attack. She also said [00:00:49] she felt “so empowered and happy” by it and she called [slide 4] for Israel’s destruction and promoted incitement to violence.On October 28, 2023, Tarawneh spoke at an anti-Israel rally held in Philadelphia and said [00:00:14]: “Do you guys remember the photo of the kids and men laughing and smiling as they sat on top of the Israeli military jeep captured by our freedom fighters?...How about the photos of the bulldozer breaking through the [Israeli-Gaza] border? Do you remember that picture? And the several other joyful and powerful images which came from the glorious October 7!”
Tarawneh continued [00:00:49]: “I remember feeling so empowered and happy, so confident that victory was near and so tangible. I want all of you to hold that feeling in your hearts. Never let go of it. Channel it through every action you take. Bring it to the streets! Go down to the streets every day! And don’t ever let them feel that you quietly accept this genocide!”
Tarawneh also led [00:01:30] the crowd in chanting: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!”
“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 rally was organized by The Philly Palestine Coalition and demanded an “end to the GENOCIDE IN THE DARK.” The rally was held at Philadelphia’s City Hall.
At the rally, Tarawneh spoke [slide 4] to the crowd and said: “The Zionist entity claims that this was a war in Gaza, but we know it is an all-out ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians wherever they may be, which uses genocide as its primary strategy!”
Tarawneh continued and said [slide 4, 00:00:13]: “I would like to acknowledge the problematic nature of using this word ‘ceasefire’…A ceasefire implies that both sides are implicated in the balance, but that’s not the case when one side is a colonial power and the other is a resistance movement fighting for liberation! If we want a real ceasefire, we must continue to fight for the complete liberation of Palestinian land from the river to the sea!”
Tarawneh then said [slide 4, 00:00:45]: “The blood of the martyrs asks my blood! ‘How could you accept the path of peaceful solution?’”
Tarawneh then asked [slide 4, 00:00:53] the crowd: “I am asking you! Do you accept it?” to which the crowd answered [00:00:56]: “No!”.
Tarawneh concluded [slide 4, 00:00:57] by saying: “Then we must begin to escalate!”
At the rally, anti-Israel protesters held signs that said: “Resistance is justified! When people are occupied!” An anti-Israel protester led the chant: “There is only one solution: Intifada revolution!”
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.
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.
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.
On October 19, 2023, Tarawneh spoke [01:18:55] against Philadelphia City Council Resolution 230706 titled: “Condemning the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and calling for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
Tarawneh said [01:18:55]: “I’m here to oppose the resolution you’re all about to sign. The resolution… implies that Hamas strikes first time. We all know this is not true, because Israel by the sheer fact of its existence all the way strikes first. It’s a settler-colonial state based on the murder and expulsion of Palestinians.”
Tarawneh continued [01:19:21]: “The equation of violence on both sides and the equation of casualty on both sides are also very dangerous, because there are no civilians in a settler state… The right for colonized people to resist their colonization by any means necessary, including armed resistance is recognized under international law.”
Tarawneh then said [01:20:17]: “And Palestinians like all oppressed peoples have the right to resistance their oppressors by any means necessary!”
Tarawneh concluded [01:20:25] by shouting: “If you sign on to this resolution, you all have blood on your hands! We will never forgive and we will never forget! Shame on all of you!”
At the rally, Tarawneh spoke [slide 4] to the crowd and said: “The Zionist entity claims that this was a war in Gaza, but we know it is an all-out ethnic cleansing campaign against Palestinians wherever they may be, which uses genocide as its primary strategy!”
Tarawneh continued and said [slide 4, 00:00:13]: “I would like to acknowledge the problematic nature of using this word ‘ceasefire’…A ceasefire implies that both sides are implicated in the balance, but that’s not the case when one side is a colonial power and the other is a resistance movement fighting for liberation! If we want a real ceasefire, we must continue to fight for the complete liberation of Palestinian land from the river to the sea!”
Tarawneh then said [slide 4, 00:00:45]: “The blood of the martyrs asks my blood! ‘How could you accept the path of peaceful solution?’”
Tarawneh then asked [slide 4, 00:00:53] the crowd: “I am asking you! Do you accept it?” to which the crowd answered [00:00:56]: “No!”.
Tarawneh concluded [slide 4, 00:00:57] by saying: “Then we must begin to escalate!”
At the rally, anti-Israel protesters held signs that said: “Resistance is justified! When people are occupied!” An anti-Israel protester led the chant: “There is only one solution: Intifada revolution!”
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.
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.
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 as young as an infant of nine months and as old as 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.
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.
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.
10/19/2023 - Justifying Hamas Terrorism
On October 19, 2023, Tarawneh justified [slide 3] Hamas terrorism against Israeli civilians by the “sheer fact” that Israel exists while speaking [01:18:55] at a Philadelphia City Council meeting held to vote on a resolution condemning the Hamas terror attacks of October 7, 2023.On October 19, 2023, Tarawneh spoke [01:18:55] against Philadelphia City Council Resolution 230706 titled: “Condemning the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and calling for a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
Tarawneh said [01:18:55]: “I’m here to oppose the resolution you’re all about to sign. The resolution… implies that Hamas strikes first time. We all know this is not true, because Israel by the sheer fact of its existence all the way strikes first. It’s a settler-colonial state based on the murder and expulsion of Palestinians.”
Tarawneh continued [01:19:21]: “The equation of violence on both sides and the equation of casualty on both sides are also very dangerous, because there are no civilians in a settler state… The right for colonized people to resist their colonization by any means necessary, including armed resistance is recognized under international law.”
Tarawneh then said [01:20:17]: “And Palestinians like all oppressed peoples have the right to resistance their oppressors by any means necessary!”
Tarawneh concluded [01:20:25] by shouting: “If you sign on to this resolution, you all have blood on your hands! We will never forgive and we will never forget! Shame on all of you!”
- Status:
- Unknown
- University:
- Pennsylvania
- Organizations:
- N/A
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
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Infamous Quotes
“The blood of the martyrs asks my blood! ‘How could you accept the path of peaceful solution?’”
“Do you guys remember the photo of the kids and men laughing and smiling as they sat on top of the Israeli military Jeep captured by our freedom fighters?...How about the photos of the bulldozer breaking through the [Israeli-Gaza] border? Do you remember that picture? And the several other joyful and powerful images which came from the glorious October 7!”
“The equation of violence on both sides and the equation of casualty on both sides are also very dangerous, because there are no civilians in a settler state… The right for colonized people to resist their colonization by any means necessary, including armed resistance is recognized under international law… And Palestinians like all oppressed peoples have the right to resistance their oppressors by any means necessary!”
