Yara Shoufani
Yara Shoufani’s Glorification of Martyrdom, Calls for a Revolution in America and Support for Hamas Terrorist War Crimes
Yara Shoufani has glorified martyrdom, called for a revolution in America, expressed support for Hamas war crimes and celebrated violence. She has also spread incitement, showed support for terrorists, promoted hatred of Israel and engaged in anti-Israel activism.Shoufani is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and proposed a BDS resolution at McMaster University (McMaster) in 2015.
As of November 2023, Shoufani had been an organizer with the anti-Israel group Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) since May 2021. In June 2022, she was also the group’s media liaison.
Shoufani was president of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McMaster during the 2014-2015 academic year. She was also an activist with the group until 2017 and 2020. SPHR is an alternative name for Students For Justice In Palestine (SJP).
Shoufani was affiliated with Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University (York) in 2017.
As of March 2024, Shoufani’s LinkedIn profile said she was studying for a PhD in political science and government at York, slated to graduate in 2027. Her LinkedIn said she graduated from York with a master’s degree in political science in 2017. She also received a bachelor’s degree from McMaster in political science and labor studies in 2016.
As of the same date, Shoufani’s LinkedIn said she had been the executive director of the anti-Israel group Canadian Friends of Sabeel (CFOS) from September 2018 to August 2022.
Shoufani is the daughter of Nadia Shoufani, who was suspended from her position as an elementary school teacher after she gave a pro-terror speech at Toronto’s 2016 Al Quds Day rally. As of March 2024, Shoufani’s LinkedIn said she was located in Mississauga, Ontario.
As of the same date, Shoufani went by the username “yara” and used the handle “@ysxsh” on Twitter. She also used the handle “@yaraa.elchoufani” on Facebook and used the handle “@yaraxsh” on Instagram.
Shoufani said [01:13:00]: “Our struggle is a long struggle and one that stands on the shoulders of thousands of martyrs and thousands of fighters who have committed and who are committing their lives to lay the ground for the revolution we see ahead of us today.”
The conference was organized by anti-Israel groups, including PYM, SJP and Al-Awda and was held in Detroit, Michigan, on May 24-26, 2024.
On May 25, 2024, the second day of the conference, Shoufani spoke at an event titled: “Plenary: Zionism and US Imperialism.” She said [01:18:03]: “...we had visas just for a conference, this conference, we had visas denied for speakers. And so we know that U.S. empire is trying to actively intervene against our organizations, against our movements. And this attempt to crush Palestinian revolution here actually should tell us just how powerful we are and just how much we scare them, because Palestinian revolution, the Palestinian revolution is a gateway to struggle, and it radicalizes us and shows us clearly who our enemies are. We have comrades in the movement who a year ago may have saw, had illusions about reforming U.S. empire, and today through the Palestinian revolution, see clearly that there is no reforming the U.S. empire.”
Shoufani continued [01:19:27]: “Our organizing can bring imperialism into crisis and our organizing is bringing imperialism into crisis.”
In the same speech, Shoufani said [01:20:08]: “This proves that the mass movement that we are building is a mass movement that is capable of shaking U.S. empire and the relationship between U.S. empire and Zionism.”
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.
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.
The Israeli Defense Forces increased operations following the Knife Intifada — a surge of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, which began in October of 2015.
Fatah’s Shabiba student movement at Birzeit University produced a militant video, titled “Martyrdom-seeking unites us.” In December of 2015, the group posted Facebook pictures of themselves standing by a Christmas tree festooned with the portraits of murderers — including one who had recently stabbed four Israeli civilians. The featured terrorists were collectively responsible for thousands of attacks. Behind the students was a sign that proclaimed: “The way to freedom is a bullet and a martyr... a crescent and a cross; Merry Christmas, [Fatah] Shabiba student movement, Birzeit University.”
Birzeit’s student body elected Hamas to power in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, Bilal Barghouti became the Honorary Chairman of the Bir Zeit University Student Council. Barghouti was then serving 16 life terms in Israeli prison for his role in a series of suicide attacks. Bilal Barghouti was the senior terrorist behind the Sbarro cafe bombing.
On January 10, 2016, Israeli soldiers conducted a raid on Birzeit university, directed at terror cells believed to be operating from the campus. During the operations, soldiers arrested 15 terror suspects and seized weapons stockpiles, materials linked to local terror cells and Hamas propaganda.
Birzeit characterized the January 2016 IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent... attack on the university and our right to education…”
Twitter:https://twitter.com/ysxsh
Twitter 2:https://twitter.com/yaraxsh
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/yarashoufani/ [Private]
Instagram 2:https://www.instagram.com/yaraxsh/ [Private]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yarashoufani/
TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@yaraxsh
Shoufani was president of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McMaster during the 2014-2015 academic year. She was also an activist with the group until 2017 and 2020. SPHR is an alternative name for Students For Justice In Palestine (SJP).
Shoufani was affiliated with Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at York University (York) in 2017.
As of March 2024, Shoufani’s LinkedIn profile said she was studying for a PhD in political science and government at York, slated to graduate in 2027. Her LinkedIn said she graduated from York with a master’s degree in political science in 2017. She also received a bachelor’s degree from McMaster in political science and labor studies in 2016.
As of the same date, Shoufani’s LinkedIn said she had been the executive director of the anti-Israel group Canadian Friends of Sabeel (CFOS) from September 2018 to August 2022.
Shoufani is the daughter of Nadia Shoufani, who was suspended from her position as an elementary school teacher after she gave a pro-terror speech at Toronto’s 2016 Al Quds Day rally. As of March 2024, Shoufani’s LinkedIn said she was located in Mississauga, Ontario.
As of the same date, Shoufani went by the username “yara” and used the handle “@ysxsh” on Twitter. She also used the handle “@yaraa.elchoufani” on Facebook and used the handle “@yaraxsh” on Instagram.
Glorifying Martyrdom & Calling for Revolution in America
On May 24, 2024, Shoufani spoke at the People’s Conference for Palestine at an event titled: “Opening Keynote.”Shoufani said [01:13:00]: “Our struggle is a long struggle and one that stands on the shoulders of thousands of martyrs and thousands of fighters who have committed and who are committing their lives to lay the ground for the revolution we see ahead of us today.”
The conference was organized by anti-Israel groups, including PYM, SJP and Al-Awda and was held in Detroit, Michigan, on May 24-26, 2024.
On May 25, 2024, the second day of the conference, Shoufani spoke at an event titled: “Plenary: Zionism and US Imperialism.” She said [01:18:03]: “...we had visas just for a conference, this conference, we had visas denied for speakers. And so we know that U.S. empire is trying to actively intervene against our organizations, against our movements. And this attempt to crush Palestinian revolution here actually should tell us just how powerful we are and just how much we scare them, because Palestinian revolution, the Palestinian revolution is a gateway to struggle, and it radicalizes us and shows us clearly who our enemies are. We have comrades in the movement who a year ago may have saw, had illusions about reforming U.S. empire, and today through the Palestinian revolution, see clearly that there is no reforming the U.S. empire.”
Shoufani continued [01:19:27]: “Our organizing can bring imperialism into crisis and our organizing is bringing imperialism into crisis.”
In the same speech, Shoufani said [01:20:08]: “This proves that the mass movement that we are building is a mass movement that is capable of shaking U.S. empire and the relationship between U.S. empire and 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.
Support for Hamas Terrorist War Crimes
On October 8, 2023, the day after Hamas massacred over 1,200 Israeli Jews, Shoufani tweeted: “Palestinians have a right not only to resist, but to liberate our land from zionist colonization and western imperialism, to liberate our people from zionist prisons, and to return to our homes after decades of forced exile.”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.
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.
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.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
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.
On October 9, 2023, Shoufani was reportedly one of the organizers of a PYM rally in Toronto celebrating the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
On October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas invaded Israel and massacred approximately 1,200 Jews, PYM held a rally in Toronto celebrating the attack. A PYM Facebook post promoting the rally called Hamas “our heroic resistance in Gaza” and celebrated “over 30 Zionist hostages captured, the fall of settlements surrounding Gaza.”
The same PYM post said the attack “shaped a new precedent for our national liberation struggle and we remain steadfast in our right to resist by any means necessary.” PYM called on activists “to uplift and honour our resistance and our martyrs…and celebrate our steps closer to liberation!”
Protesters participated in the pro-terror chants [00:00:17]: “Intifada, intifada! Long live the intifada!” and “Be-ruh be-dam nifdik ya Aza [with spirit and blood we will redeem Gaza]!” They also chanted: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!,” a call for Israel’s destruction. One speaker said [00:00:20]: “When we say ‘Allahu Akbar’ it is a declaration of our celebration for our resistance and its victory against their occupier.”
Also on October 9, 2023, Shoufani was featured in a video of her interview from the protest posted on Twitter, in which she said [00:00:01]: “We are here to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine who for 75 years have been resisting a Zionist occupation…”
The modern State of Israel was founded 76 years earlier, in 1948.
Shoufani also said [00:00:23]: “We’re here to affirm that we stand with the Palestinian people in their right to resist…”
Shoufani was quoted in an article about the protest as saying: “It’s not a question of whether we support the [Hamas] attacks. It’s a question of what do we stand against… We are here again in support of the Palestinian people… fighting to return home.”
On October 11, 2023, Shoufani was featured in a podcast, in which she described [00:09:18] Hamas’ attacks as a “very natural response” and criticized that “the Western world…removes this resistance out of its context and acts like this resistance is, you know, not justified, it’s a ‘form of terrorism’…”
Shoufani also said [00:33:25]: “What we’re seeing today is a decolonial struggle unfolding before our eyes…people, they only liked those words as buzzwords, but we know this is what a national liberation struggle entails.” Referring to PYM’s work she said [00:37:01]: “We are not going to choose the path of normalization…but rather, that we support…the revolutionary path of resistance.”
On October 29, 2023, Shoufani also organized another anti-Israel protest with PYMin Toronto.
On October 29, 2023, during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, multiple anti-Israel groups held a rally in Toronto that began in front of the U.S. Consulate and proceeded to Yonge-Dundas Square. Among the groups hosting were the Association of Palestinian Students at The University of Toronto Mississauga (APS TMU), the TMU Palestinian Cultural Club (TMU PCC) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
Rally participants blocked traffic and shouted: “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution,” a call for terrorist violence. They also chanted against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shouting: “Justin Trudeau, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” Hamas committed multiple war crimes against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, including the murder of approximately 1,200 Israelis. Israel declared war immediately.
In her speech, Shoufani said [00:00:31]: “The Palestinian people will fight until victory.” She also claimed [00:01:17]: “... the Zionist state has ramped up its violence against Palestinians that are rightfully resisting the occupation and colonization of our lands.Last week Zionist forces violated the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem…”
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.
Shoufani continued [00:02:11]: “Every year during Ramadan the Zionist entity [Israel] violates the sanctity of the Masjid [Al-Aqsa Mosque] as a tool of collective punishment…”
Ramadan is an Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are meant to engage in self-reflection, repentance and the giving of charity. Ramadan is frequently marked by increased anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric throughout the Arab world, Palestinian violence in Israel and heightened tensions centered in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Shoufani also said [00:02:42]: “...they [Zionists] indiscriminately kill our people… We honor the protectors of Al-Aqsa, the protectors of Al-Quds and all of Palestine… We uplift and amplify all resistance efforts by Palestinians and Arabs to the encroachment of the Zionist regime upon the mosque.” She then led [00:03:31] protesters in chanting: “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
Shoufani concluded [00:05:57]: “We must reject the normalization of Zionism in all its forms… When we say we want Palestine to be free, that includes every single inch from Jenin to Nablus, from Al-Quds to Gaza, from the refugee camps to the prison walls.” She then led the chant [00:06:26]: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”
At the rally, protesters also chanted: “Viva, viva, intifada!” and “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!”
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.
Protesters also held a sign that said [00:00:07]: “ONE HOLOCAUST DOES NOT JUSTIFY ANOTHER.” On another poster, which said: “WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW RESISTANCE BECOMES DUTY,” the Star of David was equated with a swastika.
Hezbollah has long been known as an anti-Semitic and genocidal terror organization dedicated to destroying Israel.
On September 23, 2024, Shoufani posted on X: “Israel has been ‘seeking war’ since its existence, and has been doing everything possible to open a regional war with Lebanon while committing genocide in Gaza. Now, it is using the same lie of ‘weapons hidden in civilian areas’ it uses in Gaza, to justify war crimes in Lebanon.”
The “Dignity Strike” was a hunger strike initiated on April 16, 2017, by Marwan Barghouti, the terrorist who financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike, most of whom were also incarcerated for acts of terrorism.
On March 16, 2017, Shoufani indicated on Facebook that she attended a McMaster SPHR event for Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), titled: “From Intifada to Liberation: Defeating Colonialism and Imperialism.”
On March 10, 2016, Shoufani co-wrote an article for McMaster’s student newspaper The Silhouette, promoting McMaster SPHR’s Israeli Apartheid Week. In the article, Shoufani claimed that IAW aimed to raise “awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies… of racial segregation.”
On March 23, 2015, as SPHR president, Shoufani proposed a BDS motion at the McMaster Student Union (MSU) general assembly. Shoufani said [page 4] that the bill calls for McMaster to “divest from companies that are directly involved in the occupation and killing innocent [sic] people.” The MSU reportedly voted to pass the motion.
On March 13, 2015, Shoufani was one of the organizers and speakers at a “die-in” held by McMaster students to protest a delegation of Israeli students who were visiting the campus to promote dialogue.
On October 9, 2023, two days after Hamas invaded Israel and massacred approximately 1,200 Jews, PYM held a rally in Toronto celebrating the attack. A PYM Facebook post promoting the rally called Hamas “our heroic resistance in Gaza” and celebrated “over 30 Zionist hostages captured, the fall of settlements surrounding Gaza.”
The same PYM post said the attack “shaped a new precedent for our national liberation struggle and we remain steadfast in our right to resist by any means necessary.” PYM called on activists “to uplift and honour our resistance and our martyrs…and celebrate our steps closer to liberation!”
Protesters participated in the pro-terror chants [00:00:17]: “Intifada, intifada! Long live the intifada!” and “Be-ruh be-dam nifdik ya Aza [with spirit and blood we will redeem Gaza]!” They also chanted: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free!,” a call for Israel’s destruction. One speaker said [00:00:20]: “When we say ‘Allahu Akbar’ it is a declaration of our celebration for our resistance and its victory against their occupier.”
Also on October 9, 2023, Shoufani was featured in a video of her interview from the protest posted on Twitter, in which she said [00:00:01]: “We are here to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine who for 75 years have been resisting a Zionist occupation…”
The modern State of Israel was founded 76 years earlier, in 1948.
Shoufani also said [00:00:23]: “We’re here to affirm that we stand with the Palestinian people in their right to resist…”
Shoufani was quoted in an article about the protest as saying: “It’s not a question of whether we support the [Hamas] attacks. It’s a question of what do we stand against… We are here again in support of the Palestinian people… fighting to return home.”
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
On October 11, 2023, Shoufani was featured in a podcast, in which she described [00:09:18] Hamas’ attacks as a “very natural response” and criticized that “the Western world…removes this resistance out of its context and acts like this resistance is, you know, not justified, it’s a ‘form of terrorism’…”
Shoufani also said [00:33:25]: “What we’re seeing today is a decolonial struggle unfolding before our eyes…people, they only liked those words as buzzwords, but we know this is what a national liberation struggle entails.” Referring to PYM’s work she said [00:37:01]: “We are not going to choose the path of normalization…but rather, that we support…the revolutionary path of resistance.”
On October 29, 2023, Shoufani also organized another anti-Israel protest with PYMin Toronto.
On October 29, 2023, during Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza, multiple anti-Israel groups held a rally in Toronto that began in front of the U.S. Consulate and proceeded to Yonge-Dundas Square. Among the groups hosting were the Association of Palestinian Students at The University of Toronto Mississauga (APS TMU), the TMU Palestinian Cultural Club (TMU PCC) and the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).
Rally participants blocked traffic and shouted: “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution,” a call for terrorist violence. They also chanted against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, shouting: “Justin Trudeau, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” Hamas committed multiple war crimes against Israeli civilians on October 7, 2023, including the murder of approximately 1,200 Israelis. Israel declared war immediately.
Celebrating Violence
On April 28, 2015, Shoufani posted on Facebook: “...When we [Palestinians] throw rocks, when we throw rockets, when we scream, we are told to stop being violent. ‘Violence is not the answer, you must engage in dialogue’... I am tired of people talking about how violence is wrong and how burning property and looting is not going to help.”Although romanticized as a form of “popular resistance,” rock throwing remains a deadly form of violence.
Incitement
On April 15, 2023, Shoufani spoke [00:00:37] at an Al Quds Day rally in Toronto as a representative of PYM.The International Quds Day rally was founded in 1979 by the Islamic Republic of Iran “to oppose Zionism and Israel and express support for the Palestinians.” The rally has historically been a platform for anti-Semitism. During the 2009 rally, former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed “the Holocaust was a ‘lie’” and a pretext to create a Jewish state that Iranians had “a religious duty to confront.”
In her speech, Shoufani said [00:00:31]: “The Palestinian people will fight until victory.” She also claimed [00:01:17]: “... the Zionist state has ramped up its violence against Palestinians that are rightfully resisting the occupation and colonization of our lands.Last week Zionist forces violated the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem…”
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.
Shoufani continued [00:02:11]: “Every year during Ramadan the Zionist entity [Israel] violates the sanctity of the Masjid [Al-Aqsa Mosque] as a tool of collective punishment…”
Ramadan is an Islamic holy month during which Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset and are meant to engage in self-reflection, repentance and the giving of charity. Ramadan is frequently marked by increased anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric throughout the Arab world, Palestinian violence in Israel and heightened tensions centered in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Shoufani also said [00:02:42]: “...they [Zionists] indiscriminately kill our people… We honor the protectors of Al-Aqsa, the protectors of Al-Quds and all of Palestine… We uplift and amplify all resistance efforts by Palestinians and Arabs to the encroachment of the Zionist regime upon the mosque.” She then led [00:03:31] protesters in chanting: “When people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
Shoufani concluded [00:05:57]: “We must reject the normalization of Zionism in all its forms… When we say we want Palestine to be free, that includes every single inch from Jenin to Nablus, from Al-Quds to Gaza, from the refugee camps to the prison walls.” She then led the chant [00:06:26]: “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.
At the rally, protesters also chanted: “Viva, viva, intifada!” and “There is only one solution, intifada revolution!”
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.
Protesters also held a sign that said [00:00:07]: “ONE HOLOCAUST DOES NOT JUSTIFY ANOTHER.” On another poster, which said: “WHEN INJUSTICE BECOMES LAW RESISTANCE BECOMES DUTY,” the Star of David was equated with a swastika.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 countries have adopted the definition as well.
Anti-Israel activists compare Israel to Nazi Germany to insinuate that the plight of Palestinians has eclipsed Jewish suffering during the Holocaust.
Support for Terrorists
On September 25, 2024, Shoufani posted on X: “In 2001 the U.S. offered Hezbollah a deal: stop supporting the Palestinian resistance in exchange for removal from U.S. ‘terror’ lists. Nasrallah refused. Today, Hezbollah continues to stand by Gaza, refusing to accept safety while Gaza faces genocide.”Hezbollah has long been known as an anti-Semitic and genocidal terror organization dedicated to destroying Israel.
Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah, declared in 2019: “In a future war, all of occupied Palestine will be struck by our rockets.” In 2017, Nasrallah called on on Jews living in Israel “to leave Palestine and go back to the countries from which they came.” In 1998, he said Israel was “the state of the grandsons of apes and pigs – the Zionist Jews.”
Hatred of Israel
On February 9, 2025, Shoufani posted on X: “Anyone trying to divert the blame onto Palestinians is distorting that it is Israel that determines the conditions in Gaza — which has been under siege for 18 years. The people of Gaza are held within an open air prison, and have been going hungry for years due to Israel’s siege.”
Prior and after the Hamas October 7, 2023 attacks, Gazans frequently posted social media content indicating that Gazans lived in large villas, drove expensive cars and shopped at opulent supermarkets.
Referring to Gaza as an “open-air prison” is a way to delegitimize the UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip imposed in 2011 to prevent Hamas from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. Following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli military discovered that Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
Anti-Israel Activism (BDS)
On May 13, 2017,Shoufani indicated on Facebook that she attended a McMaster SPHR rally held in Toronto in support of Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike.The “Dignity Strike” was a hunger strike initiated on April 16, 2017, by Marwan Barghouti, the terrorist who financed the guitar-case bomb used in the Sbarro Cafe bombing. More than 1,000 other Palestinian prisoners participated in the hunger strike, most of whom were also incarcerated for acts of terrorism.
On March 16, 2017, Shoufani indicated on Facebook that she attended a McMaster SPHR event for Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), titled: “From Intifada to Liberation: Defeating Colonialism and Imperialism.”
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is presented internationally as a “series of events that seeks to raise awareness of…Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people.” One of its goals is to build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement. IAW has been renamed Palestine Awareness Week.
On March 10, 2016, Shoufani co-wrote an article for McMaster’s student newspaper The Silhouette, promoting McMaster SPHR’s Israeli Apartheid Week. In the article, Shoufani claimed that IAW aimed to raise “awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies… of racial segregation.”
On March 23, 2015, as SPHR president, Shoufani proposed a BDS motion at the McMaster Student Union (MSU) general assembly. Shoufani said [page 4] that the bill calls for McMaster to “divest from companies that are directly involved in the occupation and killing innocent [sic] people.” The MSU reportedly voted to pass the motion.
On March 13, 2015, Shoufani was one of the organizers and speakers at a “die-in” held by McMaster students to protest a delegation of Israeli students who were visiting the campus to promote dialogue.
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 Student 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.
Mac SPHR
Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McMaster (SPHR Mac) is a chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), employing an alternative name.Mac SPHR - Glorifying Terrorism
On March 9, 2017, Mac SPHR shared a post to Facebook that celebrated International Women’s Day and urged followers to “Stop by and learn about revolutionary Palestinian women like Leila Khaled…”Khaled is a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and participated in the hijacking of TWA Flight 840 in 1969 and El Al Flight 219 in 1970. As of 2017, Khaled was a member of PFLP's Political Bureau.
Khaled has said that the second intifada failed because it was not violent enough, advocated for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
The PFLP claimed credit for the 2014 Har Nof Massacre where six people were murdered during morning prayers in a Jerusalem synagogue. The PFLP also claimed credit for the 2001 assassination of the Israeli tourism minister.
On March 4, 2017, Mac SPHR posted to Facebook a link to an “international Women’s Day” event, with Khaled’s photograph and text urging “A WOMAN’S PLACE IS IN THE STRUGGLE!”.
Mac SPHR - Whitewashing Terrorists
On October 5, 2015, Mac SPHR posted on Facebook: “What are your thoughts? Could this be the beginning of the third intifada?” Mac SPHR’s post linked to a video from anti-Israel news source AJ+, an affiliate of Al Jazeera, claiming that “Four Palestinian teenagers have been shot dead by Israeli authorities...”The video went on: “Police say Fadi Alloun wounded a teenager in a knife attack.” In fact, Alloun [Aloon] was shot by Israeli security forces after he stabbed a 15-year-old Israeli boy in his chest and back. Several hours before his attack, Aloon reportedly posted “Either martyrdom or victory” on his Facebook page.
The video continued: “19-year-old Muhannad Halabi was also killed,” adding that “authorities say he killed two Israelis.” Halabi stabbed to death two men — one of whom was a father, murdered in front of his wife and two young children. Halabi also stabbed the mother and a two-year-old child before Israeli security forces shot Halabi dead.
On October 6, 2015, Mac SPHR posted on Facebook: “Rest in Peace Fadi Alloun, a Palestinian teenager attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers and shot dead by Israeli Police officers,” along with a Youtube video of Alloun being shot.
On October 12, 2015, Mac SPHR posted to its Facebook page: “GRAPHIC CONTENT A 14 years old shot by Israeli soldiers and the settler filming yells ‘Die, you son of a b****’ Share and let the world see… PS. The kid is dead! :( #Palestine.”
The Mac SPHR Facebook post linked to a video of Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara), who was wounded — not killed — on October 12, 2015, while he and his 15-year-old cousin, Hassan, were engaged in a stabbing spree in Jerusalem.
Ahmed Manasra (sometimes spelled Mansara) and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan went on a stabbing spree in Jerusalem on October 12, 2015, during the Knife Intifada. They critically wounded a 13-year-old boy and moderately wounded a 25-year-old man. The spree ended when police shot Hassan and a passing motorist hit Ahmed. Ahmed was taken to an Israeli hospital. He admitted to investigators: “I went there to stab Jews.” He was later tried and convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
Also on October 12, 2015, Mac SPHR posted on Facebook a video describing Asraa Zidan Tawfik Abed as “a Palestinian woman who was gunned down by Israeli forces after she allegedly tried to stab a security guard.” Abed was shot in the lower body on October 9, 2015 — after she attempted to stab a security guard at a bus station and refused to heed repeated commands to drop her weapon. Abed was not killed — and later underwent surgery at an Israeli hospital.
Mac SPHR - Supporting Terrorist Violence
On October 16, 2015, Mac SPHR advertised and co-sponsored an anti-Israel rally in front of the Israeli consulate, along with Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) and the Palestine House in Toronto.The Arabic version of the invitation, disseminated by Palestine House invited demonstrators to a “Protest rally in solidarity and support of Palestine Intifada (انتفاضة).”
October 2015 saw an upsurge in violence across Israel incited by Palestinian political and religious leaders. The wave of stabbings, known as the “Knife Intifada,” saw young Palestinians throughout the country stabbing and attempting to stab scores of Israeli civilians.
During the rally, protesters chanted: “Viva, Viva Intifada!” and “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!”
The Palestine House was de-funded by the Canadian federal government in 2012 for aligning itself with terrorist causes, including celebrating the release of terrorists and honoring the founder of the PFLP.
On October 12, 2015, Mac SPHR posted to its Facebook page: “A tribute to the brave Palestinian women in the the struggle for resilience.” The post linked to a series of photos entitled “Tribute to the Palestinian women in the struggle,” celebrating the then-current Knife Intifada. The photos showed young women, masked in keffiyehs, using slingshots and gathering rocks for throwing.
Mac SPHR - Calling Violence 'Political Activism'
On January 12, 2016, Mac SPHR posted to Facebook an article that claimed: “Israeli forces have arrested dozens of politically active students” from Birzeit university and that “the acting president of Birzeit University called for the release of students. Israel is responsible for the well being of the students who are demonstrating peacefully against the occupation.”The Israeli Defense Forces increased operations following the Knife Intifada — a surge of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, which began in October of 2015.
Fatah’s Shabiba student movement at Birzeit University produced a militant video, titled “Martyrdom-seeking unites us.” In December of 2015, the group posted Facebook pictures of themselves standing by a Christmas tree festooned with the portraits of murderers — including one who had recently stabbed four Israeli civilians. The featured terrorists were collectively responsible for thousands of attacks. Behind the students was a sign that proclaimed: “The way to freedom is a bullet and a martyr... a crescent and a cross; Merry Christmas, [Fatah] Shabiba student movement, Birzeit University.”
Birzeit’s student body elected Hamas to power in 2015 and 2016. In 2015, Bilal Barghouti became the Honorary Chairman of the Bir Zeit University Student Council. Barghouti was then serving 16 life terms in Israeli prison for his role in a series of suicide attacks. Bilal Barghouti was the senior terrorist behind the Sbarro cafe bombing.
On January 10, 2016, Israeli soldiers conducted a raid on Birzeit university, directed at terror cells believed to be operating from the campus. During the operations, soldiers arrested 15 terror suspects and seized weapons stockpiles, materials linked to local terror cells and Hamas propaganda.
Birzeit characterized the January 2016 IDF raid to arrest wanted militants as a “belligerent... attack on the university and our right to education…”
Mac SPHR - Anti-Israel Activism
On March 12, 2015, four Israelis who comprised a delegation illustrating Israeli diversity were reportedly harassed while visiting McMaster.One of the delegates, an Arab-Israeli woman named Areen Haj Ahmad, was reportedly harassed, surrounded and told she should not have the Palestinian flag at the table because she did not represent the “oppressed Palestinian voices.” Ahmad was also reportedly called “a traitor” and received numerous bullying messages on Facebook. Hamad ended up deactivating her Facebook account and pulling out of a speaking event about using business as a tool for dialogue and coexistence.
The following day, 75 students gathered in McMaster’s atrium to hold a “die-in.” Concerning the “die-in,” SPHR Mac posted to Facebook that “it is not our event... but message us if you want details and we can direct you to the students organizing it.”
Raphael Szajnfarber, director of McMaster Hillel, later reported that all of the leaders of SPHR organized [the die in] and spoke at the protest.”
On March 14, 2015, Mac SPHR posted to their Facebook page a picture of the “die-in” with the comment: ”United we can make a difference. Great initiative by Palestinian students to protest Israel on Campus bringing ex IDF commanders onto campus, and the administration at McMaster allowing it to happen.”
On March 15, 2015, Mac SPHR changed their Facebook cover photo to a picture of the demonstrators participating in the “die-in.”
Mac SPHR - Demonizing Israel
On February 6, 2017, Mac SPHR posted to its Facebook page lengthy excerpts of an article demonizing Israel by anti-Israel Professor Marwa Osman. Osman wrote: “Caged by Zionism, Israel has become the embodiment of apartheid, bigotry and intolerance” and “state-regulated sectarianism and racism,” as well as “fascist ethno-centrism.” The post also quoted Osman saying: “From every angle, Israel is inherently a racist state, and, one might actually argue, a white supremacist state.”On May 14, 2016, Mac SPHR endorsed on Facebook an anti-Israel rally to protest a fundraiser benefitting the Jewish National Fund (JNF). Mac SPHR accused the JNF of “ongoing land theft & expropriation of Palestinian land.”
The Facebook event page accused the JNF of raising “funds in Canada to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homes and farms in Israel/Palestine. The event further labeled the the JNF as “racist and criminal” and demanded that Canada “immediately remove the charitable status of the JNF.”
On January 14, 2016, Mac SPHR hosted an anti-Israel event titled “Palestinian Genocide.”
In November of 2015, Mac SPHR posted a graphic to its Facebook page of a consumer picking up a can with “made in Israel” stamped on it, to reveal a flattened, bloodied child wearing a Palestinian flag.
On November 6, 2015, Mac SPHR posted to Facebook an excerpt of an article published by Dana Olwan and Mike Krebs in which the authors claimed: “...in colonized Palestine, land theft was secured not only by military force but also by laws that sanctioned the terrorising of indigenous Palestinian girls and women and subjugated them to the technologies of sexual harassment intimidation, punishment and death.”
The article — a litany of purported Israeli crimes against Palestinian women — claimed: “In [Deir Yassin], Palestinian women were molested, raped, and then killed. In one example of such gendered and sexualised violence, the womb of a nine months pregnant Palestinian woman was cut open before she was murdered”.
On October 12, 2015, Mac SPHR posted a picture of a Palestinian youngster on Facebook and commented: “Israeli soldiers broke into the house of this 3 year old boy to arrest him on accusations of ‘throwing stones’ - an act that can now get you up to 20 years in Israeli prisons (but only if you’re Palestinian of course). October 05, 2015.”
On September 30, 2016, SPHR Mac posted to Facebook an article propagating the widely debunked Al-Dura hoax. The Al-Durah hoax is an iconic piece of anti-Israel propaganda that was fabricated during a riot in the Gaza Strip, on September 30, 2000, at the start of the second intifada. A France 2 report, filmed by a Palestinian cameraman and narrated by France 2's editor — who was not at the scene — purported to show Jamal Al-Durah and his 12-year-old son Muhammad, crouching behind a concrete cylinder, shot by Israeli forces.
Subsequent review of the raw footage revealed that France 2 edited out the final scenes captured by the Palestinian cameraman — which showed the boy peeking at the camera from beneath his raised arm. Film of the father and son from other news networks — indicating that the entire scene was staged — was also uncovered.
The article, originally published by the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), claimed Muhammad was “executed” and suggested that Jamal was killed as well.
On February 5, 2016, Mac SPHR posted to Facebook an article claiming Israel is spraying crop-killing chemicals on Gaza farmland, adding : “#genocide.”
Mac SPHR - Israel Apartheid Week
SPHR Mac hosted and ran a two-week long “Israel Apartheid Week (IAW)” from March 6 until March 17, 2017.On March 1, 2017, SPHR Mac tweeted: “Join us from March 6-17 here at McMaster University in our struggle against colonization, militarization and apartheid! #IAWMAC2017.”
The tweet featured an IAW promotion video that claimed “to raise awareness for Israel’s settler colonial project and its apartheid policies” [0:19] against Palestinians who are being “targeted and cleansed by the state of Israel” [1:25], an “apartheid regime” [1:31].
Young Communist League (YCL) activist Aparajito Singh, working in tandem with Mac SPHR, created buttons for IAW 2017 featuring the PFLP logo, PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled as well as Ghassan Kanafani, a leading member and spokesperson of the PFLP in its early years.
Kanafani announced the PFLP’s responsibility for the Lod Airport Massacre of May 1972 and was personally linked to the airport attackers. The attack killed 26 people.
SPHR Mac denied Jewish indigeneity to Israel and hosted speakers who accused Jews of “settler colonialism.”
On March 16, 2017, Mac SPHR hosted an event, titled “From Intifada to Liberation - Defeating Colonialism & Imperialism.” Since the early 2000’s, the term “intifada” has carried the connotation of militant violence. In 2017, violent intifada that erupted two years earlier continued in Israel.
On March 8, 2017, Mac SPHR co-hosted the event “Israeli Apartheid Week: The Lab.” The Facebook event page elaborated that: “Since 9/11, the Israeli arms industries are doing bigger business than ever before. Large Israeli companies develop and test the vessels of future warfare, which is then sold worldwide by private Israeli agents, who manipulate a network of Israeli politicians and army commanders, while Israeli theoreticians explain to various foreign countries how to defeat civil and para-military resistance.”
Mac SPHR also hosted IAW in 2016.
On February 7, 2016, Mac SPHR advertised for IAW by posting on Facebook photographs that likened Israel to Jim Crow America.
On March 9, 2016, Mac SPHR hosted the event “Apartheid, Live!” as part of IAW.That event showcased a poster that described Gaza as an “open Air Prison” and referred to Israeli defensive operations as “attacks.” The poster misleadingly employed raw casualty figures as indicators of moral merit.
The event displayed another poster featuring a graphic composed of a series of maps portraying lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land” purportedly stolen by Israel.
In February of 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled and destroyed copies of a college level textbook that contained the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, the United States cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
The event also featured an installation mischaracterizing Israel’s security fence as an “Apartheid Wall.”
On March 14, 2016, Mac SPHR members posted to Facebook an article written by then-SPHR President Yara Shoufani and 2017 SPHR President Lina Assi, who claimed that IAW aimed to raise “awareness about Israel’s ongoing settler-colonial project and apartheid policies… of racial segregation.”
On March 1, 2015, Mac SPHR hosted David Sheen during Israel Apartheid Week. Sheen is an anti-Israel propagandist who was banned from the German Parliament in November of 2014.
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- Last Modified:
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Infamous Quotes
“When we [Palestinians] throw rocks, when we throw rockets, when we scream, we are told to stop being violent. ‘Violence is not the answer, you must engage in dialogue.’...I am tired of people talking about how violence is wrong and how burning property and looting is not going to help.”
“Palestinians have a right not only to resist, but to liberate our land from zionist colonization and western imperialism.”
“We are not going to choose the path of normalization… but rather, that we support… the revolutionary path of resistance.”
“We honor the protectors of Al-Aqsa, the protectors of Al-Quds and all of Palestine… We uplift and amplify all resistance efforts by Palestinians and Arabs to the encroachment of the Zionist regime [Israel] upon the mosque…when people are occupied, resistance is justified.”
“We must reject the normalization of Zionism in all its forms… When we say we want Palestine to be free, that includes every single inch… from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”