Diana Buttu

Diana Buttu is a former spokesperson for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) who has shown support for Hamas terrorism and blamed Israel for rockets being launched into population centers from Gaza.

Diana Buttu is a Harvard professor and University of Toronto (UofT) alumna. In September 2024, she showed support for UofT’s pro-Hamas encampment by signing on to a statement, which was first put out by UofT community members in May 2024. The May 20, 2024 statement was part 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.”

To show support, Buttu submitted a “support selfie,” where text beside her face said: “DISCLOSE. DIVEST. CUT TIES.”

Buttu is a supporter of BDS, for which she advocates in written articles and on Twitter.

In her writing and on social media, Buttu has also accused Israel of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.

Buttu has participated in trips with the anti-Israel Dream Defenders organization.

As of September 2024, Buttu was listed as a member of the advisory board of UofT's anti-Israel “Hearing Palestine” program.

Also as of September 2024, Buttu was listed as a faculty member of the Harvard University (Harvard) Division of Continuing Education’s Professional and Executive Development track, as well as an instructor at the division’s Extension School.

As of the same date, Buttu was also listed as having graduated from UofT with a master’s degree in law.

As of September 2024, Buttu’s LinkedIn profile said she was an “Independent Law Practice Professional” located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Buttu appeared on Fox News on December 30, 2008, to discuss the 2008-2009 military campaign in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead.

Israel commenced Operation Cast Lead (OCL) in 2008-09 in order to stop Hamas rocket fire from Gaza targeting Israeli civilians. In 2010, Hamas admitted that nearly 700 of the Palestinian casualties in OCL were combatants.

In the Fox News interview, Buttu argued that Hamas was the victim in the conflict and that Israel used to election victory of United States President Barak Obama “to go into the Gaza strip and kill Palestinians.”

On July 10, 2014, Buttu was interviewed about the 2014 military campaign in Gaza, Operation Protective Edge. When asked about the barrage of rockets shot into Israeli population centers, Buttu cited Israel’s behavior as just cause for the rockets. She blamed Israel for the continued conflict, stating: "Israelis have indicated very clearly that they don’t want this to stop."

Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.  

In an interview on April 21, 2015, on Al Jazeera, Buttu again defended Hamas and their terror campaign against Israeli civilians. Responding to the discovery of rockets that had been found in UNRWA schools in Gaza, Buttu suggested it was not reprehensible because “the schools are not being used by anybody...school is out.”

Pro-Hamas Encampment at UofT

Buttu showed support for the pro-Hamas protest encampment at the University of Toronto (UofT) in September 2024 [row 78, first photo].

On May 2, 2024, UofT Occupy for Palestine (Occupy UofT) activists “stormed down” fencing around UofT’s Kings College Circle and set up a pro-Hamas and pro-BDS encampment called the “People’s Circle for Palestine.” Protesters chanted [00:02:59] for “intifada” and celebrated “resistance” [00:02:45]. Both terms are calls for terrorism. Activists chanted [00:01:28; 00:02:21] for Israel’s destruction multiple times.

After the October 7, 2023 massacre of nearly 1,200 Israelis, the inverted red triangle -  - became a Hamas symbol. It appeared on large signs at the encampment and was featured in other encampment-related activism. Openly pro-Hamas marches began elsewhere in the city and ended at the encampment. In one incident, pro-Hamas activists punched a Jewish man, stole his Israeli flag and shouted anti-Semitic slurs.

On March 17, 2017, Buttu tweeted: “The #UN may try to suppress report on #ApartheidIsrael but it cannot suppress the truth. It is apartheid. Time to #BDS.”

On May 27, 2017, Buttu published an article in which she advocated for “nonviolent mass protests and press for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, like those that helped to end apartheid in South Africa.”

In a December 30, 2016 interview, Buttu stated: “sanctions need to begin to be imposed on Israel. It cannot be allowed to continue its colonization of the West Bank for yet another 50 years.”

Buttu continued: “what [Palestinians] need to begin to do is focusing on—focus on all those other countries and pushing for divestment, pushing for sanctions, pushing for boycotts of countries all around the world, just in the same way that the South African apartheid movement ended up pushing for.”

Buttu concluded: “I want to see that Israel is being sanctioned around the world. And I want to see that Israel is being isolated around the world, as well.”

Buttu reiterated this stance in an article, published on the same day, in which she stated, that the international community “must impose sanctions on Israel for continuing to defy international law.”

On February 22, 2016, Buttu signed a petition that conflated feminism with anti-Zionism, and advocated for feminists to join in the BDS movement.

In an interview conducted on October 14, 2015, Buttu stated: “If the world is genuine in its belief that all people should live in freedom, it should support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.”

Buttu published an article in September 2011, in which she outlined her support for BDS and compared the movement to that employed against Apartheid South Africa.

In 2010, Buttu participated in a Apartheid Forum, sponsored by Australians for Palestine, entitled “Apartheid and Boycotts.”

At the event, Buttu advocated for BDS and spoke about “the apartheid conditions faced by Palestinians, not only under Israeli occupation but also in Israel itself.”

In an article published on May 27, 2017, Buttu suggested that “the Palestinian Authority served as a subcontractor for the occupying Israeli military.”

On March 16, 2017, Buttu tweeted: “Of course it is #Apartheid. We didn't need the UN to tell us that! #ApartheidIsrael”

In a tweet published on February 15, 2017, Buttu wrote: “Israel wants apartheid. Palestinians want freedom and equality.”

In an article published for Electronic Intifada on March 18, 2008, Buttu stated that Israeli law “smacks of Jim Crow and apartheid.”

On September 27, 2016, Buttu tweeted that “For Peres, ‘peace’ meant bombing civilians, stealing land, ethnic cleansing and building settlements. #WarCriminal.”

In an interview, published on October 14, 2015, Buttu described terrorists as “defenseless Palestinians who have been accused or suspected of attacking Israelis.”

Buttu participated in the 2016 Dream Defenders (DD) trip, meeting with its members alongside BDS co-founder, Omar Barghouti.

DD has led several delegations to Israel where they met with anti-Israel groups and individuals, including militants from the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

In March of 2012, Harvard hosted a conference titled “The One-State Conference: Israel/Palestine and the One State Solution” — whose subject was the dissolution of Israel as a Jewish state.

Buttu was a featured speaker in the conference.

Buttu expressed support for a 2017 Palestinian prisoner hunger strike, led by convicted terrorist Marwan Barghouti.

On May 4, 2017, Buttu sent out a tweet with a link to a statement made by Barghouti with the hashtag, “#dignitystrike.”

On May 8. 2017, Buttu tweeted: “Gandhi's longest hunger strike lasted 21 days. Palestinians are on their 22nd day without food. We have 1600 Gandhis. #dignitystrike.”

On May 25, 2017, Buttu again tweeted her support for the hunger strike, stating that “#DignityStrike40 1800 Palestinians starving themselves just to be imprisoned - yes imprisoned - with dignity.”