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Robert Vitalis
Robert Vitalis is a professor who promoted Hamas on Facebook and spoke at a pro-Hamas rally in October 2023. Both incidents happened after a series of Hamas terror attacks and war crimes against Israeli civilians that left over 1,400 dead, hundreds kidnapped and thousands wounded. Israel retaliated with a war called “Swords of Iron.”
Vitalis was affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) student group Fossil Free Penn when it signed a statement in support of the Hamas war crimes in October 2023.
Vitalis has also spread hatred of Israel and is a supporter [p. 7] of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of October 2023, Vitalis was a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn).
As of the same date, Vitalis’s LinkedIn profile said he was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
On October 23, 2023, during Israel’s Swords of Iron against Hamas, Vitalis showed support for Hamas on Facebook. He posted a photo of a patch with the logo of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.
Vitalis wrote in his post: “A quick and easy way to reduce my friends list (and it will look cool on your jacket too).”
Image for Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania, Promoting the Hamas Terror Group
On October 16, 2023, Vitalis spoke at a pro-Hamas event on the Penn campus.
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.”
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 has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S., Canada, European Union, Israel and other countries. Founded in 1987, it has killed thousands of Israeli civilians through mass shootings and suicide bombings. Hamas has also kidnapped children, families and the elderly and held them hostage in Gaza. It has desecrated [slide 7] dead bodies and launched numerous rocket attacks against Israeli civilians.
Vitalis was also affiliated with Fossil Free Penn when it signed a statement in support of the Hamas war crimes in October 2023. The statement was dated October 11, 2023, and on October 24, 2023, his Facebook profile photo showed him wearing a Fossil Free Penn sweatshirt.
On October 11, 2023, the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) anti-Israel group Penn Students Against the Occupation of Palestine (PAO) authored a statement in support of Hamas titled: “Statement of Solidarity with Palestine.” Four other groups co-signed the statement, which praised [slide 2] Hamas as “the Palestinian resistance.” The statement described [slide 4] Hamas’s war crimes against Israeli civilians, such as mass murder, torture, rape, beheadings and kidnappings, as “resistance efforts.”
The statement began [slide 2]: “We, the undersigned, write this statement in support of Palestinians who are fighting to liberate their lands from the Israeli Occupation.” The statement also said [slide 2] the groups “unequivocally condemn” Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hamas, asserted [slide 5] that Palestinians had the “right to resist” Israel “by any means necessary” and claimed [slide 4]: “Israel bears sole responsibility for the violence” since Hamas invaded Israel.
On October 15, 2023, during Israel’s Swords of Iron against Hamas, Vitalis updated his Facebook cover photo to an image that said: “Nakba since 1948.”
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by drawing a comparison to the Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, meaning “catastrophe.”
In November 2014, Vitalis spoke at a panel at Penn that characterized Israel as a “Liberal Settler State” and accused Israel of “colonization” and of maintaining a “colonial regime” through a “draconian military government.”
On July 31, 2014, Vitalis signed his name to an open letter addressed to then-United States President Barack Obama demanding that Obama withdraw all aid to Israel. The letter was authored and signed by American historians and it accused Israel of “war crimes” and demanded “a permanent end to the blockade” of Gaza.
Israel and Egypt implemented a UN-approved [pp. 39–41] joint blockade of the Gaza Strip in 2011 to stop Hamas terrorists from acquiring more sophisticated rockets. During Israel's 2023-2025 war against Hamas, Hamas went around the blockade by smuggling weaponry through tunnels under the Philadelphi corridor separating Gaza from Egypt.
The open letter that Vitalis signed was during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge (OPE) against Hamas.
Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge (OPE) in July 2014, to stop rocket fire targeting Israeli civilians and to destroy Hamas attack tunnels.
In March 2011, Vitalis signed his name to a petition titled: “Divest from Israeli Occupation.” The petition was authored by the anti-Israel group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by pro-terror activist Omar Barghouti in 2005 to turn “Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.” Barghouti has also called for Israel's destruction and the BDS movement demands would result in that same goal.
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 infiltrating university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments propose resolutions to boycott or divestment from Israel or Israeli-affiliated entities. 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 and pro-terror activism on campus.
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