Margaret Olin
Overview
Margaret Olin [Margaret Rose Olin] has shown support for terrorists, promoted incitement and demonized Israel.Olin has been an activist with the anti-Israel organization, Ta’ayush, since 2014. The group describes itself as “Israelis & Palestinians striving together to end the Israeli occupation.”
Olin posts anti-Israel articles and photographs of her activism with Ta’ayush to her personal website, touchingphotographs.com.
As of December 2022, Olin was listed as one of the “Exhibiting Artists” at the Palestine Museum US in Woodbridge, Connecticut.
As of the same date, Olin’s Twitter bio said she was a “scholar of visual culture, visual theory, material religion, art history, especially history of art history, photographer, activist, and sometime curator.”
Also as of December 2022, Olin’s LinkedIn page said she was Senior Research Scholar at Yale University (Yale) since 2009. Her LinkedIn also said she was Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) since 1986. At the same time, Olin’s Facebook page said she was “Former Professor” at SAIC and a “Senior lecturer Emeritus” at Yale.
Olin received her Ph.D. in History of Culture from the University of Chicago (UChicago) in 1982. She also graduated from UChicago with a master’s degree in Art History in 1977, and graduated from UChicago with a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature in 1968.
As of December 2022, Olin was located in New Haven, Connecticut.
As of December 2022, Olin was located in New Haven, Connecticut.
Supporting Terrorists (PFLP, Hamas, Fatah)
As of December 2022, Olin had published a series of her photographs on her website under the title: “Marking Time: Photographs from Dheisheh Refugee Camp. 2014-ongoing.” Olin’s post featured photos of murals honoring multiple terrorists, including deceased terrorist leaders like Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
Olin wrote: “They are martyrs of Dheisheh and martyrs of Palestine, deceased cultural and political leaders and revolutionary figures from abroad. Some are on posters; others on small stencils: red for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), green for Hamas, black for Fatah.”
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Hamas and Fatah’s armed wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, are all listed as foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) by the United States Department of State. They have all carried out terror attacks against Israeli civilians, including suicide bombings during the second intifada.
Olin’s photographs featured murals honoring Yassin [image 4, far right], Fatah leader Yasser Arafat [image 4, far left], PFLP founder George Habash [image 4, middle], PFLP leader Abu Ali Mustafa [image 4, first from right, and image 10]. Other murals of “martyrs” featured the PFLP [image 2] and Fatah [image 7] logos. Olin wrote: “What is it to be Palestinian? What it is to be a martyr? Who is worthy of commemoration?”
On May 18, 2022, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven published an article about Olin’s exhibit at Yale that featured the same photos from Dheisheh.
The article said: “In a handout that accompanies the show, Olin explains that these are canonical figures in the liberation movement. There is Wadie Haddad, a hijacking strategist and former leader Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who died of cancer in Germany in 1978. Close by is PFLP hijacker Leila Khaled, still living today…”
Wadie Haddad was the leader of the military wing of the PFLP. Haddad coordinated the1972 Lod Airport massacre and organized a number of airplane hijackings, including the 1976 Entebbe plane hijacking.
Leila Khaled is a leading member 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 [00:36:07] for the use of children in terror activities and compared Zionists to Nazis.
Promoting Incitement
On May 22, 2021, Olin posted to Instagram photos from an anti-Israel protest in New Haven, held one day after the end of Israel’s Operation Guardian of the Walls (OGW) against Hamas. Olin wrote: “Earlier today #freepalestine #savesheikhjarrah.”In May of 2021, a property dispute in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah erupted into violence in anticipation of an Israel High Court hearing that was expected to rule on eviction proceedings. The dispute involved over 70 Palestinian tenants illegally residing in Jewish-owned properties. On May 9, 2021, the court postponed the hearing.
The Sheikh Jarrah dispute sparked violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
Incitement surrounding Al Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers on May 10-21, 2021. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes against the terrorists and their infrastructure in Gaza.
The Sheikh Jarrah dispute sparked violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces in and around the Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount.
Incitement surrounding Al Aqsa and Sheikh Jarrah were leading factors in Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists firing over 4,300 rockets from Gaza at Israeli population centers on May 10-21, 2021. Israel responded by launching OGW, carrying out targeted military strikes against the terrorists and their infrastructure in Gaza.
On January 26, 2019, Olin posted to Facebook: “Expulsions are looming again in Sheikh Jarrah, and demonstrations are expanding again, too. Read David Shulman’s text, with photographs by David and other activists, Guy Butavia and Amir Bitan…”
Also on that day, Olin published an article by Shulman on her personal website that said: “There are some 1200 Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, and every last one of them is slated for eviction. These things take time. Not even the present government can just cleanse the neighborhood of people whose crime is not to be Jews. The courts have to make it kosher.”
The article continued: “From stolen house to stolen house to the house of many stories waiting to be stolen, we walk the walk through Sheikh Jarrah. Maybe the weekly demonstration is picking up speed. Today there were some 250 of us, possibly double last week’s count.”
Olin’s tweet linked to an article she posted to her website, written by David Shulman, which demonized Israeli soldiers who have been escorting Palestinian children in the South Hebron Hills from Tuba to their school in At-Tuwani daily, since 2004.
On May 15, 2021, Olin posted to Instagram pictures of an anti-Israel rally during OGW in Hartford, Connecticut. Protesters [slide 1] held signs reading: “Stop The Massacre of Palestine” and “Occupation Is A Crime - End Apartheid Now.” Olin wrote on her post: “Emergency Protest for Palestine. #nakbaday…”
Also on that day, Olin published an article by Shulman on her personal website that said: “There are some 1200 Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, and every last one of them is slated for eviction. These things take time. Not even the present government can just cleanse the neighborhood of people whose crime is not to be Jews. The courts have to make it kosher.”
The article continued: “From stolen house to stolen house to the house of many stories waiting to be stolen, we walk the walk through Sheikh Jarrah. Maybe the weekly demonstration is picking up speed. Today there were some 250 of us, possibly double last week’s count.”
Demonizing Israel
On February 6, 2022, Olin tweeted: “The daily challenge of getting to school under [Israeli] occupation is the subject of this vignette by David Shulman (text) and Margaret Olin (photographs)...”Olin’s tweet linked to an article she posted to her website, written by David Shulman, which demonized Israeli soldiers who have been escorting Palestinian children in the South Hebron Hills from Tuba to their school in At-Tuwani daily, since 2004.
On May 15, 2021, Olin posted to Instagram pictures of an anti-Israel rally during OGW in Hartford, Connecticut. Protesters [slide 1] held signs reading: “Stop The Massacre of Palestine” and “Occupation Is A Crime - End Apartheid Now.” Olin wrote on her post: “Emergency Protest for Palestine. #nakbaday…”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
On September 25, 2018, Olin published on her personal website an article by Shulman which said: “The master race of the Jews, that is, members of the tribe in good standing, nationalist and religious Jews, not leftists, have free access [to the grazing land], and inferior Palestinians have none.”
The article also said: “This government of the settlers, by the settlers, and for the settlers has a tripartite plan. First, colonizing the territory and stealing the land. Second, slow ethnic cleansing by whatever means are at hand: denial of water, demolitions, arrests, threats, terror, physical violence. Third, annexation.”
On June 10, 2020, Olin tweeted, asking fellow faculty members in Jewish Studies to sign a “Letter Against Annexation & Apartheid in Israel.”
On July 13, 2015, Olin posted to Facebook: “As you’ll read here, accompanied by my photographs, the situation in Susiya, on the front line of the [Israeli] settlement land grab, is now urgent. Please look…”
Olin’s tweet linked to an article written by David Shulman posted to her website, which read: “For nearly five decades, the Occupation has poisoned us all with its lunatic bureaucracy, its violent settlers and soldiers, its delight in stealing land, its innate racism, its pervasive rule of terror.”
The article also said: “This government of the settlers, by the settlers, and for the settlers has a tripartite plan. First, colonizing the territory and stealing the land. Second, slow ethnic cleansing by whatever means are at hand: denial of water, demolitions, arrests, threats, terror, physical violence. Third, annexation.”
On June 10, 2020, Olin tweeted, asking fellow faculty members in Jewish Studies to sign a “Letter Against Annexation & Apartheid in Israel.”
On July 13, 2015, Olin posted to Facebook: “As you’ll read here, accompanied by my photographs, the situation in Susiya, on the front line of the [Israeli] settlement land grab, is now urgent. Please look…”
Olin’s tweet linked to an article written by David Shulman posted to her website, which read: “For nearly five decades, the Occupation has poisoned us all with its lunatic bureaucracy, its violent settlers and soldiers, its delight in stealing land, its innate racism, its pervasive rule of terror.”
On August 6, 2014, during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas, Olin published an article on her website, where she wrote: “For the record, I find that civilian deaths rather than photographs of them are doing a good job of discrediting the army and the Israeli government, but I do hope that the photographs help to put an end to this war…I am sorry if the photographs also help Hamas.”
Throughout the summer of 2014 — during OPE — Hamas's deployment of human shields was documented and publicized. Hamas encouraged Gazans to act as human shields, to specifically frustrate Israeli efforts to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza. Israel commenced OPE in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/margaret.olinTwitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/margaretolin/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/molin48/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaret-olin-88526733/
Personal Website: https://touchingphotographs.com/
- Status:
- Professor
- University:
- Yale,
- more...
- Organizations:
- Ta’ayush
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 05/04/2026
Photos & Screenshots
33 images
Infamous Quotes
“They are martyrs of Dheisheh and martyrs of Palestine, deceased cultural and political leaders and revolutionary figures from abroad. Some are on posters; others on small stencils: red for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), green for Hamas, black for Fatah.”
