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Alessandro Delfanti
Alessandro Delfanti showed support for a pro-Hamas encampment at UofT in May 2024. Delfanti has also spread hatred of Israel on social media.
UofT professor Alessandro Delfanti supported the encampment by signing a statement written by UofT community members in May 2024 [row 24, third photo]. The May 20, 2024 statement was in support of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The statement backed all the encampment’s demands, including divesting from the alleged “apartheid policies of the state of Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
Delfanti submitted a “support selfie,” where text beside his face said: “DISCLOSE. DIVEST. CUT TIES.”
On May 22, 2024, Delfanti posted on X his “support selfie” and wrote: “In solidarity…I’m joining dozens of other faculty and alumni asking @UofT to disclose, divest and cut ties with Israeli institutions that participate in the apartheid, occupation, and settlement of Palestine…”
Delfanti reposted a May 2, 2024 post on X featuring a video from the UofT encampment, in which anti-Israel activists held a banner that read: “From the river to the sea 🍉.”
“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.
UofT is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Alessandro Delfanti’s Support for the Pro-Hamas Encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT)
On May 2, 2024, activists from the UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) group “stormed down” [00:00:24] the fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas encampment, which they called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.”
That day, Occupy UofT called on “community members to…help us defend our encampment” at an emergency rally in the evening. Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. The activists also chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.
One speaker, Nabil Jalbout, said [00:09:02]: “...we are not fighting for peace, we are fighting for liberation, because ‘peace’ is a white man's word.” Another speaker, Ahmad Jarrar Hajahmad, claimed [00:05:52]: “All these Israeli and Zionist entities fill all these politicians with money in their pockets…we already know who runs this system…”
Signs displayed at the encampment said: “LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA” and “LIBERATION FOR ALL REQUIRES RESISTANCE FROM ALL.”
On May 4, 2024, anti-Israel protesters at the encampment assaulted a Jewish man, punching him in the stomach as they forcibly took his Israeli flag. The attackers told the man [00:01:02]: “God bless the armed resistance,” and: “Go back to Europe!” They also reportedly called him “a “dirty Jew.”
Protesters “occupied” [00:00:17] the area from May to July 2024, despite UofT’s warning they were trespassing. The group said they would not leave until UofT divested from companies that “sustain Israeli apartheid, occupation and illegal settlement of Palestine” and terminated partnerships with Israeli academic institutions.
Following the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle - 🔻- became a Hamas symbol. This symbol appeared on large signs at the encampment multiple times. Erin Mackey, one of the primary organizers, is openly pro-Hamas, having used the symbol in her activism. In addition, pro-Hamas marches that began in other parts of the city concluded at the encampment.
On July 3, 2024, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice issued an injunction at the request of UofT’s Governing Council, requiring students to clear the encampment. Occupy UofT dismantled the encampment and wrote [slides 5-6]: “We are just getting started…come fall, every incoming student will hear our message loud and clear…Whatever institution you have access to and influence over - you need to take this campaign there!” The statement concluded: “Long live the intifada.”
The encampment was one of over 140 pro-Hamas and anti-Israel college encampments set up in North America, and over 20 more globally, in the spring of 2024. The first began on April 17, 2024, at Columbia University. The encampments were unofficially known as the “student intifada,” borrowing a term associated with terrorist violence.
Protesters harassed Jewish students, blocked Jews from campus facilities and shouted anti-Semitic slogans. They occupied campus grounds, in many cases illegally, caused property damage, violently took over buildings, celebrated terrorism and promoted the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Activists set up encampments to oppose Israel’s right to wage war against the Hamas terror group following October 7, 2023, when Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 people, including 32 American and 8 Canadian citizens. Hamas also kidnapped 252 people, including 11 Americans and the bodies of 2 murdered Canadians. As of May 26, 2024, 125 hostages remained in Hamas captivity.
For more information on the October 7, 2023 terror attacks, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Delfanti reposted a November 12, 2023 post on X that featured a video from an anti-Israel rally in Toronto and said: “...Toronto’s skyline witnesses a protest painted with the colours of resistance. In every chant , in every step, we march for a liberated Palestine 
🕊️...”
Among Palestinians and anti-Israel activists, the term “resistance” is a euphemism for nationalistic terror and is used to glorify and encourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic violence.
On January 31, 2024, Delfanti posted on X, accusing Israel of carrying out a “genocidal campaign” in Gaza during its war against Hamas terrorists.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas murdered approximately 1,200 Israelis, kidnapped hundreds and wounded thousands. War crimes included mass rape and torture. Many Palestinian civilians participated in and supported the attacks, and Gazans working in the targeted Israeli communities gave intelligence to Hamas on where to strike.
For more information, see the Canary Mission page on Hamas.
Alessandro Delfanti is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of August 2024, Delfanti was listed on the UofT website as a professor of culture and new media at UofT’s Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology, holding a graduate appointment in the Faculty of Information.
As of the same date, Delfanti was listed as an assistant director of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology at UofT, at the university’s Mississauga campus (UTM).
As of the same date, Delfanti was listed as having received a PhD in science and society from the University of Milan (UNIMI) in 2011. UNIMI is located in Milan, Italy.
