A U.S.-based pro-Palestinian group is preparing to host two men with documented ties to designated terrorist organizations for an October 24 discussion about the upcoming American and Israeli elections, including a convicted terrorist released from Israeli prison in the 2025 Hamas hostage deal.

The People’s Center for Palestine (PCP), an organization involved in political education, activist training, and children’s summer camps, has invited Hossam Shaheen, a former leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades convicted in Israel of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, and Sami Al-Arian, a former American professor who pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

The October 24 webinar, titled “Palestine & the 2026 Elections: Forces, Stakes, and Possibilities,” will examine American support for Israel, electoral developments, and their implications for the pro-Palestinian movement in the United States.

Neither speaker’s terrorism-related history is disclosed in the event’s promotional material, which presents Shaheen as a Palestinian political analyst and Al-Arian as a Palestinian thinker now residing in Turkey after four decades in the United States.

A Convicted Terrorist Released in the Hamas Hostage Deal

Shaheen, whose full name is Hossam Zuhdi Dawoud Shaheen, was a senior figure in Fatah’s armed Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada.

According to a September 2025 Jerusalem Post investigation, Shaheen established an Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades cell in the Jerusalem area, recruited operatives, and supplied weapons for attacks. He was arrested in Ramallah in January 2004 and sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

His leadership role was also acknowledged in an August 2026 Arabic-language biography published by the Vision Center for Political Development, which identifies him as having become one of the leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades during the Second Intifada.

Shaheen was released on February 1, 2025, after approximately 21 years in Israeli custody, as part of the prisoner exchange accompanying the ceasefire and hostage release agreement between Israel and Hamas.

Months later, he appeared remotely at the August 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine in Detroit, participating in a session titled “The Palestinian Struggle Behind Bars.”

His appearance had already generated controversy before the conference. In an August 21 letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Michigan Republican lawmakers highlighted Shaheen’s criminal history and urged scrutiny of international speakers associated with terrorist organizations.

The Jerusalem Post subsequently confirmed that Shaheen spoke remotely at the gathering, despite his panel being absent from the conference’s official video archive. The connection is particularly significant because PCP was itself among the organizations involved in convening the 2025 conference, alongside the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), the People’s Forum, and other activist groups.

Sami Al-Arian’s Palestinian Islamic Jihad Conviction

The second speaker, Sami Al-Arian, is a former University of South Florida professor who was prosecuted in one of the most prominent American terrorism-financing cases of the 2000s.

In April 2006, Al-Arian pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide services to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization responsible for attacks against Israeli civilians.

He was sentenced to 57 months in prison. At sentencing, federal Judge James Moody described him as a “master manipulator” and a “leader of the PIJ,” according to the Justice Department. Al-Arian had previously been acquitted on eight charges, with jurors deadlocked on others, before his guilty plea resolved the remaining prosecution.

The Organization Behind the Webinar

PCP describes itself on its website as a resource and organizing institution dedicated to strengthening the Palestinian movement in the diaspora.

The center also states:

“Through resources and programming ranging from educational sessions to summer camps and conferences, we build capacity for the Palestinian liberation struggle and solidarity movement.”

Its activities reflect that objective. PCP has developed political-education programs, organizer-training initiatives, publishing projects, and children’s summer camps while participating in larger American pro-Palestinian coalitions.

Several members of PCP’s leadership have documented backgrounds in the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM). Operations and communications manager Jenan Awaida, education director Danya Al-Saleh, and publications editor Kaleem Hawa have all been publicly identified as PYM organizers. Its board president, Hatem Al-Mohtasib, is a co-founder of San Diego’s Majdal Arab Community Center.

PCP accepts public contributions through Givebutter, although its broader financial structure remains unclear.

Promotion of Literature By of Convicted PFLP Terrorists

PCP’s educational and publishing activities also intersect with the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and promotion of pro-terror literature.

As Jewish Onliner previously reported, the organization sponsored a panel at the September 2026 Socialism Conference in Chicago, organized by Haymarket Books.

The session, titled “Palestinian Revolutionary Thought and the Prisoners’ Movement,” featured three PCP personnel, Jenan Awaida, Danya Al-Saleh, and Ribhi Hussein, and explored the writings of figures including Ahmad Qatamesh and Walid Daqqa.

Qatamesh has been accused by Israeli authorities of holding leadership roles in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), another U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Daqqa was convicted for his involvement in the 1984 kidnapping and murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam.

PCP has also announced a publishing collaboration with Monthly Review Press to translate Daqqa’s novel The Ticket Seller into English, with plans to distribute the book through political movements, universities, and bookstores.

Its educational materials feature Ghassan Kanafani, a founding figure and former spokesperson of the PFLP, including in promotional material for its Winter School for Palestine Organizing.

Children’s Summer Camp Workbook Features Images of Armed Terrorists and Activist Training

One of PCP’s more concerning initiatives is “Camp Palestine”, a summer program developed with Southern California-based Sawa SoCal for Palestinian children and teenagers aged 7 to 18.

According to the center’s camp website, the organizations began developing the initiative in 2024 and held their second annual camp in 2026.

An examination of three workbooks published by PCP reveals that the program’s curriculum extends beyond Palestinian history, geography, and cultural identity.

The 40-page high-school workbook, intended for participants aged 14–17, includes a lesson titled “Palestinian Organizing in Exile and Under Occupation.”

On page 24, teenagers are instructed to fill out a chart identifying organizations discussed during a lecture. Directly beneath the exercise are two photographs depicting armed Palestinian terrorists carrying rifles and other weapons.

Later sections move explicitly into contemporary political organizing.

Page 33 asks students how Palestinian youth in the United States can contribute to the Palestinian struggle today. The following page introduces concepts including political power, strategy, and tactics, listing walkouts, divestment campaigns, encampments, coalition-building, protests, and strikes as examples of student organizing.

Students are subsequently asked to consider how to expand their influence, identify potential supporters, select tactics, and determine which actions to undertake first.

Near the workbook’s conclusion, a page features a photograph and message attributed to Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike in August 2025. The Israeli military identified al-Sharif as a Hamas operative who led a terrorist cell involved in advancing rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. The IDF said intelligence recovered in Gaza, including personnel rosters, training records, phone directories, and payroll documents, established his membership and operational role within Hamas.

The final page asks teenagers to sign a personal commitment to continue learning and using their newly acquired knowledge “in service of Palestine.”

The Big Picture

Its October 24 webinar now brings two figures with documented histories involving U.S.-designated terrorist organizations into a discussion of American elections: a former Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leader convicted of violent offenses and a former professor whom a federal judge identified as a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Neither man’s terrorism-related background is disclosed in the event’s promotional materials.

Leaked British Home Office documents identify UK-based Muslim news outlet 5Pillars as one of the country’s “higher-profile Islamist extremist groups” operating on X, according to an October 16 report by journalist Steven Edginton. The assessment emerged months after the outlet secured interviews with Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney and senior Green Party politicians.

According to Edginton, the Home Office’s Research, Information and Communications Unit (RICU) classified 5Pillars as “of Islamist Extremist Concern.” It accused the outlet and associated journalists of downplaying the March arson attack on four Jewish ambulances outside a synagogue in London’s Golders Green neighborhood, “emphasising the lack of fatalities and implying Islamophobic bias” in reactions to the attack. The assessment reportedly examined the social-media activity of editor-in-chief Roshan Muhammed Salih and correspondent Robert Carter.

In February, 5Pillars interviewed Green Party leader Zack Polanski, deputy leader Mothin Ali and parliamentary candidate Hannah Spencer. The party later deleted an X post promoting the interview after Jewish News questioned the association. A spokesperson said the politicians had spoken with people seeking interviews at a campaign event. Swinney was interviewed in June, Edginton reported.

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The scrutiny predates the leak. Lord Walney’s May 2024 independent review described 5Pillars as a British Islamist outlet and cited allegations that it supported a caliphate, Sharia penal codes and physical jihad, alongside intimidation of liberal Muslim activists, drawing on a 2017 analysis by counter-extremism campaigner Sara Khan.

Journalists’ Links to U.S.-Sanctioned Press TV

Salih previously served as head of news at the London operation of Iran’s Press TV, according to his biography. UK records show he controls at least 75% of 5Pillars Media Ltd’s shares and voting rights. In a 2009 Guardian article, he declared, “I stand by Press TV,” calling Iran’s government “a fundamentally decent government run by a fundamentally decent man.” Another senior 5Pillars journalist, Robert Carter, was identified as a Press TV journalist in a 2021 letter published by 5Pillars.

British regulator Ofcom fined Press TV £100,000 in 2011 over an interview with imprisoned journalist Maziar Bahari obtained under duress and revoked its UK licence in 2012 over the location of editorial control. In 2023, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned the broadcaster, citing its forced-confession broadcasts and use by Iranian intelligence to recruit sensitive assets.

Jewish Onliner recently documented Sovereign Media founder Ahmed Kaballo’s own Press TV background. A November 2017 Iranian report, citing Press TV’s public relations department, named Kaballo and Salih as co-producers of The Big Conversation, a weekly London-produced program for the Iranian broadcaster.

Other Iranian state-media operations in Britain are facing renewed scrutiny. On October 15, The National reported that Conservative shadow Home Office minister Alicia Kearns had referred the UK arm of Iran’s HispanTV to police over alleged violations of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme. Its director, Seyedmehdi Mirtaleb, previously worked at Press TV in London.

Years of Featuring Hizb ut-Tahrir Officials

5Pillars repeatedly featured Abdul Wahid, also known as Wahid Shaida, a former UK executive chairman of Hizb ut-Tahrir, which Britain proscribed as a terrorist organization in January 2024. Dilly Hussain, the deputy editor of 5Pillars, interviewed Wahid in 2013 about the Arab Spring and an Islamic caliphate. Hussain interviewed Wahid again in April 2020 on “COVID-19 panic in Muslim communities.“ A May 2023 column identified his Hizb ut-Tahrir leadership.

In November 2023, Hizb ut-Tahrir itself reported that Wahid spoke at a 5Pillars Muslim unity event and promoted the address with #ArmiesToAqsa. In August 2026, more than two years after proscription, 5Pillars republished a Wahid article, describing him only as a Muslim activist, without mentioning his former Hizb ut-Tahrir leadership.

The outlet also hosted a November 2015 forum attended by more than 240 people, featuring Hizb ut-Tahrir representative Taji Mustafa and CAGE’s Moazzam Begg. As Jewish Onliner previously reported, a 2003 U.S. military assessment described Begg as a “confirmed member of al-Qaida” and alleged he had instructed recruits at an al-Qaeda-supported training camp. Salih separately interviewed senior Muslim Brotherhood official Essam el-Erian in Cairo in 2013. In December 2024, Hussain attended a media briefing with Syria’s Ahmed al-Sharaa, who previously led al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate, alongside journalists from other international outlets.

Interviewee Named in Terrorism Cases

During a November 2024 visit to Bangladesh, Hussain interviewed Asif Adnan, discussing his past terrorism charges. Police had arrested Adnan in 2014 over alleged links to Ansarullah Bangla Team, a jihadist group associated with al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent. A 2015 charge sheet, examined by The Daily Star, alleged a militant recruiter planned to send him through Turkey to Syria. In July 2025, Bangladesh’s Anti-Terrorism Unit named Adnan among six suspects in a separate case involving alleged Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan ties.

Regulator Found Discriminatory Content

Press regulator Impress issued two adverse findings against 5Pillars in 2024. In May, it found a Blood Brothers interview with far-right activist Mark Collett breached its discrimination code. In November, it upheld a Community Security Trust complaint over an interview with former Britain First deputy leader Jayda Fransen, finding that antisemitic conspiracy claims had aired without sufficient challenge.

The complete leaked RICU documents, including the evidence and methodology behind its assessment, have not been publicly released.

A new Jewish Onliner investigation has documented extensive connections between Sovereign Media, a Nairobi-based socialist news outlet, and Iran’s state-media apparatus. They run through the founder’s career at Press TV, journalists associated with both organizations, articles republished directly from Iranian state broadcasting, and a British corporate structure dedicated to building an international anti-imperialist media coalition while obfuscating the outlet’s Iranian ties.

The full report can be accessed at this link. Below is an abridged version.

Key Findings

• Iranian state-media connections: Sovereign Media founder Ahmed Kaballo spent years at Iran’s Press TV in London, eventually joining the leadership of its UK office. At least five other Sovereign-associated journalists have documented professional links to Press TV or its sister broadcaster HispanTV.

• Press TV propaganda republished: Sovereign published at least three articles credited to Press TV, including material defending Tehran’s account of its crackdown on anti-regime unrest and its military confrontation with the United States. The outlet also publishes content denying the atrocities of October 7th.

• British corporate infrastructure: Kaballo controls a UK-registered company called “Sovereignty Media Group” whose founding documents propose building the “largest global coalition of anti-imperialist media” and institutions serving socialist political movements.

• Funding network: Sovereign acknowledges funding from the Babochki Collective, co-founded by James “Fergie” Chambers, who was arrested in Spain amid U.S. allegations involving money laundering and material support for Hamas.

The Founder: Ties to Sanctioned Iranian & Russian Media

Founder Ahmed Kaballo worked at Press TV in London from 2016 to 2022, according to his biography published by Iran’s Sobh International Media Festival. Kaballo has said he rose through the broadcaster’s ranks to become part of its UK leadership. After establishing African Stream, he received a special award from the IRIB-organized Sobh festival in May 2024. Later that year, the U.S. State Department determined that African Stream was “secretly run by RT,” Russia’s state broadcaster.

Press TV is the English-language arm of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Press TV in September 2023, stating that it aired forced confessions and had been used by Iranian intelligence services to recruit sensitive assets, including Americans. Britain revoked the broadcaster’s UK license in 2012 after determining that editorial control rested in Tehran.

Press TV & Sovereign Media’s Shared Journalists

Sovereign’s ties to Iranian broadcasting extend beyond its founder. Press TV identified Shabbir Rizvi as a Sovereign Media journalist. In a March 2026 essay, Rizvi called for “total uncritical solidarity with the Islamic Republic.” Sovereign has also republished his articles originally credited to Press TV.

An October 2025 Sovereign dispatch identified Naqaa Hamed as its reporter. Press TV and the Committee to Protect Journalists have identified her as a Press TV West Bank correspondent. In Lebanon, Sovereign called Hadi Hoteit its journalist; the International Federation of Journalists identified him as a Press TV correspondent.

Camila Escalante’s biography lists reporting for both Sovereign and Press TV, where she began working in Latin America in 2021. Alejandro Kirk appears on Sovereign through a Press TV republication and was identified by Sovereign as a senior correspondent for HispanTV, IRIB’s Spanish-language broadcaster.

Iranian Content Under the Sovereign Banner

Jewish Onliner identified three articles on Sovereign’s website expressly credited to Press TV. In January 2026, Sovereign republished Rizvi’s depiction of anti-regime unrest in Iran as “foreign-backed deadly riots,” disputing reporting about civilian deaths and abuses by Iranian security forces. Another republication in March accused American media of hiding U.S. military failures while depicting Tehran as negotiating from a position of strength. A November 2025 article on Venezuela carried Kirk’s Press TV credit.

The contrast with Sovereign’s editorial rules is striking. Its submission guidelines reject material promoting “imperialist regime-change narratives” and restrict reliance on sources it classifies as Western state-affiliated. Yet commentary from the Islamic Republic’s sanctioned state broadcaster appears under Sovereign’s own banner.

Sovereign’s editorial choices extend to highly skewed coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. An August 2026 article republished from Venezuelanalysis dismissed accounts of mass rape during the Hamas-led October 7 attacks as a “debunked mass rape hoax” and characterized statements about the rape and the burning of Israeli families as a “blood libel.”

A British Company and a Political Mission

Sovereign calls itself Nairobi-based, but Kaballo has an extensive British corporate footprint. Companies House records identify him as the sole director and sole active person with significant control of Sovereignty Media Group, incorporated in May 2025.

Its founding documents call for an international platform, the “largest global coalition of anti-imperialist media,” and media institutions suited to “the aims of the socialist struggle.” The documents also envision equipping political movements with tools to pursue imperialism’s “final defeat.”

Similarly, Sovereign Media’s website describes its mission as building an “infrastructure of resistance,” providing training, social-media expertise and “strategic messaging kits” to coalition partners. The project explicitly states its aim to shape political narratives through a coordinated international network of outlets.

Sovereign Media’s Stripe donation page displays the name “Sovereign Media Group,” nearly identical to Kaballo’s UK-registered “Sovereignty Media Group.”

Sovereign has publicly acknowledged funding from the Babochki Collective. Its co-founder, James “Fergie” Chambers, was arrested in Spain in July 2026 in a U.S. extradition case involving allegations of money laundering and material support for Hamas. Chambers contests those allegations. Sovereign subsequently published an article opposing his extradition, ending with “Free Fergie Chambers.” A People’s Congress delegate roster also listed Kaballo under Sovereign Media and Rizvi under the Babochki Collective.

UANI Calls for Investigation Into State-Backed Influence

Responding to Jewish Onliner’s findings, Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, called for scrutiny of Iranian state-media activity in Britain and the use of UK corporate registrations for foreign influence operations.

An Iranian Psyop in the Heart of Britain

What emerges is a transnational media project hostile to Western influence and deeply intertwined with Iran’s state-media ecosystem. Its founder spent years inside Press TV’s London operation, multiple associated journalists have worked for Iranian broadcasters, its website redistributes Press TV articles, and its publishing choices advance narratives defending Tehran and its allies.

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Those ties sit alongside British corporate documents explicitly dedicated to building a global anti-imperialist media coalition and creating institutions serving socialist political movements — all while masking its Iranian ties.

Jewish Onliner reached out to Sovereign Media for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

Jewish Onliner reached out to UK Companies House for comment. A representative referred Jewish Onliner to generic pages about sanctions on the Companies House site.

The New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA) is organizing a mass meeting on October 17 to expand a campaign recruiting airport workers and labor unions to halt weapons shipments to Israel through John F. Kennedy International Airport, targeting a critical transportation hub for American defense exports.

The gathering, scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Fifteenth Street Friends Meeting House in Manhattan, is organized by Break the Chain alongside NYC-DSA’s Labor and Anti-War working groups. Participating organizations will be asked to formally endorse the campaign, join airport leafleting activities, and recruit workers into organizing circles.

The initiative goes beyond demonstrations calling for an American arms embargo. Its organizers are seeking to enlist employees involved in transporting military equipment to refuse shipments themselves, while building political pressure against the companies responsible for moving weapons and defense technology to Israel.

Break the Chain has already developed a database identifying 39 companies involved in regional defense manufacturing and cargo transportation, secured support from labor organizations, and established relationships with New York political figures.

From Socialist Organizing to an Airport Campaign

Break the Chain was established in June 2025 by NYC-DSA’s Anti-War Working Group, following research by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) documenting the movement of military cargo through New York-area transportation facilities.

The initiative is part of DSA’s national Labor for an Arms Embargo campaign, which launched in May 2025 and aligned itself with PYM’s Mask Off Maersk initiative and Progressive International’s No Harbor for Genocide campaign.

The connection between DSA and PYM extends to joint research and organizing strategy. In August 2025, DSA’s Democratic Left published an article coauthored by PYM organizers Kaleem Hawa and Lea Kayali alongside Abdullah Farooq, a founding member of DSA’s national arms-embargo campaign.

In September 2026, DSA, PYM, People’s Embargo for Palestine, and the Movement Research Unit jointly reported identifying 2,761 shipments to Israeli defense manufacturers aboard United Airlines passenger flights between July 2025 and February 2026, primarily through Newark Liberty International Airport. Researchers examined the contents of a sample of 546 shipments.

The campaign’s ambitions extend well beyond stopping the export of rifles or ammunition.

In a September 10 article for DSA’s Socialist Forum, organizer Sammy Z described the objective as ending all military trade with Israel, including not only weapons and aircraft components but also intelligence, research, software, and technical knowledge.

Sammy argued that workers could accomplish what political campaigns directed at Congress have failed to achieve, describing how cargo handlers, pilots, truck drivers, and mechanics could collectively refuse to facilitate military deliveries.

The position directly challenges the longstanding American defense partnership with Israel. Under a 2016 agreement, the United States committed $38 billion in security assistance over ten years, including funding for missile-defense cooperation. Break the Chain seeks to interrupt the transportation networks supporting that relationship, regardless of whether Washington formally adopts an embargo.

Recruiting Workers to Refuse Military Cargo

A detailed organizing toolkit published by Break the Chain outlines the campaign’s workplace strategy.

The document calls on supporters to recruit coworkers, establish workplace committees, map union leadership structures, circulate petitions, and pass resolutions supporting the refusal to manufacture or transport military equipment to Israel.

Its airport-specific guide addresses cargo handlers, flight attendants, ticket agents, maintenance employees, and other aviation workers. It also provides a petition template collecting workers’ names, contact information, employers, airport locations, and departments.

The toolkit proposes that participating union locals each appoint two representatives to a Break the Chain Union Organizing Committee, responsible for coordinating with other unions and organizing efforts supporting the refusal of military cargo.

The document even imagines air traffic controllers preventing explosives from reaching runways and cargo handlers refusing to load shipments.

In September, Break the Chain organizer Bassel Al-Khalili told The Indypendent that activists had distributed materials to airport workers every Sunday for much of the preceding year and were working closely with dozens of JFK employees.

The campaign’s endorsement page lists 16 labor, community, and activist organizations that have formally endorsed its objectives or adopted relevant resolutions.

Among them are Labor for Palestine, UAW Labor for Palestine, CWA for Palestine, No Tech for Apartheid, Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM), Jewish Voice for Peace–NYC, AROC Action, NYC Educators for Palestine, and CUNY Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine.

Three United Auto Workers locals have adopted arms-embargo resolutions: the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys, UAW Local 2325; the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW Local 2320; and Student Workers of Columbia, UAW Local 2710.

CWA for Palestine, a rank-and-file network that includes aviation workers, has also condemned United Airlines’ transportation of military equipment to Israel.

Mapping the Supply Chain

Break the Chain has assembled a publicly accessible database of 39 companies with documented roles in defense manufacturing or the transportation of military equipment across the New York–New Jersey region.

Eight entries are associated with JFK Airport. Companies identified include Challenge Airlines, Kalitta Air, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, DHL Global Forwarding, JAS Forwarding, Elbit Systems, and IMI Systems.

The database draws on investigative reporting, government contracts, shipping records, and corporate disclosures. It encompasses airlines and freight forwarders alongside manufacturers producing military equipment and components.

The campaign’s demands call on workers to refuse to manufacture or transport weapons and dual-use technology destined for Israel, halt relevant military trade and production, and boycott companies involved in the defense industry.

Its demands also extend to military manufacturing at facilities such as the Brooklyn Navy Yard, bringing the campaign into industries beyond commercial aviation.

Political Support and Pressure on New York Airlines

The campaign has also developed connections with elected officials and Democratic candidates seeking to influence state transportation policy.

On September 23, NYC-DSA announced a press conference at JFK listing State Senator Jabari Brisport, State Senate nominee Aber Kawas, and State Assembly nominee David Orkin alongside DRUM, Jewish Voice for Peace, Rockaway for Palestine, and Common Defense.

According to a September 4 report, Brisport has been building support for a proposed initiative called Not in Our Skies, which would use airline subsidies to pressure carriers and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to restrict shipments of military equipment.

Break the Chain campaign chair Ethan Eblaghie described the proposal as a means of leveraging state policy to pressure the airlines and the Port Authority.

Kawas publicly endorsed the campaign in a September 24 opinion article for City & State New York, urging state officials to intervene in military transportation through New York’s airports.

The political activity follows Break the Chain’s elevation to priority-campaign status within NYC-DSA in July, after receiving approximately 90 percent support in a chapter vote, according to The Indypendent. That designation gave the initiative representation on the chapter’s Socialists in Office Committee, which coordinates relationships with elected officials.

The October 17 meeting will bring together the campaign’s labor and activist partners to expand an effort aimed at stopping American military exports to Israel through worker-led refusals, corporate pressure, and state-level political intervention.

Its organizers are seeking more than a symbolic boycott. They are attempting to build a coalition capable of interfering with the movement of defense equipment and technology through one of America’s busiest international airports, using workers themselves to accomplish an embargo that the federal government has not enacted.

A Toronto-based pro-Palestinian activist group is organizing a Wikipedia editing workshop on October 22, inviting participants to create “Wikipedia entries honouring martyred Palestinian artists and exposing the Canadian, Zionist backers of genocide,” months after hosting a similar event targeting an Israeli-linked philanthropic organization.

Artists Against Artwashing (AAA), operating through its Stop Artwashing Instagram account, advertised the upcoming “Free Palestine Wiki Edit-a-Thon” for 6 to 8:30 p.m. in downtown Toronto, with the precise location provided to registered participants. The evening will feature Palestinian short films, introductory Wikipedia training and hands-on editing.

The group explicitly frames the workshop as an effort to reshape the online narrative about Israel, declaring that the initiative seeks to counter attempts to conceal what it calls the “Imperialist perpetrators” of Israel’s actions in Gaza. Its announcement states that the event aims to remedy the narrative “towards Palestinian liberation,” directly linking the proposed Wikipedia contributions to the organizers’ political objectives.

The initiative follows an earlier Wikipedia editing workshop organized by the same collective in April, which specifically targeted articles associated with the Azrieli Foundation. An examination of Wikipedia’s revision history identified a controversial addition to the Azrieli Group article during that workshop, including an inaccurate claim about the ownership of an Israeli company. The material was subsequently largely removed following objections concerning neutrality and sourcing.

Previous Wikipedia Workshop Coincided With Disputed Edits

On April 28, 2026, Artists Against Artwashing organized a Wikipedia edit-a-thon at Gallery TPW in Toronto, alongside a program of Palestinian short films. The workshop specifically encouraged participants to modify Wikipedia pages connected to the Azrieli Foundation, a Canadian philanthropic organization with family and financial connections to Israel’s Azrieli Group.

The registration announcement portrayed the foundation as the charitable counterpart of Israel’s largest real estate company. Participants were invited to edit relevant Wikipedia entries as part of the collective’s broader campaign pressuring Canadian arts institutions to sever relationships with the foundation.

An examination of Wikipedia’s public revision history identified an addition to the Azrieli Group article at 7:30 p.m. Toronto time on April 28, precisely when the advertised editing workshop was scheduled to conclude.

On May 1, another Wikipedia editor removed 1,404 bytes of material, citing undue emphasis, insufficient reliable sourcing and violations of Wikipedia’s neutral-point-of-view policy. Additional material concerning the company was introduced and challenged during May, including a May 10 reversion citing repeated biographical-policy violations and biased content, followed by another substantial removal on May 30 over inappropriate sources.

The Activists Behind the Campaign

Artists Against Artwashing belongs to Toronto’s broader No Arms in the Arts coalition. Other coalition participants include Film Workers for Palestine, CanLit Responds, Writers Against the War on Gaza’s Toronto chapter and Musicians Against Artwashing. Among the collective’s publicly identified representatives are curator Mitra Fakhrashrafi, spokesperson Vince Rozario and activist Karina Iskandarsjah.

The organization has a history of disruptive protest actions targeting Canadian cultural institutions. In November 2024, its members interrupted the Toronto Arts Foundation’s annual fundraising gala, including a speech by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, to protest the foundation’s relationship with the Azrieli Foundation.

Film Contributors’ Connections to Pro-Palestinian Activism

The October 22 event announcement identifies two Palestinian artists, Ibrahim Abusitta and Maysam Khreibeh, as contributors to the evening’s short-film program.

Khreibeh, also known as Maysam Abu Khreibeh, was previously identified by the Mayworks Festival as an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Toronto chapter. In November 2023, she participated in the disruption of Canada’s Giller Prize literary awards ceremony over its sponsorship by Scotiabank, which held investments in Israeli defense manufacturer Elbit Systems. According to The Breach, Khreibeh entered the ceremony posing as a photographer, transmitted footage of the protest to the Palestinian Youth Movement and later joined protesters onstage.

Abusitta, meanwhile, created an artwork titled Operations, a hand-drawn animation based on footage of a Palestinian terrorist approaching an Israeli military vehicle. In a published interview with The Ex-Puritan, he described repeatedly watching combat footage distributed by Resistance News Network (RNN), a channel that the Anti-Defamation League has documented circulating propaganda from Hamas, the PFLP and other designated terrorist organizations.

Abusitta described watching the footage while hoping for successful Palestinian terror attacks and said the material inspired him to create artwork honoring “resistance fighters.”

The Push to Shape Wikipedia’s Narrative

The October event appears to represent a deliberate effort by Artists Against Artwashing to shape Wikipedia’s coverage of Israel and its Canadian supporters in line with the group’s political objectives. Its stated intention to “remedy the narrative”, alongside its earlier workshop targeting the Azrieli Foundation, suggests an organized attempt to advance a particular political perspective on a platform intended to provide neutral, fact-based information. While such workshops do not inherently violate Wikipedia’s rules, the initiative raises concerns about the potential for coordinated advocacy campaigns to influence content that readers expect to be impartial.

The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement will host a European conference in Barcelona on November 18–20 featuring former Malaysian lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar, who attended a 2013 meeting with Hamas representatives, and U.S.-sanctioned UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, who previously addressed a conference attended by Hamas officials. Another announced speaker, British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah, was photographed alongside PFLP member Leila Khaled and delivered a graveside tribute to veteran PFLP figure Maher al-Yamani.

The event will also feature Massive Attack musician Robert Del Naja, who was arrested twice in 2026 while demonstrating support for Palestine Action, an organization proscribed under British counterterrorism law.

The BDS@20 Europe Conference is organized by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) and the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), alongside 15 European co-organizing organizations. Two organizations listed as conference partners have documented connections to Saif Abukeshek, whom the U.S. Treasury sanctioned in May 2026 over his leadership role in an organization it identified as Hamas-directed.

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The BNC itself lists the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine (PNIF) among its members. The PNIF is an umbrella coalition that has historically included representatives of Hamas, the PFLP, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

Nurul Izzah Anwar Attended a 2013 Meeting With Hamas Representatives

Another announced speaker, former Malaysian parliamentarian Nurul Izzah Anwar, participated in a February 1, 2013 meeting involving senior Hamas representatives at the headquarters of Malaysia’s People’s Justice Party (PKR). A Malaysia Chronicle report identified Nurul Izzah among the politicians assisting her father, then-opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, during the meeting.

The Hamas delegation included Walid al-Moudi, identified as a member of the organization’s political bureau, and Ahmad al-Kurd, a former social affairs minister in the Hamas administration in Gaza. A separate account attributed to the party’s own publication, Keadilan Daily, reported that Nurul Izzah attended the gathering alongside senior PKR figures.

Conference Partners Connected to U.S.-Sanctioned Flotilla Organizer

The conference’s European organizing network includes two organizations with documented relationships to Saif Abukeshek, a Barcelona-based pro-Palestinian activist sanctioned by the United States earlier this year. On May 19, 2026, the U.S. Treasury designated Abukeshek under counterterrorism authorities for serving on the General Secretariat of the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA). Treasury described the PCPA as an organization established with funding from Hamas’s International Relations Bureau and directed through Hamas officials placed within its leadership. The designation also identified Abukeshek as a member of the steering committee of the Global Sumud Flotilla.

Comunitat Palestina de Catalunya also has documented ties to Abukeshek. A June 8, 2024 Catalunya Ràdio program identified him as the organization’s spokesperson. In December 2024, the University of Lleida also identified Abukeshek as a member of the organization when reporting on his participation in a panel discussion alongside Palestinian lawyer Raji Sourani.

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According to a 1995 article in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Sourani served a three-year prison sentence after an Israeli court convicted him of membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

A second connection involves the European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine, whose logo appears among the conference’s publicly listed supporters. A January 2026 Doha Institute publication describes Abukeshek as a board member of the network, a position also listed in his biography published by the Global Movement to Gaza. The relationship is further documented in a May 2026 trade-union statement identifying him as an active member of the European network.

Musician Arrested Twice Over Support for UK-Proscribed Terrorist Organization

Robert Del Naja, a founding member of British electronic music group Massive Attack and another announced conference speaker, was arrested twice in 2026 during demonstrations supporting Palestine Action. On April 11, Del Naja was arrested at London’s Trafalgar Square after displaying a sign declaring, “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action.” He was arrested again on September 26 outside the Labour Party conference in Liverpool after displaying a similar sign.

According to NME, police detained him on suspicion of showing support for a proscribed organization under the Terrorism Act 2000. Palestine Action was proscribed by the British government in July 2025.

Francesca Albanese’s U.S. Sanctions and Hamas-Linked Conference Appearance

Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was restored to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Specially Designated Nationals list on May 27, 2026. The United States originally sanctioned her in July 2025 under an executive order concerning the International Criminal Court, accusing her of supporting efforts to pursue ICC action against American and Israeli officials and companies. .

Her participation in the Barcelona conference follows an earlier appearance at a Hamas-linked event. In November 2022, Albanese spoke by video at a Gaza conference organized by the Council on International Relations–Palestine, whose chairman, Basem Naim, is a member of Hamas’s political leadership. According to UN Watch, participants included Hamas officials Ghazi Hamad and Abdul Latif al-Qanou, alongside PIJ figures Ahmad al-Mudallal and Khadr Habib. Addressing the conference, Albanese stated, “You have a right to resist this occupation.”

Ghassan Abu-Sittah’s PFLP Associations and 2018 Article

Abu-Sittah, another scheduled speaker, has previously faced scrutiny over appearances alongside PFLP figures and comments concerning Palestinian militants. Investigative journalist David Collier highlighted a photograph showing Abu-Sittah alongside Leila Khaled, a longtime PFLP member who participated in an aircraft hijacking in 1969 and an attempted hijacking in 1970. The Jewish Chronicle also documented Abu-Sittah delivering an emotional graveside tribute in Beirut in 2020 to Maher al-Yamani, a veteran PFLP figure who had worked in the organization’s special operations apparatus.

In a March 2018 article published by Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar, Abu-Sittah referred to Ahmad Nasr Jarrar as the “hero of the Nablus operation.” Jarrar was a Hamas operative identified by Israel’s Shin Bet as the suspected leader of the cell that murdered Rabbi Raziel Shevach, a father of six, in January 2018. Hamas subsequently praised Jarrar following his death in an Israeli military operation.

Closed-Door Workshops to Coordinate European BDS Campaigns

According to the conference’s official program, the gathering will take place at Casino l’Aliança del Poblenou, an 800-capacity venue in Barcelona. The November 18 opening will be accessible to the public and accredited journalists, while the November 19–20 proceedings will feature strategy workshops that are not open to the press.

Workshops will address maritime supply-chain campaigns under the #BlockTheBoat banner, university boycotts, trade-union organizing, divestment campaigns, corporate accountability, technology and artificial intelligence, and procurement policies affecting public institutions. The closed-door workshops are intended to develop the movement’s next phase of coordinated campaigns across European institutions, governments, industries, and civil society organizations.

A previously unreported social media post by Eman Abdelhadi, the half-sister of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, states that their mother participated in Muslim Brotherhood activism while attending college in the early 1970s, adding a new dimension to questions about the candidate’s family background following his public denial of ties to the transnational Islamist organization.

The post, published on June 24, 2012, was identified by Jewish Onliner while examining social media activity discussed in the October 11 investigation by the Washington Free Beacon.

In the newly identified statement, Abdelhadi, now an assistant professor of comparative human development at the University of Chicago, wrote:

Abdelhadi and El-Sayed share the same biological mother, Fatten Fathy Elkomy, whose background has already become a subject of scrutiny during the Michigan Senate race. Unlike Abdelhadi's broader references to her family's Muslim Brotherhood connections, the newly identified post specifically attributes Brotherhood activism to Elkomy, the mother she shares with El-Sayed.

The wording also suggests that Abdelhadi viewed her mother’s involvement favorably, appending the hashtag “#respect” to the statement.

The post does not specify the nature of Elkomy’s activism, whether she held formal membership in the Brotherhood, or how long her reported involvement lasted.

New Finding Builds on Free Beacon Investigation

The discovery follows an October 11 report by the Washington Free Beacon, which identified several previously overlooked social media posts in which Abdelhadi discussed her family’s connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.

In a now-deleted June 24, 2012 post, Abdelhadi wrote, “My family has long been MB,” using the common abbreviation for the organization.

In another statement from July 2013, she wrote that her family members had been jailed for their involvement in the Brotherhood, while expressing concern for relatives supporting the organization during Egypt’s political turmoil.

The posts appeared during a turbulent period in Egyptian politics, spanning the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power following Mohamed Morsi’s election as president in June 2012 and his removal by the military in July 2013.

El-Sayed Denied Family Ties on Meet the Press

The findings by Jewish Onliner and the Washington Free Beacon followed El-Sayed’s October 11 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, where moderator Kristen Welker pressed the Democratic Senate nominee about his family’s alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

The issue had surfaced during an October 8 Senate debate, when his Republican opponent, former congressman Mike Rogers, repeatedly raised questions about El-Sayed’s family connections to organizations associated with the Brotherhood.

Asked directly by Welker whether he or his family had any ties to the organization, El-Sayed responded with a categorical “No.”

El-Sayed maintained his denial throughout the exchange, characterizing Rogers’ accusations as an effort to exploit his Muslim identity for political purposes.

“The only reason he said those things is because he really wanted to repeat the word Muslim,” El-Sayed told Welker.

Mother's Employment at Relief Organization Sanctioned in 2004

Elkomy had previously attracted scrutiny over her employment with the Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency (IARA-USA). According to an August 2026 investigation by The Midwesterner, she worked for the organization from 1999 through at least 2004. On October 13, 2004, the Treasury Department designated IARA’s worldwide network and five senior officials under counterterrorism sanctions, citing support for Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the Taliban.

Elkomy was not charged with a crime in connection with the organization, and her employment there does not, by itself, establish knowledge of or participation in its illicit activities.

New Evidence Shifts Focus to El-Sayed’s Mother

The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in Egypt in 1928 and subsequently developed into a transnational Islamist movement. Hamas, established in 1987, emerged from its Palestinian branch. On January 13, 2026, the United States designated three Muslim Brotherhood branches as terrorist organizations.

The Treasury Department designated the Egyptian and Jordanian branches as Specially Designated Global Terrorists for providing material support to Hamas, while the State Department designated the Lebanese branch as both a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

Abdelhadi’s account places her mother’s reported Muslim Brotherhood activism in the early 1970s, more than five decades before the United States designated the movement’s Egyptian branch under terrorism sanctions. Her 2012 statement also stands in contrast to El-Sayed’s categorical denial that his family had any ties to the organization.

South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, renewing attention to her record as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and her subsequent leadership of a UN commission investigating Israel. Among her previous statements was an October 2023 interview, conducted just three weeks after Hamas’s massacre in Israel, in which she described Palestinians as being “forced to resort to armed struggle.”

UN Watch and other critics have highlighted Pillay’s controversial statements concerning Israel, her defense of a UN commissioner accused of making antisemitic remarks, and allegations that her former office provided Chinese authorities with information about human rights activists.

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Contacts With PFLP-Linked Figures and Organizations Later Sanctioned by Washington

Pillay’s earlier interactions with pro-Palestinian organizations have attracted attention following subsequent U.S. sanctions. In February 2013, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) announced that Jaber Wishah, its deputy director for branch affairs, was scheduled to meet Pillay and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Wishah had previously held a senior position in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

A December 1985 report in the Israeli newspaper Maariv, documented by NGO Monitor, identified Wishah as the head of the PFLP’s military wing in Gaza. According to that reporting, he was convicted by an Israeli court of offenses including attempted murder of an Israeli soldier, bomb-related offenses, weapons possession, conspiracy to commit murder, and holding a leadership position in a terrorist organization. A September 1999 interview in the Arabic-language newspaper Al Bayan likewise described Wishah as having been responsible for the PFLP’s military apparatus. He subsequently held senior positions at PCHR.

In September 2013, PCHR and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), then headed by Pillay, co-organized a seminar in Khan Yunis. According to PCHR, Wishah opened the event alongside Saber al-Nairab, an OHCHR human rights officer. The event brought together 34 participants representing 15 local organizations, alongside political activists and independent figures.

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In September 2025, the U.S. State Department sanctioned PCHR alongside Al-Haq and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights over their involvement in International Criminal Court proceedings targeting Israeli nationals without Israel’s consent. The sanctions were imposed under an executive order concerning the ICC.

A separate encounter involved Addameer, a pro-Palestinian prisoner advocacy organization. According to Addameer’s own 2011 report, its representatives participated in a meeting with Pillay during her visit to Ramallah in February 2011. In June 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Addameer, stating that it had long supported and was affiliated with the PFLP. Treasury designated the organization for acting on behalf of the terrorist group.

Whistleblower Allegations Involving China

Another controversy concerns allegations from former UN human rights officer Emma Reilly that Pillay’s office provided Chinese authorities with advance information about individuals intending to raise human rights concerns at UN meetings. Reilly first reported the practice internally in 2013, during Pillay’s tenure. In a 2017 account, the Government Accountability Project described how Reilly had learned that UN officials were providing Chinese authorities with the names of dissidents expected to participate in Human Rights Council proceedings.

A subsequent investigation by Devex reported that names were provided to Chinese officials despite Reilly’s objections. The UN maintained that the individuals had already publicly disclosed plans to attend and that precautions had been taken to protect them. Reilly continued to challenge the practice and alleged that her efforts to expose it resulted in retaliation. Following Pillay’s Nobel announcement, Reilly renewed her allegations, publishing what she described as internal correspondence documenting disclosures made during Pillay’s leadership. She accused the UN human rights office of endangering dissidents and their families.

Pillay also faced criticism in 2010 for not attending the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese democracy advocate Liu Xiaobo. Her absence attracted attention as Beijing pressured governments and international representatives to boycott the ceremony.

Defense of a UN Commissioner’s Remarks About a “Jewish Lobby”

In 2022, Pillay defended fellow UN commissioner Miloon Kothari following remarks concerning a supposed Jewish lobby and Israel’s membership in the United Nations. Kothari had referred to a “Jewish lobby” allegedly controlling social media and questioned why Israel was permitted to remain a UN member.

The controversy surrounding Pillay and the commission also reached Germany, where a planned event honoring her at Berlin City Hall was cancelled in September 2022 after then-Mayor Franziska Giffey withdrew her support following objections from Israeli officials.

Criticism of Silence on Authoritarian Abuses and Contacts With Iranian Officials

Pillay’s handling of human rights abuses under authoritarian regimes has also been the subject of criticism. A 2011 study by UN Watch examined her statements published on the UN website between September 2008 and June 2010 and found that she had issued no statements addressing the human rights situations in 146 countries, including 34 classified as “Not Free” by Freedom House. Among those countries were Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Belarus. The organization also found that nine of Pillay’s 21 country-specific statements concerning the Middle East and North Africa during that period focused on Israel.

The study further criticized Pillay’s response to Iran’s violent crackdown following the disputed June 2009 presidential election. According to UN Watch’s review, Pillay issued no dedicated public statement addressing the repression despite reports of arrests, beatings and killings of demonstrators. Her first public remarks on the crackdown came approximately three months later, during a broader address to the UN Human Rights Council.

In September 2013, Pillay met Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in New York. According to Iranian media reporting cited by Radio Farda, the discussions included possible human rights training workshops in Iran and an invitation for Pillay to visit the country. Zarif was subsequently sanctioned by the United States in 2019 for acting on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader.

At the April 2009 Durban Review Conference in Geneva, Pillay remained at the proceedings while European delegates walked out during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech attacking Israel.

Controversial Statements Regarding Charlie Hebdo

In September 2012, Pillay sharply criticized the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Her spokesperson, Rupert Colville, described the magazine’s decision as “doubly irresponsible” and characterized the cartoons as “malicious and deliberately provocative.” A UN briefing also relayed Pillay’s position that she “fully understands why people wish to protest strongly” against the cartoons, while specifying that protests should remain peaceful.

Pillay’s criticism came despite Charlie Hebdo having already suffered a firebomb attack against its offices in November 2011 following the publication of cartoons depicting Muhammad. Less than two and a half years after her remarks, on January 7, 2015, Islamist terrorists stormed the magazine’s Paris headquarters and murdered 12 people, including editor Stéphane Charbonnier and several prominent cartoonists. Following the massacre, UN Watch revisited Pillay’s earlier statements, criticizing UN officials for directing condemnation toward the magazine’s cartoons despite the threats and violence its journalists had faced.

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita opened investigations into National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) on October 7, 2026, demanding documents to determine whether the organizations qualify as affiliates of foreign terrorist organizations under Indiana law. The announcement came on the third anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 massacre.

In the parallel SJP inquiry, Rokita’s demand requires the group to describe its relationships with U.S.-sanctioned groups Samidoun and Masar Badil, and turn over related records.

The CAIR investigation, first reported on by Daily Signal reporter Tyler O’Neil, asks CAIR to “identify and describe all instances in which CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad has met with members or agents of members of the Muslim Brotherhood.” For each meeting, the attorney general seeks its location and date, the identities of those Awad met, the Muslim Brotherhood chapter or branch with which each person was affiliated, and the purpose of the meeting.

It also asks CAIR to identify any person or entity designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist organization with whom a CAIR employee or agent communicated, directly or indirectly, on behalf of CAIR.

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Records reviewed by Jewish Onliner document repeated meetings between Awad and figures linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, and a 2008 visit to Islamic Jihad financier Sami al-Arian.

Years of Meetings With IUMS Figures

Awad’s documented contacts with figures associated with the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) span nearly a decade.

In testimony submitted to an August 5, 2026 Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the Muslim Brotherhood, Arielle Klepach, senior litigation counsel at the National Jewish Advocacy Center, described IUMS as the Muslim Brotherhood’s “transnational scholarly authority” and said it maintains a close relationship with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

The U.S. Treasury Department designated the Egyptian branch as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity on January 13, 2026.

In December 2012, Awad appeared at a news conference in Qatar promoting Al-Noor Holding’s proposed film series about Muhammad. A report credited to Kuwait’s Al-Nahar identifies Awad, Yusuf al-Qaradawi and Tariq al-Suwaidan as speakers.

Qaradawi was then president of IUMS and was widely described as a spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Suwaidan headed Al-Noor’s advisory team. In 2013, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal dismissed Suwaidan from Al-Resalah television after saying Suwaidan had publicly identified himself as a Brotherhood leader.

A separate December 2012 account on Ali al-Qaradaghi’s website described a meeting between Qaradaghi and Awad. Qaradaghi was then IUMS secretary-general.

The account, published December 24, 2012, said Awad discussed providing political training, including instruction on how American policy decisions are made. It reported that the two sides agreed to continue exchanging expertise and strengthen academic ties between IUMS and CAIR.

Another documented meeting followed in 2016. A January 28 report, republishing an IUMS account, said Salman al-Ouda, identified as an IUMS board-of-trustees member, received Awad at his office north of Riyadh. The discussion reportedly concerned the circumstances and future of Muslims in the United States.

Six years later, Awad attended a May 26, 2022 dinner in Qatar with Abu Jarra Sultani, the former head of Algeria’s Movement of Society for Peace. An IUMS account says the dinner was hosted by Ali al-Qaradaghi for participants in the Doha interfaith dialogue conference and identifies Sultani as an IUMS member and president of the World Forum for Moderation. A 2007 UPI report described Sultani as the leader of Algeria’s Muslim Brothers, while the Brotherhood’s own Ikhwan Online described his party as “Algeria’s Movement of Society for Peace (the Muslim Brotherhood).”

Awad Visited PIJ Financier Sami al-Arian in Jail

On March 31, 2008, Awad visited Sami al-Arian at the Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Virginia, according to a news report republished on CAIR’s website the following day.

Al-Arian was then on hunger strike while being held for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury. Awad joined a delegation of Muslim organizations visiting him.

Two years earlier, al-Arian had pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ). According to the Justice Department, he admitted his association with PIJ and acknowledged performing services for the organization after he knew it had been designated a terrorist organization.

CAIR Records and the October 7 Remarks

AG Rokita’s CAIR demand also focuses on November 2023 remarks by executive director Nihad Awad, including his statement that he was “happy to see people breaking the siege” on October 7. It seeks speech drafts, preparation materials, media-response communications and records of any internal action following the controversy, the Daily Signal reported.

SJP Funding and Campus Messaging

Beyond its questions about Awad and CAIR, Indiana’s investigation also targets National Students for Justice in Palestine, seeking records on its funding, relationships and campus messaging. According to the Daily Signal, the SJP demand seeks the identities of those responsible for statements calling on students to “seize the university” and endorsing “the dismantlement of the Zionist entity.”

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The first phrase appears in National SJP’s April 20, 2024 statement launching its Popular University for Gaza campaign; the second appears in the editors’ letter in the January 2024 issue of The Written Resistance.

Rokita’s office said it is examining the organizations’ activities and communications after the massacre, including possible efforts to encourage anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment in the United States. It also seeks records concerning their relationships with other groups and individuals the office described as having known terrorist connections.

What Indiana Law Allows

The investigation is being conducted under Senate Enrolled Act 256, signed in March 2026 and effective July 1. The law allows Indiana’s attorney general to demand records when there is reasonable cause to believe an organization may be affiliated with a foreign terrorist organization.

Under the law, affiliation can include acting for or at the direction of a designated terrorist organization or providing it with material support. If Rokita concludes that an organization meets that standard, it has 30 days to respond before the case goes to the governor for a final designation decision.

A designation would carry concrete consequences, including the loss of state funding, contracts and tax benefits. Public universities, school districts and other state-funded institutions would also be barred from knowingly providing financial benefits to the organization.

Fadi Kafeety, the program manager of UC Berkeley’s Palestinian and Arab Studies Program, liked an Instagram post glorifying Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, praising Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif as the “masterminds” of a historic Palestinian victory, Jewish Onliner has discovered. The caption accompanying the Instagram post explicitly celebrated the Hamas-led attack:

Screenshots reviewed by Jewish Onliner show Kafeety’s Instagram account, @fadikafeety, among those who liked the post, published to commemorate the third anniversary of the Hamas-led attack that killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage.

His Instagram account separately shared a photograph of Palestinians standing atop an Israeli tank during the October 7 attack, accompanied by Arabic text which appeared to celebrate the “Palestinian resistance”.

Instagram Post Glorifying Hamas and October 7

The post, published collaboratively by Palaver Collective, Commie Central and Vox Ummah Media, explicitly celebrated the October 7 massacre as a Palestinian achievement.

Its caption called October 7 a “day of resistance” and a “day of Glory for Palestine.”

The opening slide identified Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif as the “masterminds” behind what it characterized as the greatest strategic reclamation of Palestinian land in more than a century. It credited the two men and other senior Hamas officials with planning a coordinated ground and aerial attack.

Another slide appeared to celebrate the attackers’ temporary seizure of more than 20 Israeli communities and 11 military sites, portraying the operation as a successful Palestinian uprising rather than acknowledging the killing, kidnapping and abuse of civilians.

The carousel further praised Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis, suggesting that their subsequent attacks against Israel represented one of the greatest achievements of Hamas’s October 7th attack.

The final slide presented a lengthy text as Yahya Sinwar’s “last will,” describing the attack as a collective Palestinian achievement. The purported testament depicted participation in the operation as a duty, celebrated “martyrdom” and framed the massacre as a new chapter in Palestinian liberation.

Kafeety’s Public Instagram Account

Kafeety’s Instagram biography explicitly identifies the profile as the “Public account of Fadi Kafeety” and lists his position as “Program Manager @PalStudiesUCB,” directly linking the account that liked the post to his official role at UC Berkeley. His biography also identifies him as a PhD researcher at the University of Houston.

Separately, Kafeety’s Instagram story displayed an October 7 photograph of Palestinians celebrating atop an Israeli tank near the Gaza border.

The accompanying Arabic statement translated to “History will tell how the Palestinian Resistance, despite its isolation, siege and betrayal, was able to destroy and dismantle the occupier’s dominance and prevent it.”

UC Berkeley’s Palestinian and Arab Studies Program

According to UC Berkeley’s official biography, Kafeety joined the university’s Palestinian and Arab Studies (PAS) Program as its inaugural program manager in summer 2025.

Kafeety’s official role is administrative, rather than faculty director. Established in September 2024, the program was created through a $3.25 million philanthropic gift.

These findings emerge immediately before the program’s first annual graduate student conference, The Question of Palestine Now, scheduled for October 9–10 at UC Berkeley which Kafeety personally promoted the conference on LinkedIn.

The conference’s keynote speaker is Professor Abdel Razzaq Takriti, whom the University of Houston identifies as one of Kafeety’s doctoral advisers. His keynote is titled “Did the Humanities Die in Gaza?”

Earlier Statements Regarding October 7

Kafeety’s Instagram activity follows earlier public remarks concerning Hamas and the October 7 attacks. In an October 7, 2024 interview with University of Houston historian Bob Buzzanco on the Green and Red Podcast, Kafeety characterized the Hamas-led assault as a form of prison break and appeared to defend the operation as an act of “Palestinian resistance.”

Discussing the Israeli villages and communities attacked that day, Kafeety described them as military installations rather than ordinary civilian communities.

“These settlements are military sites, they’re military bases, military occupation zones,” he stated, according to the interview transcript.

Kafeety also argued that Israel bore responsibility for placing civilians in these communities, specifically referring to women, children and elderly residents. He maintained that Israel endangered them by locating them inside what he characterized as military outposts.

The Bigger Picture

Hamas is a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Its October 7, 2023, attack on Israel killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in 251 people being taken hostage, marking the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. The Instagram post liked by Kafeety explicitly praised Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar and Mohammed Deif as the “masterminds” behind the attack.

Kafeety serves as program manager of UC Berkeley’s Palestinian and Arab Studies Program. His interaction with the post raises questions about the university’s standards governing employees’ public social media activity, particularly when that activity involves material celebrating the leaders of a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.

NAZA, the documentary film that won Venice’s Special Jury Prize in September, grew from a reporting network whose editors and writers have publicly advocated ending Zionism and rejecting Israel’s nature as a Jewish state, according to a new Jewish Onliner investigation.

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The documentary portrays Israeli military operations in Gaza as a system of “calculated mass killing.” Produced by The Guardian and JW Films, it draws on reporting published by +972 Magazine, Local Call and The Guardian between 2023 and 2025. These institutional connections place the film within an openly activist media network, parts of which pursue political goals extending far beyond the documentary’s stated focus on Israel’s military conduct in Gaza.

A Local Call Editor Explicitly Demanded an End to Zionism

One of the clearest statements came from Orly Noy, an editor at Local Call, the Hebrew-language publication whose reporting helped underpin NAZA. In a September 2025 essay published by +972, Noy wrote:

She demanded a process of “denazification” across Israeli society and rejected the country’s combined Jewish and democratic identity. Her position explicitly targeted Zionism itself, not simply the government in power.

The Guardian Published Calls for the “End of Zionism”

In an August 5, 2011 column, David Hearst, then a Guardian foreign editorial writer, envisioned “The end of Zionism, no less.”

An April 24, 2024 essay by Guardian US columnist Naomi Klein called Zionism a “false idol” and declared: “So tonight we say: it ends here.”

In July 2024, the newspaper published Ahmed Moor’s essay calling for the “end of Zionism.”

The newspaper’s involvement in NAZA went beyond commentary: it produced the film, drawing on reporting by The Guardian, +972 and Local Call.

Just Vision Connects the Network to Local Call and an Alleged PFLP-Linked Staffer

The network also runs through Just Vision, which co-founded Local Call with 972 Advancement of Citizen Journalism and continues to co-publish it. Just Vision says Local Call was created partly because Israeli media did not adequately cover what it calls “occupation and apartheid.”

Just Vision’s Gaza outreach associate, Fadi Abushammala (spelled Abu Shammala in some sources), has also been identified in French media sources as part of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). In 2014, French outlet Mediapart explicitly referred to Abushammala as a PFLP member. Because Just Vision co-publishes Local Call, whose reporting helped underpin NAZA, the allegation concerns an organization inside the network behind the film.

Just Vision, for its part, identifies Fadi Abushammala as its Gaza outreach associate and says he serves as executive director of Gaza’s General Union of Cultural Centers (GUCC). An April 20, 2009 post on the Red Eagle forum identified Abushammala as the Progressive Student Action Front’s representative at Al-Aqsa University. The PFLP’s own website later described that organization as its “student framework.”

Six months later, Palestinian outlet SAMA identified Abushammala as executive director of the Palestinian Progressive Youth Union. Palestinian news agency Safa later called the organization the PFLP’s “youth framework.” Abushammala’s LinkedIn profile lists him as executive director of the union from July 2009 through June 2010 and later as a GUCC project manager.

Jewish Onliner contacted Just Vision for comment on its Gaza outreach associate Fadi Abushammala’s alleged membership in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Radical Activism Disguised as “Documentary Filmmaking”

Parts of the network are also open about treating their journalism as activism. In an interview published by the Jewish Liberation Fund, +972 Magazine’s resource development manager, Dana Mills, stated that “our actual journalistic work is our activism.”

The magazine’s 2022 editorial statement similarly identified its founders as activist-journalists and committed to examining “Zionism as a settler-colonial project.” It also placed Palestinian refugees’ right of return among the political questions central to its coverage. The magazine presents those commitments as part of its journalistic approach, not as activities separate from it.

Co-Director Wanted the Film to Generate Sanctions

Yuval Abraham, a journalist at +972 Magazine and Local Call, and Rachel Szor — the directors of NAZA — connected the film directly to international political pressure in their September 10 AFP interview, ahead of its Venice premiere. After describing their hope that Western governments would withdraw support and impose sanctions, Abraham said that pressure was needed: “Those of us inside Israel and Palestine trying to fight for change, need it.”

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Abraham’s genocide accusation was already public before the documentary’s release. In an October 2025 essay, he described Israeli operations as “genocide” while discussing intelligence, artificial intelligence, targeting and civilian-casualty calculations. He also stated that his investigations had helped substantiate genocide allegations in international proceedings.

The Film’s Allegations Face Specific Factual Challenges

Beyond the network’s politics, the IDF’s detailed rebuttal debunks NAZA’s account of Israeli targeting practices.

In its October 1 response, the IDF denied the film’s claim that it approved a Gaza strike expected to kill approximately 500 civilians, saying it has never done so. It also rejected the portrayal of casualty thresholds as automatic permission to strike and said artificial intelligence neither independently designates targets nor authorizes attacks. The military stated that witnesses describing limited intelligence functions were presented as authorities on a much broader decision-making process.

A Times of Israel analysis identified apparent differences between Hebrew testimony and English subtitles and noted missing details needed to assess major allegations independently. Hundreds of Unit 8200 reservists also signed a petition asking commanders to investigate whether personnel from their unit actually participated in the film.

These factual disputes unfold against a documented political backdrop: a reporting network that openly mixes journalism with activism, influential figures who deny Israel’s right to exist, and directors who want Western sanctions imposed. The film’s political aim comes from its own makers, not from its critics. They have said publicly what kind of international pressure they wanted it to create.

Three years ago today, thousands of Hamas-led terrorists poured across Israel’s border by land, sea and air, attacking kibbutzim, towns and the Nova music festival. Approximately 1,200 people were murdered and 251 were taken hostage into Gaza. Families were killed inside their homes, young people were hunted at a music festival, and entire communities along Israel’s southern border were devastated. October 7 remains a day of mourning for Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

But three years later, organizations across North America and beyond are marking October 7 and the days surrounding it with a very different vocabulary: “armed resistance,” “martyrs,” “resistance until victory” and “three years of resistance.” Below is a sample of several groups and events using the anniversary of the Hamas massacre to glorify, valorize or reframe the “resistance” that began that day.

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Berkeley Law SJP Teaches the “Right to Armed Resistance”

At the University of California, Berkeley Law School, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) are advertising an October 7 “Palestine 101” teach-in focused on what its flyer called “the right to armed resistance and the self-determination of peoples under international law.”

The accompanying post describes October 7, 2023 as “the interruption of the settler colonial project” and said students would discuss “the right to resist.” The event is scheduled for the law school steps at 1 p.m. on the third anniversary of Hamas’s attack.

New York Groups Declare “Glory to the Martyrs”

At Columbia University, anti-Israel student groups are calling students to gather at the campus’s 116th Street gates on October 7 before joining a larger protest at New York City Hall.

Their flyer carries the English slogans “78+ Years of Resistance” and “3 Years of Genocide.” Across the bottom, Arabic text declares: “Glory to the martyrs, resistance until victory.”

The City Hall demonstration is promoted separately by CUNY Students for Justice in Palestine. Its now-deleted post opened with “Three years of genocide. Three years of resistance,” before declaring that October 7 marked three years since “resistance against imperialism changed the fate of our world forever.”

The rally is scheduled for 4 p.m. outside New York City Hall under the banner “Resisting Genocide Since 1948.”

University of Michigan “Commemoration of Our Martyrs”

At the University of Michigan, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality and the Muslim Students Assocation (MSA) are advertising an October 7 “Night of Remembrance” on the steps of Angell Hall.

The promotional graphic calls the gathering a “Commemoration of our Martyrs” and displayed photographs of Palestinians killed during the war.

Among them appear to be Al Jazeera journalists Anas al-Sharif and Hossam Shabat, both of whom the IDF has identified as Hamas terrorists based on documents recovered in Gaza. The IDF says al-Sharif was a company-level officer in the artillery company of Hamas’s Northern Gaza Brigade, while Shabat was an anti-tank operative in the Beit Hanoun Battalion. The IDF maintains individual files detailing its allegations and evidence.

The group’s caption says it will honor Palestinians from Gaza who were “martyred” and hold prayers in their memory.

Toronto Groups Advertise “Honour Our Martyrs” Vigil

In Canada, Toronto Students for Palestine and several other campus organizations are promoting an October 7 vigil at the University of Toronto under the headline “All Out to Honour Our Martyrs.”

Their post says the gathering will mark “three years of Palestinian resistance and steadfastness.”

The university subsequently told recognized student groups that the event will not proceed on campus because of safety and operational concerns, according to reporting citing a university spokesperson.

Washington Marks “3 Years of Resistance”

In Washington, D.C., the Palestinian Youth Movement and partner organizations are promoting an October 10 march beginning at the U.S. Capitol.

One poster advertises “3 Years of Resistance — The Living, the Martyrs, and the Land.” Another post says that for the last three years, the Washington-area community has stood “united in our resistance” and has “organized, protested, marched, and disrupted business as usual.”

The march is followed by a “community commemoration” featuring Palestinian National Initiative Secretary-General Mustafa Barghouti. Independent event listings confirm the Capitol rally and subsequent gathering.

Barghouti has previously described October 7 as an “explosion” he had expected because of conditions in Gaza. On October 7 itself, he described the massacre as a “glorious day of historical proportions.”

Chicago Promotes “3 Years of Resistance”

In Chicago, American Muslims for Palestine’s local chapter is promoting an October 10 “March for Palestine” at Water Tower alongside the Palestinian Youth Movement, U.S. Palestinian Community Network and other organizations.

The flyer declares: “3 Years of Genocide, 3 Years of Resistance.”

AMP is a major national pro-Palestinian advocacy organization and has also announced a nationwide “Month of Action” around the anniversary. Its own October 6 statement said chapters across the country would mobilize demonstrations.

A Global Mobilization With Hamas-Linked Figures

The anniversary actions stretch far beyond individual American campuses and cities.

The UK-based Global Alliance for Palestine announced a coordinated October 9–11 global mobilization, with October 10 serving as its main day of action under the slogan “End the Genocide, Defend the Land.” Campaign material reviewed for the initiative listed at least 168 organizations across more than 50 countries, while separate reporting cited in the material put participation above 200 organizations across more than 60 countries.

GAFP distributed ready-to-print campaign materials in multiple languages and listed participating organizations across the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and Latin America.

Its July launch included Zaher Birawi and Saif Abukishek. The U.S. Treasury designated the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad in January for acting for or on behalf of Hamas and designated Birawi for materially supporting the organization. OFAC later listed Abukishek as linked to the PCPA.

PalFest Puts PFLP Figure Over October 7 Imagery

The anniversary rhetoric has also entered the cultural sphere.

On October 7, the Palestine Festival of Literature promoted Ghassan Kanafani’s Palestinian Resistance Literature Under Occupation, 1948–1968 as its “book of the week.”

Its Instagram post placed the book cover over imagery of Palestinians breaching the Gaza-Israel border barrier on October 7.

Kanafani was not simply an author. He helped found the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, served on its political bureau and became its official spokesman. Palestinian biographical sources document his senior PFLP role.

Three Years On

Three years after Hamas terrorists crossed into Israel, murdered approximately 1,200 people and dragged 251 hostages into Gaza, the anniversary is again exposing how parts of the international anti-Israel movement remember October 7.

At Berkeley, it is the “right to armed resistance.” At Columbia, “glory to the martyrs.” In New York and Chicago, “three years of resistance.” In Washington, “the living, the martyrs, and the land.”

For the families and communities shattered on October 7, those three years began with a massacre. For these organizations, their own words tell a very different story.

Three years after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, Israel’s rebuilding effort is taking shape across housing, agriculture, employment, healthcare and immigration. Families are returning to devastated communities. Volunteers are helping farmers restore their fields. Hospitals and technology companies are developing rehabilitation tools. Jews abroad are choosing to build their future in Israel.

Returning Home and Building Again

The clearest regional evidence comes from the Gaza border communities. In its September 24 update, the government’s Tekuma Directorate reported approximately 66,000 residents, around 5,000 more than before October 7, and a return rate exceeding 90%.

The directorate oversees a multiyear rehabilitation and development plan of approximately NIS 17 billion. By the end of 2025, NIS 11.6 billion had been committed. That funding supports the conditions families need to return and remain, from housing to essential services.

Recovery proceeds at different speeds. September reporting documented 10 new housing units built and approximately 30 renovated in Nir Oz. Reconstruction budgets stood at NIS 232 million for Nir Oz, NIS 473 million for Be’eri and NIS 211 million for Kfar Aza.

At Nahal Oz, cooperation between the kibbutz, KKL-JNF, the Housing Ministry, Tekuma and Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council has produced new housing for incoming families. KKL-JNF announced the inauguration of six semi-detached residential buildings in September, with another four under construction. Its investment in the two neighborhoods totals approximately NIS 8.8 million.

Restoring Livelihoods and Community Life

Beyond construction sites, farmers and volunteers are sustaining the country’s recovery. In its 2025 report, Leket Israel recorded 120,000 volunteers, including 74,000 helping farmers harvest crops and rehabilitate fields. Approximately 700 farmers donated produce.

Across its annual operations, Leket distributed approximately 32,000 metric tons of agricultural produce and 2.24 million hot meals. This network connects agricultural recovery with support for families facing hardship.

Employment and functioning institutions are equally important. JDC’s October 1 recovery update reported career guidance and support for 19,500 evacuees, unemployed people, reservists and people wounded in the war, alongside assistance to 4,400 businesses, farms and factories in hard-hit regions.

The Kibbutz Movement Rehabilitation Fund separately reports supporting 56 communities and more than 50 recovery initiatives across northern and southern Israel, including local leadership and community development.

Helping People Recover Their Independence

Medical rehabilitation forms another part of the national effort. In December 2025, the Israel Innovation Authority, Health Ministry and Class Actions Foundation announced NIS 10 million for eight rehabilitation technology pilots.

Participating hospitals include Sheba, Soroka, Hadassah, Loewenstein and Reuth. Projects address mobility, hearing, speech, limb sensation and rehabilitation for amputees. These pilots seek to help wounded people regain independence and return to daily life.

New Arrivals and a New Generation

Aliyah is bringing additional families and skills into Israeli society. Ministry and Jewish Agency figures recorded more than 20,000 arrivals from over 100 countries between September 23, 2025, and September 3, 2026, including 414 doctors.

North American aliyah reached 4,150 arrivals in 2025, a four-year high. Rising applications prompted Nefesh B’Nefesh to expand staff and hold dozens of information and support events.

Renewal is also unfolding within survivor communities. The Nova Tribe Community’s “Born Together” program supports pregnancy, childbirth and parenthood. A 2026 report documented 120 baby grants distributed to survivors and bereaved families.

On this anniversary, those children, returning families and new homes give Israel’s rebuilding a human face. Communities carrying profound loss are creating places where another generation can grow, belong and build a future.

A new report published October 5, 2026, by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism documents how al-Qaeda has used the Hamas-led October 7 attack and the ensuing Gaza war to broaden its propaganda, praise Western university protests and turn Gaza into a source of strategic lessons for jihadists elsewhere.

The findings identify two developments with implications for Western security: al-Qaeda’s adoption of political language circulating beyond extremist circles and its leadership’s assessment of how the Gaza experience should inform future campaigns.

Written by Sergio Altuna Galán, From Gaza to Global Jihad examines official propaganda issued over the three years since October 7. It draws on the university’s TITAN Project, which compiles materials from the principal media arms of al-Qaeda and ISIS.

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The analysis focuses on al-Qaeda statements and essays attributed to its de facto leader, Sayf al-Adel, writing under the name Salem al-Sharif.

Praise for Western University Protests

In May 2024, al-Qaeda’s official al-Sahab media arm issued a statement praising Western demonstrators, specifically including students at Western universities. Al-Adel subsequently described a global awakening of young people as a consequence of Gaza and argued that the student movement could not be silenced.

Al-Qaeda also promoted boycotts of American, European, Israeli and other Western goods. Its messaging incorporated demonstrations and consumer campaigns alongside its established religious appeals.

Al-Adel treated protests differently depending on their location. In Muslim-majority societies, he urged demonstrators to move beyond protests toward broader political change. Western demonstrations received praise as part of the international response to Gaza.

October 7 Paired With September 11

Al-Qaeda incorporated October 7 into its messaging almost immediately after the attack. An October 2023 statement presented it as a major development in global jihad. By February 2025, a General Command statement explicitly paired September 11 and October 7 as celebrated achievements.

The report finds that al-Qaeda progressively detached the attack from Hamas’s organizational identity. Palestinian fighters were frequently described as mujahidin, allowing al-Qaeda to incorporate their actions into its own account of global jihad without resolving its ideological disagreements with Hamas.

Hamas leaders also received direct recognition in al-Qaeda propaganda. An October 2024 obituary described Yahya Sinwar as the “commander of the blessed Battle of al-Aqsa Flood,” while a February 2025 obituary placed Muhammad Deif within al-Qaeda’s narrative of jihad and sacrifice.

According to the report, al-Qaeda neither planned nor controlled the attack. It nevertheless claimed its ideological and strategic benefits, presenting a Hamas-led operation as an example for a wider jihadist audience.

Strategic Lessons for Future Campaigns

Al-Adel’s essays urged jihadists elsewhere to study the conflict and apply its lessons to future programs. His conclusions included multiplying fronts, prolonging attrition and exploiting the vulnerabilities of a materially superior adversary.

His assessment of hostage-taking changed during the war. Early propaganda treated captives as political and negotiating leverage. By July 2024, he argued that inflicting casualties should take precedence and that future hostage-taking should be limited because captives, he concluded, were not a weapon of deterrence.

The report identifies this shift as evidence of strategic reassessment. Al-Qaeda continued celebrating October 7 while reviewing whether particular components of the attack had produced the expected results.

Al-Adel also advanced a concept he called the armed Umma, or Muslim community. It envisioned military capacity distributed throughout society through weapons possession, stockpiling, local production, technical knowledge and specialized training.

In al-Adel’s model, an armed population would preserve military capacity under pressure, reinforce a political order considered legitimate and serve as a check against tyrannical rule.

Gaza’s local weapons production supplied one example. The report notes that the concept also drew on Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, the Islamic Maghreb and earlier jihadist thinking.

Liberation Rhetoric and Holocaust Denial

Al-Qaeda’s Gaza messaging incorporated international law, liberation, resistance, civilian suffering and allegations of Western double standards. Al-Adel portrayed Palestinian terrorists as a “popular liberation movement” and claimed, while invoking what he called an “International Court” ruling and United Nations law, that the October 7 attack was legally justified. These were assertions made in al-Qaeda propaganda, not legal conclusions endorsed by the report.

The author describes this development as narrative convergence without ideological convergence. Al-Qaeda adopted themes circulating in broader pro-Palestinian discourse while retaining its religious framework, hostility toward Muslim governments and explicit antisemitism.

Al-Adel’s writings included Holocaust denial and directed readers toward Holocaust deniers such as David Irving and Arthur Butz.

A June 2025 al-Sahab audiovisual production repackaged elements of his essays. Detailed discussions of societal militarization largely disappeared, while civilian suffering and alleged Western hypocrisy received greater emphasis. The report interprets the format as suited to a broader audience, particularly in the West.

ISIS took a different approach, criticizing Hamas’s nationalism, Muslim Brotherhood lineage and ties to Iran. Al-Qaeda made Gaza a sustained subject of strategic study and propaganda expansion.

The report documents al-Qaeda’s use of Gaza for both strategic instruction and broader political messaging. Its leadership has urged jihadists elsewhere to apply lessons from the conflict, while official propaganda has praised Western university demonstrations and promoted boycotts of American and European goods.

Four days after the third anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack, Jewish Currents will convene an all-day political and cultural gathering at the Brooklyn Academy of Music featuring Fadi Quran, a former official of Israeli-designated Al-Haq, and Muhammad Shehada, who previously held a senior position at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, an organization Israeli authorities have identified as a Hamas front group.

The BAM program also features political streamer Hasan Piker on a panel titled “Can the Left Wield Power?” Piker said during a 2019 livestream that “America deserved 9/11,” a remark he later walked back. In September 2026, he told Axios that he considered the United States worse than al-Qaeda “pound for pound” when comparing deaths caused by conduct he characterizes as terrorism.

The October 11 program includes sessions titled “Confronting Israel From Within,” “Judaism and Genocide,” “The Palestinian National Movement After The Destruction of Gaza,” and “Know Your Enemy Live: Neocons, the Far Center, and the Politics of Jewish Reaction.” A day earlier, Jewish Currents will hold a separate text study at 651 Arts titled “Complicity, Inclusion, and Purity in Jewish Left Politics.” The BAM gathering also includes a concert and is followed by an off-site afterparty featuring music.

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The description for “Judaism and Genocide” says Jews must confront the destruction of Gaza “this time not as victims but as perpetrators.” Another session, “Confronting Israel From Within,” asks whether Israelis can be challenged to confront what Jewish Currents calls the “genocidal consequences” of their positions.

BAM is a private nonprofit, but its public ties are substantial. New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs lists BAM as a member of the Cultural Institutions Group. The city says the group’s institutions are located on city-owned property and receive significant capital and operating support, describing them as publicly owned facilities operated through public-private partnerships.

Jewish Currents says the gathering is supported by the Ideas Workshop of the Open Society Foundations, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Krupp Family Foundation.

Speaker Worked for Israeli-Designated Al-Haq and Was Detained Alongside PIJ Leader

Among the speakers is Fadi Quran, whom Jewish Currents identifies as the founder of Thiqa. Quran is also a senior director at Avaaz and previously served as UN Advocacy Officer with Al-Haq’s legal research and advocacy unit.

Quran worked at Al-Haq while Shawan Jabarin was its general director. Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds, citing AFP, reported that Jabarin was sentenced to nine months in prison in 1985 following a conviction involving recruitment for the PLFP.

Human Rights Watch describes the conviction more specifically as providing a service to the PFLP by facilitating the overseas travel of two members for training. HRW also records that the Israeli military later told courts, based on classified evidence, that Jabarin remained active in the PFLP.

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Israel subsequently designated Al-Haq and five other Palestinian organizations as terrorist organizations in 2021 over alleged PFLP ties.

Quran and senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad figure Khader Adnan were also detained during the same August 2021 Palestinian Authority crackdown on activists demanding accountability for the killing of Nizar Banat. Contemporary reporting listed Quran and Adnan among four detainees released together after being arrested in connection with the Ramallah protests. The report identified Adnan as a leader in Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A decade earlier, Quran participated alongside Bassel al-Araj in the 2011 Palestinian “Freedom Riders” campaign. Contemporary coverage lists Quran and al-Araj among six individuals arrested by Israeli authorities. Israeli police later said al-Araj directed a local terror cell and was responsible for purchasing its weapons. He was killed in a gunfight with Israeli forces on March 6, 2017.

Quran has also publicly described an unusual operation from his years at Stanford. In an April 2025 Arabic-language report, Al Jazeera reported that Quran assumed the identity of an Iraqi Jew named “Sami Ben Ami,” entered Jewish campus activity centers and received specialized training at an Israeli consulate. According to the report, he maintained the assumed identity for six months.

At the 2025 People’s Conference for Palestine, Quran said he was “going to be calling for a Palestinian revolt, insurrection” during a panel addressing Palestinian political leadership.

Speaker Held Senior Role at Hamas Front Group

Appearing with Quran on the October 11 panel “The Palestinian National Movement After The Destruction of Gaza” is Muhammad Shehada. Jewish Currents’ program identifies him simply as a writer.

The European Council on Foreign Relations identifies Shehada as the former chief of communications and programmes at Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, where he held one of the organization’s senior public-facing positions.

Swiss commercial-register records provide a clearer picture of Euro-Med’s organizational history. The Geneva association currently registered as Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, was previously registered under the name “Observatoire Euro-Mid pour les Droits de l’Homme,” or Euro-Mid Observer for Human Rights. The registry currently lists Euro-Med founder Ramy Abdu among members of its management committee and authorized signatories.

The earlier Euro-Mid entity was banned by Israel in 2015 as an unauthorized association and was subsequently designated under Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law over alleged Hamas connections.

Abdu’s name has also surfaced in Italian material concerning Operation Domino, an investigation into an alleged Hamas-financing network. A June 2026 parliamentary question entered in the Italian Senate record, citing Italian press reporting about the investigation, said investigative files purportedly contained material involving Abdu and alleged financial connections linked through his brother.

Shehada himself was pictured smiling alongside former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in a 2014 social-media post. The accompanying text identified Haniyeh as the former Gaza prime minister and leader of Hamas.

Jewish Currents Editor Who Discussed ‘Armed Resistance Against Civilians’ to Moderate Finale

The day’s closing panel, “Israel, Palestine, and the Future of the Democratic Party,” will be moderated by Jewish Currents editor-at-large Peter Beinart.

During a May 2025 discussion at Harvard Divinity School, Beinart said Palestinian “armed resistance against civilians” long predated Hamas, pointing to violence carried out by the PLO, Fatah and left-wing factions including the PFLP. He cited the Munich massacre, the Ma’alot massacre and airplane hijackings as examples.

An Iranian-American actor who publicly criticized Iran’s regime on social media in 2022 alleges that Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tortured him in Iran before pursuing him and his family through proxies and paid operatives in the United States, according to allegations summarized in an October 2 federal court order. The alleged retaliation included relatives taken hostage in Iran, threats against his American-born son, attempted vehicle collisions and an arson plot targeting a cultural institute he founded.

The case describes an alleged campaign of coercion that followed a critic across borders and reached into his family’s life in America. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia granted the family’s request to proceed under pseudonyms, citing risks to them and relatives still living in Iran.

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Alleged Torture and Hostage-Taking to Silence a Critic

The principal plaintiff, identified as “Veinte Doe,” is described as a well-known actor, writer and director born in Iran. He moved to the United States in 2016 and became a naturalized American citizen in 2023.

His wife, “Veinte Uno Doe,” was also born in Iran and became a U.S. citizen in 2009. Their son, “Veinte Dos Doe,” was born in California in 2013.

According to the court’s account, the actor spoke out against the Islamic Republic on social media in 2022 and subsequently faced punishment and a campaign of intimidation.

The family alleges that the defendants initially tortured him in Iran and took his relatives hostage to compel him to abandon his public criticism. Afterward, they allegedly continued pursuing him and his family in the United States.

The Alleged Campaign Reached American Streets

The family alleges that the pursuit in America operated through proxies, intermediaries and paid operatives, coordinated with a parallel campaign of media vilification.

The reported incidents included a stone thrown through their window, confrontations in a supermarket, a car chase, attempted vehicle collisions and verbal threats.

Their son was allegedly subjected to physical interference followed by a threatening note. The order also references allegations of threats against the child’s life.

These incidents, as described by the plaintiffs, brought the alleged retaliation into the places where the family lived, shopped and traveled. The targeting of a child forms a particularly serious part of their account.

The family further alleges an arson plot against a cultural institute founded by the actor. The alleged campaign therefore extended beyond the actor’s personal safety to his family and an institution he had established.

Public Vilification and the Risk of Further Attacks

The alleged operation combined physical intimidation with a coordinated campaign of media vilification. According to the court’s summary, the family contends that this campaign marked them as targets for anyone willing to act against them.

The family alleges that the vilification campaign effectively marked them for others willing to act against them. In granting pseudonymity, Boasberg specifically cited the risk that third-party proxies could seek to harm the plaintiffs on their own initiative rather than solely at the defendants’ direction.

Iran has launched specialized military training for women under the “Janfada-ye Iran” (“Sacrifice for Iran”) campaign, a nationwide mobilization effort overseen by institutions affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The first dedicated Janfada military training center opened at Imam Hussein Square in Tehran on September 23, with women-specific courses reported days later. Female volunteers have received firearms and military instruction, while the broader Janfada curriculum includes drones, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons, guerrilla tactics and urban warfare.

Iranian officials claim women make up nearly 32 percent of Janfada registrants and that the campaign has attracted more than 31 million people. That figure, promoted by state media, has been challenged by independent fact-checkers who found technical evidence inconsistent with the government’s claims.

The expansion comes amid a broader IRGC push to militarize civilians, including minors. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented children as young as 12 armed at checkpoints under a separate IRGC recruitment initiative. Promotional material reviewed by Jewish Onliner goes younger still, depicting toddlers and other young children posed with rifles and military equipment at pro-regime rallies.

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From Recruitment Drive to Armed Training Centers

The Janfada campaign was launched on March 28, 2026, by the “Gharb Baqiyatallah Cultural and Social Headquarters,” an entity affiliated with the IRGC, following the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on February 28, 2026, in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. Within weeks, Iranian officials claimed more than 31 million people, representing nearly half of Iran’s population over age 12, had registered via website, SMS, and in-person platforms.

However, IranWire’s fact-checking outlet FactNameh evaluated this claim as “False” after technical analysis revealed the registration system permitted multiple sign-ups using different phone numbers, and the highest registered user ID was under four million—incompatible with claims of 30-plus million participants.

By September, the campaign had transitioned from passive registration to active military organization. Iranian media reported coordination with armed forces to train and organize 1,000 “Jan-Fada National Resistance Battalions,” with women receiving dedicated training courses during Sacred Defense Week in late September.

Women Train with Anti-Tank Weapons and Combat Drones

The women’s training program covers an extensive military curriculum. According to campaign spokesperson Sasan Zare, instruction includes local security, war readiness, surveillance, intelligence gathering, drone operation, shoulder-fired weapons, and first aid—with sessions taking place both at military centers and in public squares.

Iranian state media documented footage showing women at Imam Hussein Square receiving instruction in firearms, including handguns and rifles, as well as training with FPV (first-person-view) drones—the same type of unmanned aerial vehicles used extensively in modern combat zones. Additional reporting indicated training in anti-tank weapons and urban warfare techniques.

The training facilities were opened at two locations in Tehran: the first at Imam Hussein Square, followed by a second center at Haft-e Tir Square on October 3. Footage from these centers showed participants crossing obstacle courses, using virtual reality headsets for weapons training, and conducting drills with camouflage-painted anti-aircraft equipment.

Propaganda Features Children as Young as Toddlers with Weapons

Promotional material for the Janfada campaign, shared across social media and reviewed by Jewish Onliner, depicts children as young as toddlers wielding weapons at rallies and parades. One image shows a child approximately 3 to 5 years old wearing full military camouflage and a black balaclava, holding what appears to be an assault rifle while standing in front of an Iranian flag at a nighttime gathering.

Another shows an infant girl seated in a stroller with a rifle positioned beside them, wearing a black head covering and sunglasses while surrounded by Iranian flags at a daytime parade.

A third image depicts a young girl leaning from a pickup truck mounted with a heavy machine gun, saluting while wearing a black chador and keffiyeh.

The imagery has been promoted by Press TV, the English-language channel of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), which has been designated by the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list and subject to secondary sanctions. IRIB was sanctioned by the United States for participating in censorship and forced confessions.

Children as Young as 12 Armed at Checkpoints

The IRGC has recruited children as young as 12 into the campaign. Rahim Nadali, an IRGC official with the 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division in Tehran, told state television in March that the “Homeland Defending Combatants for Iran” campaign set the minimum age at 12, explaining: “We have had many young people and teenagers demanding to be present in [Basij checkpoints]. Given the ages that were making demands, we have set the [minimum] age at 12. Meaning now there are kids of 12 and 13 who want to be present in this space.”

Amnesty International analyzed 16 photos and videos appearing online since March 21, 2026, showing children wielding AK-pattern assault rifles at checkpoints, on patrols, and during state-organized militarized rallies in Tehran, Mashhad, and Kermanshah. Eyewitnesses told BBC Persian they observed armed children at checkpoints in Tehran, Karaj, and Rasht, with one witness describing teenagers “holding a gun at the cars” and searching vehicles.

France24 reported a Tehran resident’s account of encountering “teenagers aged 13 or 14, weapons in their hands, who were stopping vehicles” at checkpoints. One boy reportedly entered her vehicle and searched her phone, including photographs. BBC reported that an 11-year-old boy, Alireza Jafari, was killed while accompanying his Basij-member father at a checkpoint in Tehran on March 29.

Amnesty International stated that “recruiting children under 15 into the armed forces constitutes a war crime” under customary international humanitarian law, which is legally binding on Iran.

Basij Commander Oversees Military Integration

Hossein Taeb, head of the Basij Organization, announced on September 18 that hundreds of thousands of Jan-Fada enrollees have been organized in Tehran, with integration into defense battalions and military units officially underway. The training center at Imam Hussein Square opened September 24 in Taeb’s presence, with Basij officials stating that similar centers will gradually be set up in other cities and provinces.

An informed government source told IranWire that the government, the Supreme National Security Council, and even many IRGC commanders oppose the campaign’s expansion, viewing it as a pressure group established by Taeb to influence other sectors of the Islamic Republic regime.

Regional Context and Strategic Implications

The mobilization campaign coincides with escalating regional tensions. Iran has blocked shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz since February 28, 2026, while the U.S. maintains a naval blockade of Iran’s southern ports. The campaign also follows mass killings during protests in December 2025-January 2026, when security forces reportedly killed over 36,000 civilians according to Iran International.

A UN fact-finding mission alleged the Islamic Republic committed crimes against humanity during the crackdown, raising questions about whether the newly trained civilian battalions, including armed children, could be deployed domestically as well as against external threats.

The American Studies Association has scheduled Palestinian scientist Mazin Qumsiyeh, who wrote an article praising a perpetrator of a deadly Jerusalem bus attack, for its October 22–25, 2026 annual meeting in Chicago.

The program includes sessions titled “Dezionizing the U.S. University,” “Techno-Counterinsurgency from Turtle Island to Palestine” and “Love Snow, But Fuck ICE: Improvising Resistance to Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis.” Other participants include former Weather Underground figures Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and San Francisco State University professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, who publicly idolized PFLP airline hijacker Leila Khaled.

“Dezionizing” Universities and “Fuck ICE”

The conference program opens Thursday morning with “Dezionizing the U.S. University,” featuring academics from the University of California system, Wake Forest University and Lara Sheehi. Other sessions include “Against Zionist and White Nationalist Attacks on the Academy,” “Zionism Is Racism: Introducing the Critical Zionism Studies Syllabus” and “Resisting Zionism: Anticolonial Feminist Pedagogy and Practice.” The latter includes a paper titled “Against Civility: Anti-Zionist Feminist Disobedience in the Academy.”

Anti-police and anti-immigration-enforcement themes also recur throughout the meeting. Sessions include “Improvising Just Futures: Prefigurative Politics Beyond Policing,” “Making Research Work for Abolitionist Movements” and a paper on the “Legacy of Radical Queer Anti-Police Organizing.”

The program also repeatedly casts American power through the language of empire and counterinsurgency. One panel is titled “Improvising against the U.S. Empire: Race, Global Violence, and Radical Imaginations,” while another examines “American Empire and Its Spatial Logic: Militarism, Infrastructure, and Cognitive Control.” Another panel titled “Techno-Counterinsurgency from Turtle Island to Palestine” is chaired by CUNY Graduate Center professor Orisanmi Burton and includes NYU professor Helga Tawil-Souri.

Qumsiyeh Photographed with Terror Cell Leader

Jewish Onliner previously identified a captioned photograph on Qumsiyeh’s own blog showing him alongside Basel al-Araj. Qumsiyeh wrote that he met al-Araj in 2009 and described years of shared activism and demonstrations. Israeli police spokesmen said al-Araj “was the head of a terrorist cell that planned to carry out [attacks] against Israeli targets” and that he had purchased weapons. Al-Araj was killed in a March 2017 gunfight with Israeli forces.

Qumsiyeh is scheduled for “Cultivating Otherwise: Seed Sovereignty, Abolitionist World-Building, and Liberation from Chicago to Palestine.” An organizer statement for the 2012 Global March to Jerusalem lists him and “M K Sawalha (UK)” on its International Advisory Committee. Later reporting identified the entry as Mohammed Kassem Sawalha, whom the Justice Department had named in 2004 among alleged high-ranking Hamas leaders identified as co-conspirators. Hamas later identified Mohammed Sawalha as a member of its political bureau during a 2017 delegation to Moscow, according to The Independent.

Qumsiyeh has also appeared on Iranian Press TV with figures later sanctioned by the United States. He appeared with Khaled Barakat in a September 2024 broadcast and separately with Samidoun international coordinator Charlotte Kates. Treasury sanctioned Samidoun and Barakat in October 2024, describing Samidoun as a PFLP fundraising front and Barakat as a member of the PFLP’s leadership. Press TV itself was sanctioned in 2023.

An Arabic newsletter republished under Qumsiyeh’s name in June 2016 referred to “freedom martyrs such as Baha Alyan” and later described those discussed as heroes. Alyan and Bilal Abu Ghanem carried out an October 2015 shooting and stabbing attack on Jerusalem’s No. 78 bus that killed three people. Abu Ghanem was later convicted of three murders and seven attempted murders.

Hijacker Admiration and a Samidoun Platform

Abdulhadi is scheduled to chair “Resisting Zionism: Anticolonial Feminist Pedagogy and Practice.” She previously invited Leila Khaled to a 2020 online class that Zoom subsequently blocked. In an interview with San Francisco State University’s student newspaper, Abdulhadi said, “We really idolize somebody like Leila Khaled,” while discussing Khaled’s airplane hijacking as an example of female agency.

Fellow San Francisco State University speaker Omar Zahzah is scheduled for “Palestine in Movement: Improvisations Across the Global Imperial Body.” Zahzah previously appeared at a July 2022 webinar organized by Samidoun that included a prerecorded contribution from PFLP Central Committee member Suhair Khader and remarks from Barakat. The webinar preceded Samidoun’s U.S. designation by more than two years.

Weather Underground Figures and “Assata Is Welcome Here”

The ASA program offers graduate students an off-site mentoring dinner hosted by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Both were leading Weather Underground figures, and the FBI describes the organization as a domestic terrorist group responsible for bombings targeting sites including the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon and State Department. The ASA advertises their dinner as an opportunity to discuss “education, activism, scholarship, political commitment, and building a life around the work you care about.” Ayers also appears in opening-night programming and a session titled “Bill Ayers’ Improvisation as Pedagogical Ethic.”

UC Davis professor Jemma DeCristo is meanwhile scheduled to chair “Assata Is Welcome Here.” Assata Shakur, who died in Cuba in 2025, was convicted of murder in the killing of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster before escaping prison and eventually receiving asylum in Cuba. DeCristo was censured and suspended by UC Davis after a 2023 post about “zionist journalists” referred to their homes and children and said “they should fear us more.”

A Tax-Exempt Educational Charity

The American Studies Association is an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity that solicits tax-deductible donations to support its annual meeting, graduate participation and professional development. Its bylaws state that the organization exists “exclusively for educational and academic study purposes,” while its elected National Council bears responsibility for the association’s activities and resources. The speaker roster and conference programming place renewed scrutiny on how a tax-exempt educational association can shape academic discourse and influence the political ideas presented within American higher education.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad reportedly identified two Gazan boys, aged just 13 and 14, as members of its military wing in newly released martyr announcements, providing some of the clearest evidence yet of children below 15 being incorporated into the military structure of the U.S.-designated terror group.

The findings were published by Michael Starr, investigative media manager at HonestReporting, who has been tracking martyr notices released by Gaza terror groups and cross-referencing them against casualty databases, photographs and social-media records. Starr reported that subsequent findings have raised his overall tally of deceased Gazan child soldiers from 26 in late September to 31.

A 13-Year-Old in PIJ’s Northern Brigade

Thirteen-year-old Hossam Muhammad Morsi was identified by PIJ as an operative in the Northern Brigade’s Central Mobilization Unit, according to Starr. Starr said the identification was made using PIJ material, casualty records and facial comparison. A Gaza Health Ministry casualty list independently records a closely matching Hossam Mohammed Ouda Morsi as 13 years old.

Munir Mohammed Abdel Hai Morsi, who was 18, was also identified by PIJ as an Al-Quds Brigades operative, according to Starr. PIJ reportedly placed him in the Northern Brigade’s Martyr Hussam Abu Habl Battalion, while photographs on his Facebook account showed armed men with PIJ insignia. Another apparent relative, Abdullah Muhammad Morsi, was killed later and was also identified by PIJ as a member of the same Central Mobilization Unit as 13-year-old Hossam.

The apparent family pattern has surfaced in earlier cases. Starr previously found that 12 of 23 child soldiers identified at that stage had close relatives affiliated with the same terror group.

A 14-Year-Old in a Named PIJ Battalion

The second case involves Khalil Mahdi Ramadan Al-Bahtiti, whom PIJ reportedly identified as an operative in the Gaza Brigade’s Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj Battalion. Palestinian casualty records list Al-Bahtiti as 14 years old and say he was killed on October 26, 2023, alongside members of his extended family.

Starr also identified 16-year-old Malik Raafat Marzouq as another newly announced PIJ operative from the same Al-Tuffah and Al-Daraj Battalion. A Palestinian casualty database independently records Marzouq as 16 and says he was killed in Gaza City on October 23, 2023. His reported PIJ affiliation comes from the new martyr material examined by Starr.

The Child Soldier Count Keeps Growing

The latest discoveries extend a pattern that has emerged as Palestinian terror groups publish martyr announcements months or years after individual deaths. On September 27, three minors aged 16 and 17 were identified through new PIJ notices, bringing Starr’s documented tally at that point to 26. He now says additional findings have increased that total to 31.

Earlier reporting had already identified children associated with PIJ rocket units, battalions, manufacturing formations and mobilization units. In July, nine minors were identified as PIJ operatives through martyr notices cross-referenced with casualty information. Hamas has also published material identifying minors within its military structure, while other documented cases have involved the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP).

Recruitment Below 15

Their ages carry particular significance under international law. The Rome Statute lists conscripting or enlisting children under 15 into armed forces or armed groups, or using them to participate actively in hostilities, among war crimes. If Morsi and Al-Bahtiti were enlisted into PIJ formations while under 15, that conduct falls within the statute’s prohibition on recruiting children of that age.

The relevant child-protection standard is also broader than front-line combat. Under the Paris Principles, a child associated with an armed force or armed group is a person under 18 recruited or used by that force or group in any capacity, including as a fighter, messenger, porter or spy. A child therefore does not need to be documented firing a weapon in battle to fall within that child-protection definition.

The U.S. government had documented the underlying problem before the latest PIJ announcements surfaced. The State Department’s 2024 trafficking report said Palestinian children were vulnerable to recruitment or use as child soldiers and noted that Palestinian terror groups had operated camps involving firearms instruction and military training. It also reported allegations that the armed wings of Hamas and PIJ recruited and used children during 2023.

What PIJ’s Notices Add to Gaza Casualty Figures

The findings are also relevant to how Gaza casualty statistics are interpreted. Gaza Health Ministry lists record names, ages and other identifying information but do not distinguish between civilians and members of terror organizations. A person’s age establishes that he or she was a child, but it does not by itself determine whether that child had also been recruited by one of the groups fighting Israel.

That distinction does not make recruited minors any less children. International child-protection standards specifically recognize children recruited by armed organizations as victims of unlawful recruitment. The tragedy in these cases is that children who should never have been part of a military structure were reportedly incorporated into one by adults running a terrorist organization.

The Israeli military has published a sweeping database identifying 170 Gazans presented as journalists or media workers who held positions in the military wings of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.

An initial Jewish Onliner analysis of the 170 records found 118 Hamas members and 50 Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives. The remaining two belonged to the Popular Resistance Committees and a group identified as Lords of the Desert.

Forty-four held command positions. Seventeen infiltrated Israel during the October 7, 2023, attack.

The military roles stretch far beyond media activity. The records include snipers, intelligence personnel, engineering operatives, operations officers, military trainers and commanders. Sixteen served in military propaganda units, while others served in combat-information units.

The release dramatically expands an IDF project that initially went online with ten names. Each file identifies the individual, media affiliation where applicable, armed organization and military position, frequently accompanied by photographs, military identification information and other material documenting the affiliation. The IDF said the full list followed extensive research into Gazans whose deaths were reported around the world as those of journalists while they simultaneously served terrorist organizations.

Commanders, snipers and October 7 infiltrators

Some of the most striking entries involve journalists who simultaneously occupied senior or specialized positions inside Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Mohammed Mahmoud Abdel Aziz Abu Sharia worked for Shams News Agency while serving as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad sniper in the Gaza Brigade.

Bahaa Rouhi Mahmoud Okasha of the Al-Aqsa Media Network was a Hamas squad commander in a sniper platoon.

Ahmed Salama Hashem Abu Aisha of Palestine Today News Agency was a PIJ branch commander in military intelligence.

Seventeen of the people on the list participated in the October 7 infiltration of Israel.

Among them was Hassan Abdel Fattah Mohammed Aslih, who worked as a journalist for AP, CNN and Alam24 News Agency while serving as a Hamas military operative in the Southern Khan Yunis Battalion. The records state that Aslih infiltrated Israel on October 7.

Mohammed Sami Abdullah Jarghoun, who worked for Smart Media, served in a Hamas support platoon in the Rafah Brigade and also infiltrated Israel that day.

Other October 7 infiltrators on the list worked for outlets including Sawt Al-Aqsa Radio, Palestine Media Agency, Sanad News Agency, Anadolu Agency and Felesteen newspaper.

The imagery published alongside many of the files makes the overlap difficult to miss. Men shown carrying cameras, microphones or wearing press vests appear elsewhere in military clothing, carrying rifles, standing with armed fighters or featured in memorial material issued by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

CPJ has already removed journalists over combat activity

The IDF disclosure comes only a week after the Committee to Protect Journalists completed a comprehensive review of its own Gaza casualty database.

CPJ reviewed 229 deaths and removed 22 people it had previously counted as journalists or media workers. Nineteen were removed after CPJ’s investigation established that they had engaged in combat. Three others were removed because they did not qualify as journalists or media workers. CPJ also reinstated six cases and reclassified 12.

The overlap with the IDF list is extensive.

In an initial review, Jewish Onliner successfully matched 18 of those 19 people removed by CPJ for combat involvement in its September review to the IDF’s 170 names.

CPJ had already removed another eight Palestinians from its database before the latest review after determining that they had been Hamas or PIJ combatants. All eight appear on the IDF list. In total, 26 of the 27 people CPJ has removed for combat involvement match names in the IDF’s newly released files. CPJ itself says it has historically excluded anyone found to have engaged in combat.

The IDF files also include several people whom CPJ still counts as journalists but whom the Israeli military identified as members or operatives of terror groups.

CPJ recently reclassified Ibrahim Sheikh Ali from a media worker to a journalist. The IDF records identify Ibrahim Jamal Ibrahim Sheikh Ali as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad branch commander in its Operations Unit.

CPJ also reinstated Assaad Shamlakh during its review. The IDF identifies Asaad Abdel Nasser Asaad Shamlakh as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad combat operative in the Gaza Brigade.

International news organizations appear throughout the files

The 170 records reach far beyond Hamas and PIJ-affiliated media.

For example, Amro Nahid Abdel Rahman Abu Odeh worked for Reuters and Turkey’s Anadolu Agency while serving as a Hamas squad commander in the military wing’s photography unit.

Rushdi Yahya Rushdi Al-Sarraj worked for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), BBC, Le Monde, Radio France and Ain Media while serving in Hamas’s military wing.

Mustafa Said Zuhdi Thuraya worked for AFP while serving as a Hamas military operative.

Mahmoud Samir Misbah Al-Basos worked for Reuters and Anadolu while serving in Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing.

The database also contains multiple journalists connected to Al Jazeera. Mohammed Riyad Abdullah Nofal and Ibrahim Abdel Karim Mohammed Daher are identified as Hamas military operatives. Hamza Wael Hamdan Al-Dahdouh is identified as a Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative. Ismail Maher Khamis Al-Ghoul, Anas Jamal Mahmoud Al-Sharif, Hossam Basel Abdel Karim Shabat and Ahmed Bakr Mahmoud Al-Louh are identified as Hamas military operatives.

The IDF had previously released intelligence records concerning several Al Jazeera journalists, including documents it said contained personnel information, training records and other evidence connecting them to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Other names in the files worked for WAFA, Quds News Network, Palestine Today, Palestine Now, Al-Aqsa TV, Al-Quds Al-Youm TV and dozens of smaller Gaza media organizations.

The GenoLIE & the “War on Journalists” hoax

For years, international reporting on journalist deaths in Gaza has largely presented a numerical toll. The IDF’s 170 files add information those tallies left out.

The release also reinforces an argument made by the recently launched Gaza GenoLIE campaign, which has been endorsed by more than 100 civil society organizations, and which argues that casualty figures used to accuse Israel of targeting journalists have included members of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terror groups.

The new files identify journalists who also served as commanders, intelligence operatives, snipers, combatants and military propaganda personnel. Seventeen crossed into Israel on October 7, dozens held command positions, and 26 names overlap with people CPJ itself removed after finding combat involvement.

The result is a much broader challenge to the portrayal of Gaza’s journalist casualty count as a straightforward tally of civilians killed while doing press work.