Margo Natalie Crawford

On October 16, 2023, Crawford spoke at a rally and walkout held at Penn in support of Hamas terrorist war crimes, titled: “Collective Walkout for Palestine.”

Date: October 16, 2023

Organizers: Penn Against the Occupation (PAO)

Location: Van Pelt Library at Penn, Philadelphia, PA

Event Flyer: Instagram

On October 16, 2023, Penn professors and students staged a “walkout” in support of the Hamas terror attack against Israel nine days earlier. The aim of the event was to “protest the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and stand in solidarity with Palestine.”

The protest, which was organized by Penn Against the Occupation (PAO), was titled: “Collective Walkout for Palestine,” where participants walked out of classes to the on-campus rally.

One professor led [00:00:03] the chant: “When people are occupied, resistance is justified!” Palestinians and anti-Israel activists often use the term “resistance” as a euphemism for nationalistic terror and to glorify anti-Semitic violence.

Another professor claimed [00:00:07] Israel “desecrates the memory of the Nazi Holocaust,” and at least one speaker accused [00:00:48] Israel of “genocide.”

The rally took place one day after Penn president Liz Magill issued a statement in which she wrote: “I, and this University, are horrified by and condemn Hamas’s terrorist assault on Israel and their violent atrocities against civilians. There is no justification—none—for these heinous attacks, which have consumed the region and are inciting violence in other parts of the world.”

The Daily Pennsylvanian, the Penn student newspaper, reported that Crawford “spoke at the event, sharing that 25 faculty members across 12 departments signed a joint letter to Magill on Sunday that condemned the University’s response to the ongoing violence in the region.”

At the rally, Crawford applauded [00:01:02] fellow Penn professor Eve Troutt Powell who said [00:00:30]: “You cannot write a statement that shows you have only been listening to some trustees and alums. You cannot write a statement and assume that there’s no protection for all of us on this campus. This is the University of Pennsylvania. This is our university, too!”

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.

On October 18, 2023, Crawford participated in an anti-Israel rally held that day at Penn.

On October 18, 2023, Penn Against The Occupation (PAO) staged a “Vigil & Walkout For Gaza” at Penn to mourn Palestinian “martyrs.” The walkout featured speakers who accused Israel of committing “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing.” Protesters yelled [00:01:28] “shame!!” when the first speaker said some American leaders noted Israel “had a right to respond” to the Hamas terror attacks a week and a half earlier.

Protesters joined in pro-terror chants [00:41:43]: “There is only one solution! Intifada, revolution!” and [00:42:11] “Where people are occupied, resistance is justified!” They also chanted [00:42:36]: “Free, free Palestine!” Other speakers glorified [00:26:19] “martyrs” as models for “revolution” and “Palestinian liberation.” One speaker recited [00:31:16] a Hebrew prayer used to memorialize Jews murdered during periods of anti-Semitic violence in Europe, applying the prayer to the dead in Gaza.

Crawford retweeted a November 12, 2023 tweet that read: “If your scholarship is about the evils of white complicity and silence in the face of white supremacy and Naziism and you are silent right now, then you are manifesting the evils you write about.”

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.

On November 1, 2023, Crawford tweeted: “Rehearing Said on his birthday: ‘For the Israelis, there’s always this tendency to think of us as aliens ... what the Israelis are now doing on the West Bank and Gaza is really repeating the experience of apartheid and what the United States did to the Native Americans.’”

Crawford retweeted an October 31, 2023 tweet that read: “Anyone who believes that Israel is waging a ‘war against Hamas’ is a damned fool or a liar. This is the extermination of the Palestinian people, made possible by the U.S. and Europe.”

Crawford retweeted an October 19, 2023 tweet that read: “FROM COLOMBIA TO PALESTINE MAY ALL COLONIZERS FAIL MAY ZIONISM FALL.”

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.

One way that anti-Israel activists spread antisemitism is by claiming that Jews have no connection to the Land of Israel.

Crawford retweeted an October 12, 2023 tweet that read: “I guess Black folks in the U.S. don't remember or never knew that one of the major supporters of apartheid in South Africa was the Israeli state. White supremacy has always been at the core of the settler project in Israel.”

The tweet linked to a Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) statement that read: “We say that a colonized people have a right to resist occupation and fight for self-determination by any means necessary!” The statement also said: “The Black Alliance for Peace condemns the barbarism of the illegal zionist settler-colonial, apartheid state. We fully support the Palestinian people’s right to fight against occupation, and we defend Palestinian calls for decolonization and their right to self-determination.”

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.

Crawford retweeted an October 9, 2023 tweet that read: “We live in an upside down world where the oppressed are seen as the oppressors, where the colonizers are seen as the victims, where dispossession is seen as progress, where imperialist projects of death & destruction are seen as bringing peace and democracy to people.”

Crawford retweeted an October 8, 2023 tweet that read: “People will ask us to pay attention to the ways in which Hamas’s sporadic violence is problematic, rather than notice the daily acts of violence that all Palestinians are subjected to under Zionist occupation.”

10/16/2023 - Speaking at a Pro-Hamas Rally

10/18/2023 - Speaking at a Pro-Terror Anti-Israel Rally

Hatred of Israel

Social Media and Weblinks